Australian Plate Subduction is Responsible for Northward Motion of the India?Asia Collision Zone and ?1,000 km Lateral Migration of the Indian Slab

Distributions of slabs within Earth's mantle are increasingly used to reconstruct past subduction zones, based on first-order assumptions that sink vertically after slab break-off, and thus delineate paleo-trench locations. Non-vertical motions, which occur prior represent a potentially significant source error for slab-based plate reconstructions, but poorly understood. We constrain lateral migration the Indian overlying India-Asia collision zone by comparing tomographically imaged structure with plate-kinematic constraints. Following coupling Australian plates at onset collision, ?1,000 km was driven vertical slab. The sinking behaviors individual do not evolve in isolation, instead influence, or influenced by, other same network. Hence, migrations may be determined interpreting behavior collectively, respect kinematics.