Abstract
Although the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen is a result of compressional tectonics, the orogen also hosts active rifts accommodating east-west extension orthogonal to the north-south India-Asia convergence. In this study we address the question of how the north-trending rifts were formed by conducting high-resolution seismic imaging survey across southeastern Tibet where the Cona rift is exposed. Our work shows that the crustal structures of this youngest rift in southern Tibet was constructed by multiple-scale structures that are decoupled with depth and long rift trend. We suggest this deformation style to have resulted from eastward extrusion of the middle and upper crust with increasing speeds to the north towards the Yarlunbg-Zangpo suture. The differential eastward extrusion in turn may have contributed to the formation and evolution of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis.
1 Introduction
Active north-trending rifts in southern Tibet and the northern Himalaya across the Yarlung-Zangpo suture (YZS) zone between India and Asia have been known since the pioneer work of (; Yin and Harrison, 2000) (Figure 1). However, whether the initiation of the rifts was a result of 1) gravitational collapse () when the Tibetan plateau reached its maximum gravity-supported elevation (), 2) large-scale strike-slip faulting due to lateral extrusion of northern Tibet (), 3) convective removal of the Tibetan mantle lithosphere (), 4) plate-boundary-enforced continental-scale east-west extension (Yin, 2000), or 5) gravitational spreading of the Tibetan lithosphere assisted by lateral asthenospheric flow (Yin and Taylor, 2011) has been debated. Studies aiming at differentiating the above competing hypotheses helped clarified the possible dynamic causes, timing, and potential processes during the rift formation and evolution (; ; ). Despite these efforts, little progress has been made for diagnostic tests of the above models due to the lack of high-resolution imaging of the lithospheric structures across the Tibetan rifts. In this study, we address this issue by presenting newly acquired short-period seismological data to better document the rift structures relevant to differentiating the competing models.
FIGURE 1
2 Geological and geophysical background
East-west extension in southern Tibet may have been initiated between the middle and late Miocene (
Cenozoic ultrapotassic volcanic rocks and leucogranites are widely developed in the Lhasa Terrane and Tethyan Himalayan Sequence (THS) (
The Himalayan leucogranites are mainly exposed within the Tethyan Himalayan sequence in north and the Greater Himalayan Crystalline Complex (GHC) in south (
The South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS) is a low-angle normal fault system parallel to the entire Himalayan orogenic belt (
Evidence from several geophysical studies suggests that the subducted Indian lithospheric slab was torn into pieces with different angles (
The Cona rift is located in southeast Tibet that cuts across the Tethyan Himalayan Sequence (Figure 1B). The formation mechanism of the Cona rift is controversial (
FIGURE 2

(A) Location of the seismic array is shown on a simplified geological map (
To date, geophysical and petrological studies have accumulated a wealth of information about the Cenozoic evolution of the Himalaya. However, the current resolution of the available seismic data is insufficient to conform or reject the competing models for the Tibetan rift formation. In this study, we provide the highest-resolution images of the crustal structures across the Cona rift.
3 Data and methods
A receiver function (RF) is a time series containing the P-to-S converted waves and multiples formed by velocity discontinuities (
The short-period, dense-nodal array has a higher lateral resolution of the RF image at the crustal scale compared to the broadband-station array (
The teleseismic waveforms used in this study were recorded by 148 5-Hz nodal geophones (Fairfield Zland 3C) with a spacing of 1 km and an observation period of ∼40 days (end of the year 2019). The survey line is roughly in the northwest-southeast direction (Figure 2A), crossing the main part of the Cona rift. A total of 24 teleseismic events with magnitudes ≥5.4 were observed for subsequent P-wave RF analysis. The distribution range of epicenter distance is 30°–90°, and most of the earthquakes occurred in the southeast of our study area (Figure 2B). Finally, the 1,604 high-quality RFs were calculated for imaging the crustal structures (Please see the Supplementary Material for the details of the data processing). In general, care was taken to avoid higher Gaussian filter values, because they make it more difficult to separate noises from signals (
4 Results
Our survey line intersects obliquely the regional tectonic trends (Figure 2A). In order to separate east-trending compressional structures from north-trending extensional structures along the rifting zone, our imaging results were projected onto two separate profiles (Figure 2A), respectively. This helped reveal the relationship between structures responsible for GHC exhumation and structures associated with north-trending rifting.
