Active Tectonics and Erosional Unloading at the Eastern Margin of the Tibetan Plateau
The eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau is marked by an extremely steep mountain front with relief of over 5 km. This topography, coupled with abundant Mesozoic thrusts within the margin, explains why tectonic maps of the India-Asia collision typically show the eastern margin as a major thrust zone. Actually, it does not like that. Field observations suggest that the margin is better characterized as a zone of NNE-directed dextral shear with extensive strike-slip faulting and secondary thrusting. The high relief and steep gradients are partially explained by erosional unloading of an elastic lithosphere; the pre-erosion inherited topography may be the inherited Mesozoic thrust belt landscape modified by a component of Cenozoic tectonic shortening.
作 者： Alexander L. Densmore LI Yong Michael A.Ellis Zhou Rongjun 作者单位： Alexander L. Densmore(Institute of Geology, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zentrum, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland)LI Yong(National Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China)
Michael A.Ellis(Center for Earthquake Research and Information, University of Memphis, 3890 Central Avenue, Memphis, TN 38152, USA)
Zhou Rongjun(Institute of Earthquake Engineering, Seismological Bureau of Sichuan Province, Chengdu 610041, China)
刊 名： 山地科学学报（英文版） SCI 英文刊名： JOURNAL OF MOUNTAIN SCIENCE 年，卷(期)： 2005 2(2) 分类号： P9 关键词： Tibetan Plateau tectonic erosional unloading faulting