MECHANISMS OF CONTINENTAL

COLLISION

Presented by
Subarna Das
Hemant Meena
Vikas Ahire
Prithvi Thakur

Continental Collision

Continental
collisionis
aphenomenonof
theplate
tectonicsofEarththat
occurs atconvergent
boundaries.

Continental collision is a
variation on the
fundamental process
ofsubduction, whereby
the subduction zone is
destroyed,mountainspr
oduced, and
twocontinents sutured

General Characteristics

Continental collision is not an

instantaneous event, but
may take several tens of
millions of years before
thefaultingandfoldingcause
d by collision stop.

An example -Collision
between India and Asia has
been going on for about
55million years already and
shows no signs of abating.

MECHANISM

The continental collisions can be understood by proposing

certain sequential steps of orogenesis. The evolution of
collisional orogens is governed by the balance among regional
and local forces, the strength and rheology of the continental
lithosphere and by processes that change the process over
time. The steps are as follows-

Precollisional Theory
Continental Underthrusting
Indentation,Lateral Escape, Gravitational collapse
Lower crustal flow and ductile evolution.

Mechanism of Continental collision

1. Precollisional history

PRECOLLISIONAL THEORY

The strength and rheology of the

continental lithosphere at the start
of continental collision is governed
by the pre-collisional history of the
two colliding plates.
In the case of the Himalayan
Tibetan orogen, millions of years of
subduction, arc magmatism,
terrane accretion, and crustal
thickening along the southern
margin of Eurasia weakened the
lithosphere.
During the IndiaEurasia collision, the
many suture zones, thick flysch
sequences, and other weak zones that
characterized Eurasia allowed
deformation to extend deep into the
interior of the continent.

Pre-collisional Theory (Cont..)

Unlike Eurasia, the relatively cool and deeply

rooted Precambrian shield of India resulted in a
relatively strong plate that resisted shortening
during collision.
The generally high mechanical strength and high
elastic thickness of the Indian lithosphere led to its
under-thrusting beneath southern Tibet.
During collision, these weak OROGENIC BELTS
sequences failed and were scraped off the downgoing plate, forming the Himalayan fold and thrust
belt.

Mechanism of Continental collision

1. Pre-collisional history
2. Continental under-thrusting

Continental underthrusting
The underthrusting of continental lithosphere beneath
another continental plate is one of the most important
mechanisms that accommodates convergence in zones of
continental collision.
The rheology of the two plates and the degree of
mechanical coupling
between them control shortening and the evolution of
stresses within the
overriding plate.
In the HimalayanTibetan orogen, the underthrusting of
Indian continental lithosphere drives intra-plate
shortening at the leading edge of the Indian plate and in
Tibet.
The resultant shortening has generated crust that is up to
7080 km thick and has contributed to the uplift and
growth of the Tibetan Plateau.

The formation of a new subduction zone beneath Lhasa created

an Andean-type orogen (Fig. 1) and eventually resulted in the
collision between India and Eurasia (Fig. 2).
Continued convergence (Fig. 3) resulted in intra-plate
shortening and uplift

The plateau is associated with high crustal temperatures and widespread

intra-crustal melting that have weakened the crust sufciently to allow it to
flow. This process has decoupled the Tibetan crust from the underlying
convergent motions and has altered the dynamics of the orogen.
Although geophysical observations show that Indian lithosphere is
underthrust to at least a point beneath central Tibet, interpretations differ
on how this process is accommodated.

The main problem is that the underthrusting requires the displacement of

Asian lithosphere from under Tibet.
Several mechanisms may alleviate this problem, including ~
The downturning of Indian mantle lithosphere beneath the Bangong-Nujiang
suture.
The convective removal of the lithospheric mantle beneath Tibet.
The southward subduction of Asian mantle and the removal of Asian mantle
by strike-slip faulting during the lateral escape of Tibet.

Although the role of these various processes remains uncertain, it seems likely
that a combination of mechanisms accommodates shortening beneath Tibet.

Indentation and lateral escape

Indentation is the process by which a rigid block presses

into and deforms a softer block during the convergence.

The theory of indentation originally was developed by

mechanical engineers to predict the conguration of lines
of maximum shear stress (slip lines) in deforming plastic
materials.

In geologic applications, the slip lines correspond to

dextral and sinistral strike-slip faults.

The bilaterally conned case produces a

symmetric pattern of slip lines ahead of
a dead triangle.
The penetration proceeds by the
creation of numerous, short-lived,
dextral and sinistral faults near the
triangles apex.
The unilaterally conned case generates
an asymmetric pattern where
faults that allow displacement towards
the free edge predominate, such as F1

Pull-apart
basins develop along the
sinistral faults because of
their irregular geometry.
As these movements
progress, a gap grows
between the indenter and
extruded plasticine.
These results explain the
dominance of sinistral
offsets in China.
The pull-apart structures
may be analogous to the
extensional regimes in
Shansi, Mongolia, and
Baikal.

 Viscosity contrast ()
Angle btw Indenter front and
direction of indentation ()

Crustal thickness distribution

Effect of shape of Indenter on

distribution of deformation

Mechanism of Continental collision

1. Pre-collisional history
2. Continental under-thrusting
3. Indentation and Lateral escape
4. Lower crustal flow and ductile
hhfjhjfjfjhfj extrusion

The lithosphere is vertically stratied into strong and weak layers .

Weak, flowing middle and lower crust affect the dynamics of continental
collision.
Where the lower crust is relatively strong and resists flow, the crust
tends to couple to the underlying mantle during shortening and results
in a relatively narrow zone of localized strain at the surface.
This explains narrow width, triangular shape and lack of high orogeny
plateau in the Eastern Alps and the Southern Alps of New Zealand.
In contrast,where the lower crust is relatively weak and flows easily, the
crust decouples from the mantle and results in diffuse strain.
Tibet and the central Andes where low viscosity zones have developed
in the deep crust during crustal thickening and wide, steep-sided
plateau have formed above the weak zones.

Thermomechanical model

g. a vertical plane divided into crust and mantle layers

Fig. the initial thermal structure shows two radioactive layers (A1,
A2)

 The Ductile extrusion is used to explain the exhumation of the

Greater Himalaya rocks along the southern flank of the mountain
range.
This process is linked to another process called channel flow which
involves the lateral movement of partially molten crust in a narrow
zone bounded above and below by shear zones.
The process linking the above two is known as surface denudation
i.e the removal of surface material.
The coupling between channel flow and surface denudation
eventually leads to the ductile extrusion and exhumation of hot
material in the channel between coeval thrust and normal faults.