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Earth science

A new mechanical model for Tibet

Nature volume 472, pages 48–49 (2011)Cite this article

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A three-dimensional mechanical model of the Tibetan crust explains both the first-order features of GPS surface velocities and the contrast in the types of earthquake between northern and southern Tibet. See Letter p.79

The collision of India with Eurasia has built the Tibetan Plateau1, by far the largest area of high topography on the planet, as the Indian plate has thrust beneath Tibet. The crust of the plateau is approximately twice the typical thickness, and great debates have raged over its development and mechanical properties. Temperatures are high within the thickened crust2,3, which implies significant weakness of the middle and lower crust4,5. Several groups have proposed that the middle crust of Tibet is fluid enough to decouple the upper crust from the underthrusting Indian lithosphere, such that Tibetan middle crust might be extruded through a low-viscosity channel flow from beneath the high plateau either southward4 or eastward5. But others have argued6 that deformation at all depths in the Tibetan crust is coherent. On page 79, Copley et al.7 use a three-dimensional (3D) mechanical model to explain the pattern of faulting and surface deformation in Tibet, and conclude that mechanical coupling between underthrust India and Tibet must be strong in southern Tibet. This is inconsistent with channel-flow models for southern Tibet4.

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Figure 1: Cross-sectional view of Tibet in the direction of plate convergence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jeffrey T. Freymueller is at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA.,

    Jeffrey T. Freymueller

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  1. Jeffrey T. Freymueller
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Correspondence to Jeffrey T. Freymueller.

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Freymueller, J. A new mechanical model for Tibet. Nature 472, 48–49 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/472048a

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