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) An erratum has been published 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 (4) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kapp, P. Articles by Ding, L. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Development of active low-angle normal fault systems during orogenic collapse: Insight from Tibet

¹ Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, 1040 E 4th Street, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
² Department of Geology, University of Kansas, 1475 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA
³ Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

Active north-trending rifts in Tibet vary significantly in their character as a function of extension magnitude. Most rifts are characterized by internally drained basins bounded by high-angle normal faults with Paleogene or older rocks in the footwall. However, the central part of the Yadong-Gulu Rift (near Lhasa) and the newly documented Lunggar Rift in west-central Tibet are bounded by low-angle normal faults (detachments) with mylonitic rocks and Miocene granites in the footwall, and exhibit active basin incision and intrabasin topographic highs in areas of inferred maximum extension. We suggest that Tibetan rifts initiate as high-angle normal fault and half-graben or graben basin systems and evolve in response to increasing extension and footwall isostatic rebound into detachment systems that are active at uppermost crustal levels and above which rift basin fill is being uplifted and eroded.

Key Words: Tibet • extension • rift basin development • low-angle normal faulting • metamorphic core complex

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. J. Jessup, D. L. Newell, J. M. Cottle, A. L. Berger, and J. A. Spotila Orogen-parallel extension and exhumation enhanced by denudation in the trans-Himalayan Arun River gorge, Ama Drime Massif, Tibet-Nepal Geology, July 1, 2008; 36(7): 587 - 590. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]