Kinematics of the Pamir orogeny on a lithospheric scale

The south-dipping Benioff zone beneath the Pamir mountains marks the youngest, active slab accommodating India-Asia convergence near the western edge of the Indian indenter (75° E). Seismic tomography suggests the existence of two older slabs farther south, both interpreted as Indian lithosphere detached and sinking: the Tethys slab, broken off around 46 Ma concomitant with early collision and the more northerly and shallower Indian slab, detached around 25 Ma at the longitude considered here (Replumaz et al. 2010). The total length of the three slabs is about 1300 km (Tethys 600 km, India 300 km, Pamir 400 km), substantially less than the distance of more than 2000 km that India has moved north since 46 Ma. This discrepancy implies that either the tomographic record of subduction is incomplete or that Indian mantle lithosphere has underthrust (thin?) Asian lithosphere, with the stacked lithospheres unresolvable by tomography. As a consequence, the rate of slab lengthening and the age of slab initiation in the Pamir are poorly constrained. The absence of asthenosphere between the Pamir slab of Asian provenance and supposedly Indian mantle lithosphere above it suggests that India´s leading edge is advancing at the same rate as rollback of the Pamir slab. This rate could be as high as full India-Asia convergence at ca. 35 mm/yr (Kufner et al. 2016) or as low as present-day Pamir-foreland convergence at 15 mm/yr, corresponding to ages of the 300-400 km long slab of 9-12 Ma or 20-27 Ma. The wide range of possible ages makes it difficult to tie slab initiation to specific geologic events during the Pamir orogeny. Other evidence suggests that the direction and rate of India-Asia convergence may be poor predictors of mantle lithospheric motion above the slab: The shortening direction in the Tajik foreland thrust belt is WNW, and foreland shortening decreases northeastward from a maximum of 150 km in the Tajik belt to 75 and 30 km in the Alai Valley and westernmost Tarim. Slab length follows a similar trend, with a steeply east-dipping Benioff zone in the west and a more gently south-dipping one in the north, traced by earthquakes to depths of 250 km and 150 km, respectively. Also, the longest, NE-striking segment of the slab is relatively straight in map view and parallel to the axis of thickest crust (Schneider et al. 2019). These observations are difficult to reconcile with northward convergence. Instead, they suggest overall northwestward convergence during the Pamir orogeny. We speculate that this could be due to westward deflection at depth of an Indian lithosphere promontory interacting with the NW-trending edge of thick Tarim lithosphere.

Kufner, S.-K., et al. (2016). Deep India meets deep Asia: Lithospheric indentation, delamination and break-off under Pamir and Hindu Kush (Central Asia). Earth and Planetary Science Letters 435: 171-184.

Replumaz, A., et al. (2010). Indian continental subduction and slab break-off during Tertiary collision. Terra Nova 22: 290-296.

Schneider, F. M., et al. (2019). The Crust in the Pamir: Insights from Receiver Functions. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 124(8): 9313-9331.