Intermittent Post-Paleocene Continental Collision in South Asia

Three different conceptual models have been proposed for the Cenozoic subduction style in South Asia, including Greater India, Intra-oceanic Arc, and Continental Terrane (or Greater Indian basin). Since these models imply distinctive origins for the Tethyan–Greater Himalayan (TGH) sequences, for example, as a relic of the subducted Greater India or Gondwana–affiliated continental terrane, quantitively reproducing the relic TGH crustal mass with numerical models could help further constrain the debated Cenozoic subduction history between India and Eurasia. Based on the modeling results, we show that the subducted plate since the Paleocene should consist of a significant oceanic portion that is, ∼1,000 km long for the Intra-oceanic Arc model and up to 2,000 km long for the Terrane model. Our results do not support the existence of a continuous >3,000 km long continental Greater India before the early Eocene collision in South Asia.