India-Eurasia plate convergence and environmental consequences

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The project is addressed to the India-Eurasia collision from its earliest stage to the end of the marine sedimentary history during the Early Eocene. Stratigraphic timing of the early history of the India-Eurasia collision, the pre-collisional extent of the plate margins and their character as well as the continental masses involved are important preconditions in all models for the evolution of the Himalaya-Tibetan orogenic system and for the subsequent uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. Using palaeomagnetic inclinations combined with precise datings by biostratigraphy (sediments) and radiometry (volcanics) allow to determine the extent of India’s former northern margin (‘Greater India’) and the southern position of the Eurasian continent. Furthermore, studying the narrowing and finally the closure of the Neo- Tethyan Ocean profoundly enhances our understanding of regional shiftings of ocean current systems, distribution of SST and the global climate change during the Cenozoic. We will continue our studies on the history of plate convergence and collision in sedimentary sections of the Himalayan peripheral foreland basin which developed when India and Asia collided, named the Tethys-Himalaya Zone of southern Tibet (locations Guru – Gamba – Tingri) and volcanic rocks on the Lhasa Block.