ITP researchers, together with colleagues from Germany and India, have published results in the acclaimed journal PNAS (Vol. 107, No. 25, June 22, 2010). The article titled ‘The boundary between the Indian and Asian tectonic plates below Tibet’ clarifies the Indian-Asian tectonic boundary by observing seismic discontinuities beneath central and western Tibet. Two new profiles were used in the study, and results were reported in connection with results from earlier profiles.

The article presents results showing that a specific lithospheric region was formed in northern and eastern Tibet between the Indian and Asian colliding plates, marked by high temperatures, low mantle seismic wave speeds, poor Sn propagation, east and southeast oriented global positioning system displacements, and strikingly larger seismic (SKS) anisotropy.The study illuminates the changing mode of India-Asia collision from eastern to western Tibet.

First author ZHAO Junmeng is with the Key Laboratory of Continental Collision and Plateau Uplift, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The full article can be viewed online at- http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/06/03/1001921107.abstract