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India–Asia convergence driven by the subduction of the Greater Indian continent

Nature Geoscience volume 3, pages 136–139 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

The most spectacular example of a plate convergence event on Earth is the motion of the Indian plate towards Eurasia at speeds in excess of 18 cm yr−1 (ref. 1), and the subsequent collision. Continental buoyancy usually stalls subduction shortly after collision, as is seen in most sections of the Alpine–Himalayan chain. However, in the Indian section of this chain, plate velocities were merely reduced by a factor of about three when the Indian continental margin impinged on the Eurasian trench about 50 million years ago. Plate convergence, accompanied by Eurasian indentation, persisted throughout the Cenozoic era1,2,3, suggesting that the driving forces of convergence did not vanish on continental collision. Here we estimate the density of the Greater Indian continent, after its upper crust is scraped off at the Himalayan front, and find that the continental plate is readily subductable. Using numerical models, we show that subduction of such a dense continent reduces convergence by a factor similar to that observed. In addition, an imbalance between ridge push and slab pull can develop and cause trench advance and indentation. We conclude that the subduction of the dense Indian continental slab provides a significant driving force for the current India–Asia convergence and explains the documented evolution of plate velocities following continental collision.

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Figure 1: Evolution of the numerical subduction models.
Figure 2: Velocities of numerical subduction models.
Figure 3: Comparison of model velocities and India–Asia plate motions.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme to F.A.C. (DP0663258, DP0878501, DP0987374), a Swiss National Fund Assistenzprofessur to S.G. and by the EURYI Awards Scheme (Euro-horcs/ESF) with funds from the National Research Council of Italy to G.M. R. D. Müller provided the rotation pole sets. We thank C. Klootwijk, C. Faccenna, D. Giardini and T. M. Harrison for discussions and D. Arcay for comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia

    F. A. Capitanio & L. Moresi

  2. School of Geosciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia

    F. A. Capitanio, R. F. Weinberg & L. Moresi

  3. Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland

    G. Morra

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Roma TRE University, 00146 Rome, Italy

    G. Morra

  5. Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK

    S. Goes

Authors
  1. F. A. Capitanio
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  4. R. F. Weinberg
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Contributions

F.A.C. and G.M. designed and carried out the numerical models. F.A.C., G.M., S.G. and L.M. discussed the implications for continental and Indian subduction. F.A.C. and R.F.W. discussed Indian tectonics. All of the authors contributed equally to writing the paper.

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Correspondence to F. A. Capitanio.

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Capitanio, F., Morra, G., Goes, S. et al. India–Asia convergence driven by the subduction of the Greater Indian continent. Nature Geosci 3, 136–139 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo725

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