Fault systems and Paleo-stress tensors in the Indus Suture Zone (NW Pakistan)

Analysis of fault-striations measured in the Kohistan part of the Indus Sut ure Zone (NW Himalaya, Pakistan) has been carried out to document dynamic e volution during the brittle stage of the collision of India and Asia. Proce ssing of the data with a direct inversion method identified four stress fie lds which were chronologically ordered from field evidence as SSE-NNW compr ession, E-W compression, radial extension and SSW-NNE compression. The last corresponds to the present-day stress field defined from seismic activity. The earlier stress fields are related to times during the Miocene, when co nvergence-related stresses were disturbed by the formation of the nearby Na nga Parbat and Indus syntaxes. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights re served.