Continental collision is one of the core element of plate tectonics theory, which is also the major way of continental plate formation. The sedimentary records during continental collision preserved the continuous information of the orogenic process, which has considerable research value for reconstructing the process of continental collision.
Our research group focuses on important continental collision events from Mesozoic to Cenozoic in the Tethys domain, including the India-Asia continental collision, the Lhasa-Qiangtang continental collision, and the Arabian-Eurasia continental collision. Through basic field geological surveys in the Tibetan Plateau, Iran and other regions, our group precisely constrain the important time point in the continental collision process such as the initial collision time, the disappear time of ancient ocean, and reconstruct the collision-related orogenic process based on stratigraphic and sedimentary records. And also, our group is trying to explore and improve the methodology, of reconstructing the continental collision process based on the stratigraphic-sedimentary records.
The main research results as follows:
Through the detailed study of Cretaceous-Paleocene stratigraphy and sedimentology in the southern Tibet, the initial collision time of India-Asia continent was precisely constraint. Through two logics aspect of falsification and verification, we have proposed that the collision of the Indian-Asian continent is a simultaneous collision or a direct collision. The initial time of the India-Asia continental collision is precisely constrainted to the middle Paleocene (59±1 Ma), based on the systematically study of the stratigraphic-sedimentary records on the both flanks of the Yarlung-Zangbo suture zone. And the precise constraints on the time of the India-Asia continental collision provide important information for understanding the process of continental collision on the Tibetan Plateau, the orogenic mechanism related to continental collision, and the time, method and mechanism of the uplift of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau.
The proposed stratigraphic-sedimentary approach that constrains the initial continental collision time provides a new knowledge for similar research.
We also investigated the Cretaceous-Palaeocene sedimentary basins on the Tibetan Plateau. The evolution process of the Himalayan underfilled foreland basin is reconstructed based on the investigation of the Paleogene marine strata in three different tectonic domains, namely, Dingri-Gangba, Saga-Gyantse, and Zhongba- Xigaze areas. By investigating the Cretaceous stratigraphic-sedimentological records of the Cuoqin Basin, including the Doni Formation, Langshan Formation, Daxiong Formation, Jing Zhu Shan Formation, the type and evolution process of the Cretaceous-Palaeocene sedimentary basins are studied. Furthermore, based on the studies of above sedimentary basin, not only the subduction process of the Tethys Ocean and the continental collision process of the India-Asia were reconstructed, but also the key time and process of important events of initial uplift of the Gangdese Mountain and the disappear of the Tethys Sea are constrainted.
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