Headed by LCPU Prof. DING Lin, ITP geologists recently received NSFC Key Program project “Tectonic collision and deformation along the Himalayan mountain range”, with the grant totaling 20 million RMB.

The project will focus on the east-west tectonics along the Himalayan mountain range. It intends to integrate geology, geochemistry and geodynamics to reveal the subduction zones beneath the Pamir Plateau and the Indo-Myanmar mountain ranges, to identify the crustal velocity structure and spatial and temporal distribution of the lava, and to trace its source(s). Metamorphism of the metamorphic rock under high pressure and super high pressure conditions will also be addressed, together with the spatial and temporal evolution of large-scale rotation and strike-slip faulting in the eastern tectonics, and possible modulating mechanism of the Pamir Plateau in the west.

Three ITP scientists, including Prof. ZHAO Junmeng, FAN Weiming and DING Lin, will join this project to see to three of the five subjects therein. They will also apply numerical modeling into the study to confine the Indo-Eurasian continental collision modes and time, reconstruct the transfer from oceanic subduction to continental subduction, understand the subduction and exhumation mechanism of continental rocks, and reveal the deformation modulation of the continental subduction and mantle-crust interactions.

The completion of the project is expected to bridge plate tectonic landing, and to link tectonic structures with the theoretical frame of global continental dynamics.