Evolution of the lithosphere in Pakistan

Farah, Abul; Abbas, Ghazanfar; Jong, Kees A. De; Lawrence, Robert D.

doi:10.1016/0040-1951(84)90204-x

Cited by 53 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…1;Wellman 1966;AbdelGawad 1971;Lawrence & Yeats 1979;Farah et al 1984;Stein et al 2002;Szeliga et al 2012). These fold-thrust belts divide Pakistan and link it to the Himalayan convergence zone in the north, where Indian continental lithosphere is underthrusting Eurasia.…”

Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and dynamics of a fold-thrust belt: the Sulaiman Range of Pakistan

Reynolds

Copley

Hussain

2015

Geophysical Journal International

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S U M M A R YWe present observations and models of the Sulaiman Range of western Pakistan that shed new light on the evolution and deformation of fold-thrust belts. Earthquake source inversions show that the seismic deformation in the range is concentrated in the thick pile of sediments overlying the underthrusting lithosphere of the Indian subcontinent. The slip vectors of the earthquakes vary in strike around the margin of the range, in tandem with the shape of the topography, suggesting that gravitational driving forces arising from the topography play an important role in governing the deformation of the region. Numerical models suggest that the active deformation, and the extreme plan-view curvature of the range, are governed by the presence of weak sediments in a pre-existing basin on the underthrusting Indian Plate. These sediments affect the stress-state in the over-riding mountain range and allow for the rapid propagation of the nose of the range and the development of extreme curvature and laterally varying surface gradients.Key words: Seismicity and tectonics; Continental neotectonics; Dynamics: gravity and tectonics; Dynamics: seismotectonics. I N T RO D U C T I O NPlan-view curvature of geological structures and range-front topography has long been a recognized and debated feature of both ancient and active fold-thrust belts (e.g. Argand 1924;Carey 1955;Hindle & Burkhard 1999;Marshak 2004). Though poorly understood, the relationship between the size and shape of a mountain range, surface deformation, and continental rheology, is key to our understanding of mountain-building processes. As the largest active mountain ranges on Earth, much of the body of work surrounding this topic has focused on the Tibetan Plateau and the Andes (e.g. Argand 1924;Suárez et al. 1983;Dewey et al. 1988;England & Houseman 1988;Isacks 1988;Molnar & Lyon-Caen 1989;Whitman et al. 1996;Lamb & Hoke 1997;Barke et al. 2007;Royden et al. 2008). However, a full understanding of continental tectonics and rheology requires knowledge of the deformation, evolution and dynamics of not just the planet's largest and most rapidly deforming regions, but also of smaller deformation zones (e.g. Batt & Braun 1999;Macedo & Marshak 1999;Nissen et al. 2011b). A lack of published data, extremely limited geodetic coverage and difficulty of access mean there have been relatively few studies of the western part of the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau system, where the Himalaya curve to the southwest into the lobate fold-thrust belts of Pakistan. The widest of these, the Sulaiman Range (Fig. 1a), forms a strongly curved, asymmetric lobe with ∼300 km across-strike width. This range has experienced plentiful earthquakes during the instrumental period, and has been the subject of several competing hypotheses about the behaviour and mechanics of fold-thrust belts (Humayon et al. 1991;Jadoon & Khurshid 1996;Haq & Davis 1997;Macedo & Marshak 1999;Bernard et al. 2000;Reiter et al. 2011). In this paper, we study the Sulaiman Range in order to gain insights into the ...

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Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and dynamics of a fold-thrust belt: the Sulaiman Range of Pakistan

Reynolds

Copley

Hussain

2015

Geophysical Journal International

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“…11c, d) during the Neogene (Farah et al 1984;Baker et al 1988;Jaswal et al 1997). This southward transport produced fault F2 on the SE limb of the Balkassar anticline (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…During the orogeny, the Indian Plate, with its sedimentary succession, drifted northward (and later rotated NW in the study area). The Indian Plate started to collide with the Eurasian Plate (Kohistan Island Arc in north Pakistan) creating a compressive environment (e.g., Farah et al 1984;Kazmi and Jan 1997;Jain 2014). The Precambrian evaporites of the Salt Range Formation provided the lubricating mechanism for the deformation (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Structural model of the Balkassar area, Potwar Plateau, Pakistan

Iqbal

Akhter

Bibi³

2015

Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch)

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“…17) which has evolved since the Paleocene (Farah et al, 1984). Currently the Sulaiman Range accommodates 5-14 mm of north-south shortening between India and Eurasia and 3-6 mm of east-west shortening (Bernard et al, 2000).…”

Section: Application Of the Two Indenter Model To The Sulaiman Rangementioning

confidence: 99%

The interaction of two indenters in analogue experiments and implications for curved fold-and-thrust belts

Reiter

Kukowski

Ratschbacher

2011

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

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Editor: Y. Ricard Keywords:4D analogue experiments two indenter tectonics particle image velocimetry fold-and-thrust belts Tajik basin Pamir Scaled analogue experiments are used to investigate the indentation of two basement blocks into a sedimentary basin and the formation of a fold-and-thrust belt. The experimental set-up has two adjacent indenters moving in parallel with a velocity difference. The slow indenter moves with a relative velocity ranging from 40 to 80% of that of the fast one. In a first experimental series, quartz sand and low-friction glass beads represent the sediment stack and its basal detachment, respectively; silicone oil simulates a viscous detachment in the second series of experiments. The surface evolution and the spatio-temporal strain distribution are derived from particle image velocimetry (PIV). Together with the 3D finite structure derived by cutting the models at the end of each experiment, this allows the analysis of the structural evolution of the experimental wedges. Thrusting wedge development depends crucially on the relative velocity: when the slow indenter moves with a velocity of more than 55% of the fast indenter, a single curved thrust wedge develops. The wedge becomes decoupled along strike-slip zone at large velocity differences, i.e. when the slow indenter moves slower than 55% of the faster indenter. Consequently the thrust front is strongly curved at high (55-60%) and smoothly curved at low velocity differences (70-80%); in all cases curvature increases during indentation. Along the most strongly curved portion of the thrust wedge, the transfer zone rises, particle rotation and material transport oblique to the indentation direction occur directed toward the front of the slow indenter. Thrusting cycles are timed by the fast indenter and influence thrusting in front of the slow indenter. Thrusts nucleate in front of the fast indenter wedge and propagate laterally to the slow indenter front. This implies distant effects of wedge growth active hundreds of kilometers along-strike of orogens. Silicone oil as a detachment induces a low-angle wedge, which is less curved than in the glass beads experiments, and shows variable thrust vergence with fore-and back-thrusts. We compare our experimental results with the curved fold-and-thrust belts of the Tajik basin in front of the Hindu-Kush and Pamir indenters; our results are able to explain several first-order features.

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Evolution of the lithosphere in Pakistan

Cited by 53 publications

References 23 publications

Evolution and dynamics of a fold-thrust belt: the Sulaiman Range of Pakistan

Evolution and dynamics of a fold-thrust belt: the Sulaiman Range of Pakistan

Structural model of the Balkassar area, Potwar Plateau, Pakistan

The interaction of two indenters in analogue experiments and implications for curved fold-and-thrust belts

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