INternational DEep Profiling of Tibet and the Himalaya (INDEPTH)-Magnetotelluric Transect

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9418822 Booker To understand continental evolution, it is essential to study active collision zones. The type example of a continent-continent collision is between India and Eurasia which has formed the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau. This plateau is the most conspicuous and one the most poorly understood topographic features on Earth. Two mechanisms have been proposed for its initial uplift: (1) India has underthrust Asia to produce a double crust and (2) Asia has been compressed. Further uplift in the last 10 MY has been attributed to peeling off and sinking of the lower Tibetan lithosphere and its replacement by warmer, lighter asthenosphere. In collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources (MGMR), the University of Washington (UW) and the Canadian Geology Survey (CGS), will carry out a high resolution magnetotelluric (MT) profile in southern Tibet. This will complement seismic work along the same transect by MGMR and a U.S. group lead by COCORP. The UW and CGS will make long period MT measuresments to examine crust, mantle and asthenospheric structure. The Chinese will make shorter period MT measurements to constrain the upper-crustal structure. ***