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A Tectonic Reconstruction Project by Lloyd White, PhD Candidate

A number of 2D rigid plate reconstructions have been made to model the history of convergence between the Indian and Eurasian plates. Most of these models have attempted to determine the timing of "the collision" between India and Eurasia on the basis of a reduction in the northward velocity of the Indian plate at certain points in time. However, many workers now recognize that the Himalaya developed due to a number of accretion events, and the idea of a discrete "collision" is unfounded. The first aim of this project is to review the motion history of the Indian plate, as this has not been revised properly since the late 1980's (Dewey et al. 1989).

Almost every publication dealing with the Himalaya proposes a different tectonic model/architecture for the historical development of the Himalaya. Yet, very little work has been completed to characterize the subducted slabs below the Himalaya in three dimensions. Therefore the second aim of this project is to use existing tomographic data. The final phase of this project will be to build a deformable plate reconstruction of the Indian and Eurasian plates from 100 Ma to present.