The continuity of the crustal structures (grey thin dash lines in Figure 3) increases with depth in profile 1. The deformation of the middle and upper crust was strong, and the structure of the lower crust is more continuous (Figures 3A, C). The Moho discontinuity is traceable north of the Cona rift, the projected Indian crust dips to the north, and the crustal thickness increases from ∼70 km to ∼80 km (Figures 3A, C). The lower crust is overlain by a set of wide and gentle fold-thrust structures, and the upper crust displays a series of north-dipping thrusts associated closely with fault-bend folds (Figure 3C). There are two scales of folds above and below a 20-km deep interface (Figure 3C), which can be traced to the STDS (thick red dash line in Figures 4A, B). The undeformed lower crust was decoupled from the overlying fold-thrust structures (dark blue zone in Figures 4A, C), there was a decollement (thin pink dash line in Figures 4A, C) between them. Based on previous studies (
FIGURE 3

CCP-stacked, depth-migrated P-wave radial receiver functions along the two profiles for all stacked events. The topography and faults were plotted at the top of each section. (A–D) are profiles 1 and 2 (see Figure 2 for locations) with the Gaussian coefficient of 2.5 and 5.5. The possible low-velocity zones were identified by the negative velocity polarity. Refer to Figure 2 for the distribution of seismic rays used for imaging in the labeled boxes. (E) The stacked image of profile 3 (see Figure 2 for location).
FIGURE 4

(A–D) are the structural interpretations of profiles 1 and 2 with the Gaussian coefficient of 2.5 and 5.5. (E) The structural interpretation of profile 3. For comparison, the CCP stacks (
The Cona rift is north-trending normal faults, Profile 2 had been imaged to get a better view of its deep structures (Figures 3B, D). The result of low Gaussian coefficient (2.5) is relatively simple, and the structures located in the middle crust are overall east-dipping (Figure 3B). The structures shown in high Gaussian coefficient (5.5) were a series of short flat layers (Figure 3D). Almost all strata remain horizontal, without any dip to the east or west (Figure 3D). However, there were a large number of offsets in these strata. The strata show a gradual stepping towards the east. This is also consistent with the overall eastward dipping structure shown by the low Gaussian coefficient result.
Since the Moho was rather heterogeneous in the southern section of the survey line, we conducted partition analysis for different locations of the survey line (the boxes marked with numbers, and please see Figure 2 for locations). There was a data intersection between the south section of Profile 1 and the west side of Profile 2 (boxes marked 4, 5 and 6 in Figure 2A). There is a very strong positive amplitude at a depth of 60–80 km at the southern end of Profile 1 (Figure 3C), the west side of Profile 2 did not have the similar amplitude. There were also several strong positive amplitudes on the west side of Profile 2 (dash lines in boxes marked 4 and 5 in Figure 3D). By comparing the interface thickness (green and yellow bars in Figures 3C, D) and the continuity of Moho in profile 1, we can confirm that the western side of profile 2 has the Moho feature at about 70 km depth (Figure 3D), it helped us identify the Moho at the southern end of Profile 1. There is a robust Moho feature on the east side of Profile 2 (boxes marked 1, 2 and 3 in Figure 3D).
The comparison between Profile 2 (Figure 3D) and Profile 3 (Figure 3E) shows that the crust has the following characteristics in the east-west direction. The depth of Moho is deeper in the west than in the east, and there are offsets in the middle. Taking the offset as the reference point, the surface position of the Cona Rift in the northern section is migrated eastward. The lower crust is unevenly thick on both sides of the offset, and thicker on the western side. The images of the low Gaussian coefficient (Figures 3B, E) indicate that the upper and middle crust is tilted to the east.
