MULTI-PERIODIC COLLISIONAL PROCESS BETWEEN INDIAN AND ASIAN CONTINENTS:A CASE OF EASTERN HIMALAYAN SYNTAXIS AND HENGDUAN MOUNTAINS

Our study area covered the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis (EHS) and its southern extension (Hengduan Mountain or western Sichuan and Yunnan (WSY)) which is located at the orthogonal and oblique collisional front between Indian and Asian continents during Cenozoic.Based on geometric and kinematic mapping of the major boundary or regional faults (Dongjug—Mainling(1), Anigiao(2) and Jali(3), Guyu(4) faults in EHS, Ailaoshan—Red River(5), Lancangjiang(6), Gaoligong(7), Binlangjiang(8) and Magok(9) faults in WSY) (see Fig.1), especially on abundant geochronological dating of the mylonitic rocks along these faults, and coupled with magmato\|metamorphic sequences of this region, we try to deal with the temporal and spatial relationships of collisional process to answer questions such as: (1) when did collision start ? (2) is thrusting as a initial and dominant deformation mode to absorb the crustal shortening after suturing, or earlier thrusting usually followed by large\|scale strike\|slip faults? (3) are the two structural patterns coeval at times, or do they occur alternatively during deformation history? (4) are the collisional and associate uplift processes a continuous one or periodic? Insight into such questions is crucial for better understanding of the continental deformation and testing the models available or constraining a new one.