Lithospheric scale folding: numerical modelling and application to the Himalayan syntaxes

We describe the eastern and western Himalayan syntaxes, which are large-sca le antiforms situated at geodynamically similar locations and the metamorph ic evolution of which is coeval in the India-Asia collisional history. To u nderstand the mechanical plausibility of the structural interpretation, we present two-dimensional finite-element modelling of lithospheric folding. T he models reveal the coeval development of adjacent synformal basins, analo gous to the Peshawar and Kashmir basins on both sides of the western syntax is. Similarities between geological data and calculated models indicate tha t lithospheric buckling is a basic response to large-scale continental shor tening and an efficient mountain building process.