Analyses of the relative motion using hotspot tracks, age progressions and plate circuits, and of the absolute motion using paleolatitude data indicate that three major long-lived surface hotspots geographically within a very low velocity province (VLVP) at the base of the Earth's mantle, Tristan, Marion and Kerguelen, exhibit small relative motions (b9 mm/yr) in the past 80 Ma. The geochemical...

Recent molecular phylogenetic studies indicate that the rafting Indian plate harboured several isolated vertebrate lineages between ca. 130 and 56 Myr ago that dispersed and diversified 'out of India' following accretion with Eurasia. A single family of the amphibian order Gymnophiona, the Ichthyophiidae, presently occurs on the Indian plate and across much of South East Asia. Ichthyophiid phyl...

The summertime intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) is an important component of the south Asian monsoon. Lagged regressions of intraseasonally filtered (25–80 days) outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) reveal that centers of convection move both northward and eastward from the central equatorial Indian Ocean subsequent to the initiation of an ISO. Eastward movement of convection is also seen at Indian...

The Indo-Burma subduction zone is a highly oblique system where the Indian plate converging with Eurasian plate. How strain partitioned between interface and upper Kabaw Fault, whether megathrust locked active of convergence that can generate great earthquakes are ongoing debates. Here, we use data from total 68 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations, including newly installed stati...

A high-resolution model of P-wave anisotropic tomography beneath Mainland China and surrounding regions is determined using a large number of arrival-time data recorded by the China seismic network, the International Seismological Centre (ISC) and temporary seismic arrays deployed on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results provide important new insights into the subducted Indian plate and mantle dynam...

While it is generally assumed that global plate motions are driven by the pattern of convection in the Earth’s mantle, the details of that link remain obscure. Bouyancy forces associated with subduction of cool, dense lithosphere at zones of plate convergence are thought to provide significant driving force, but the relative magnitudes of other driving and resisting forces are less clear, as ar...

The flexural bulge in central India resulting from India's collision with Tibet has a wavelength of approximately 670 km. It is manifest topographically and in the freeair gravity anomaly and the geoid. Calculations of the stress distribution within a flexed Indian plate reveal spatial variations throughout the depth of the plate and also a function of distnace from the Himalaya. The wavelength...

The dynamics of slab detachment and associated geological fingerprints have been inferred from various numerical analogue models. These invariably use a setup with slab-pull-driven convergence in which detaches below mantle-stationary trench after the arrest plate due to arrival continental lithosphere. In contrast, reconstructions show that post-detachment is common trenches sutures are rarely...