5 Discussion
By comparing our results with the finding of
There is a distinct wedge in the upper and middle crust to the west (Figure 4B), the wedge is actually due to an increase in the number of strata to the west (light blue area and light pink area Supplementary Figure S10B). The horizontal stratum had also been imaged in profile 1 (light pink area in Supplementary Figure S10A), the ray coverage area (blue box marked 6 in Figure 2A) was similar to profile 2 (black boxes marked 4 and 5 in Figure 2A). The extra stratum on the west side was likely to be the exhumation of the GHC. The uplift of upper crustal (above the STDS) folds was produced by crustal shortening, the normal faults indicate the relative movements of extrusion (Figure 4D). But the upper crustal folds are gentler in the east-west direction, and the middle (GHC) and lower curst is flat with offsets in the east direction (Figures 4B, D). Comparing the depth and thickness of the middle crustal structures, the fold-thrust structures thicken the middle crust and the offsets of the Moho are in response to the lateral inhomogeneity of the middle crustal thickening.
The GHC generally has experienced multiple phases of partial melting expressed by the emplacement of leucogranites (
The exhumation process may have been partitioned (Figure 4C): the lower GHC section was by tectonic wedging (
A significant finding of this study is that the deformation of the Indian crust is lateral variation (Figures 4B, D). The crustal thickening was caused by the crustal shortening and the exhumation of the GHC, but the time of exhumation can be different. The time was controlled by the dipping angles of the Indian subducting continental lithosphere; higher angle made the GHC reach the high P-T condition earlier. The Indian continental lithosphere began to subduct under the pulling of the subducting Neo-Tethys Oceanic lithosphere (Zhang et al., 2012). The age of the subducted Neo-Tethys oceanic slab breakoff is relatively consistent, which is 45–30 Ma (
FIGURE 5

Schematic cross-sections of the Cona rift in the eastern THS. (A) The location of the profiles in (B, C), the red dashed line refers to the Cona rift on the surface, the blue dashed line refers to the Moho offset. The yellow dots represent the 3He/4He isotope data (RC/RA) (
Helium isotope data from hot springs in southern Tibet have been used to infer the location of the mantle suture between India and Asia (
6 Conclusion
A high-resolution receiver-function study in southeastern Tibet reveals geological structures at different scales across a north-trending rift zone (i.e., the Cona rift). The intensity of the crustal deformation decreases with increasing depth, which may have been resulted from the formation of upper and lower decollements as presented by the STDS and MHT, respectively. The unusually thick crustal thickness was contributed to crustal shortening and exhumation of the GHC. The GHC exhumation is the tectonic wedging accompanied by channel tunneling model. The distribution of exposed leucogranites were traceable to the migration of the partial melts. Stress changed due to slab tearing; the exhumation was not synchronized from west to east. At the present, it is possible that extensional structures along the Cona rift are decoupled with depth and rift strike. The eastward extrusion of the middle and upper crust may have different velocities, and this difference may contribute to the evolution of eastern Himalayan syntaxis.
Statements
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Author contributions
BX, XX, XT, and XG planned the field observation scheme. BX, XX, XT, JW, CL, XL, and JY carried out the field work and collected the waveforms. BX, XX, XT, JW and XG analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Funding
Lithospheric Structures of the Eastern Himalayas as Revealed by Receiver Function Analysis has received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 41874102, 42325402, 42274120, 41974097).
Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate the editors and reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions which greatly helped us to improve the present manuscript. We would like to thank professor An Yin for his help with the English expression.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2023.1252670/full#supplementary-material
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Summary
Keywords
north-trending rifts, receiver function, Cona rift, dense seismic array, Moho offset
Citation
Xiang B, Xu X, Tong X, Wu J, Li C, Yu J, Luo X and Guo X (2023) Lithospheric structures of the eastern Himalayas as revealed by receiver function analysis. Front. Earth Sci. 11:1252670. doi: 10.3389/feart.2023.1252670
Received
04 July 2023
Accepted
21 August 2023
Published
30 August 2023
Volume
11 - 2023
Edited by
Tao Xu, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China
Reviewed by
Wenhui Li, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS), China
Zhen Guo, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
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© 2023 Xiang, Xu, Tong, Wu, Li, Yu, Luo and Guo.
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*Correspondence: Xiao Xu, xuxiao8@mail.sysu.edu.cn
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