Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (19) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ducea, M. N. Articles by Metcalf, J. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Building the Pamirs: The view from the underside

¹ Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
² Geological Institute of the Tajik Academy of Science, 734063, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
³ Department of Geological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9630, USA
⁴ Institut für Geowissenschaften, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
⁵ Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Bucharest, Bucharest 70139, Romania
⁶ Institut für Geowissenschaften, Universität Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
⁷ Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
⁸ Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2115, USA
⁹ Department of Geology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164, USA
¹⁰ Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2115, USA

The Pamir mountains are an outstanding example of extreme crustal shortening during continental collision that may have been accommodated by formation of a thick crust—much thicker than is currently thought—and/or by continental subduction. We present new petrologic data and radiometric ages from xenoliths in Miocene volcanic rocks in the southeastern Pamir mountains that suggest that Gondwanan igneous and sedimentary assemblages were underthrust northward, buried to >50–80 km during the early stage of the India-Asia collision, and then heated and partly melted during subsequent thermal relaxation before finally being blasted to the surface. These xenoliths, the deepest crustal samples recovered from under any active collisional belt, provide direct evidence for early Cenozoic thickening of the Pamirs and lower-crustal melting during collision; the xenoliths also suggest that the present mountain range was a steady-state elevated plateau for most of the Cenozoic.

Key Words: Pamir region • continental collision • subduction • partial melting • orogenic plateaus

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G.H.-N. Chan, D.J. Waters, M.P. Searle, J.C. Aitchison, M.S.A. Horstwood, Q. Crowley, C.-H. Lo, and J.S.-L. Chan Probing the basement of southern Tibet: evidence from crustal xenoliths entrained in a Miocene ultrapotassic dyke Journal of the Geological Society, January 1, 2009; 166(1): 45 - 52. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. C. Robinson, A. Yin, C. E. Manning, T. M. Harrison, S.-H. Zhang, and X.-F. Wang Cenozoic evolution of the eastern Pamir: Implications for strain-accommodation mechanisms at the western end of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen Geological Society of America Bulletin, July 1, 2007; 119(7-8): 882 - 896. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. P. Searle Diagnostic features and processes in the construction and evolution of Oman-, Zagros-, Himalayan-, Karakoram-, and Tibetan-type orogenic belts Geological Society of America Memoirs, January 1, 2007; 200(0): 41 - 61. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. P. Searle, R. D. Law, and M. J. Jessup Crustal structure, restoration and evolution of the Greater Himalaya in Nepal-South Tibet: implications for channel flow and ductile extrusion of the middle crust Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2006; 268(1): 355 - 378. [Abstract] [PDF]

				B. HACKER, P. LUFFI, V. LUTKOV, V. MINAEV, L. RATSCHBACHER, T. PLANK, M. DUCEA, A. PATINO-DOUCE, M. McWILLIAMS, and J. METCALF Near-Ultrahigh Pressure Processing of Continental Crust: Miocene Crustal Xenoliths from the Pamir J. Petrology, August 1, 2005; 46(8): 1661 - 1687. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. N. Ducea, G. E. Gehrels, S. Shoemaker, J. Ruiz, and V. A. Valencia Geologic evolution of the Xolapa Complex, southern Mexico: Evidence from U-Pb zircon geochronology Geological Society of America Bulletin, July 1, 2004; 116(7-8): 1016 - 1025. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]