The crust in the pamir: Insights from receiver functions

The Cenozoic convergence between India and Asia has created Earth's thickest crust in the Pamir‐Tibet Plateau by extreme crustal shortening. Here we study the crustal structure of the Pamir and western Tian Shan, the adjacent margins of the Tajik, Tarim, and Ferghana Basins, and the Hindu Kush, using data collected by temporary seismic experiments. We derive, compare, and combine independent observations from P and S receiver functions. The obtained Moho depth varies from ~40 km below the basins to a double‐normal thickness of 65–75 km underneath the Pamir and Hindu Kush. A Moho doublet—with the deeper interface down to a depth of ~90 km—coincides with the arc of intermediate‐depth seismicity underneath the Pamir, where Asian continental lower crust delaminates and rolls back. The crust beneath most of the Central and South Pamir has a low Vp/Vs ratio (<1.70), suggesting a dominantly felsic composition, probably a result of delamination/foundering of the mafic rocks of the lower crust. Beneath the Cenozoic gneiss domes of the Central and South Pamir, which represent extensional core complexes, the Vp/Vs ratios are moderate to high (~1.75), consistent with the previously observed, midcrustal low‐velocity zones, implying the presence of crustal partial melts. Even higher crustal average Vp/Vs ratios up to 1.90 are found in the sedimentary basins and along the Main Pamir Thrust. The ratios along the latter—the active thrust front of the Pamir—may reflect fluid accumulations within a strongly fractured fault system

Images of crustal and mantle structure across the northern margin of the Tibet-Pamir plateau

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 A

Evidence for subduction of Asian continental lithosphere under the Pamir from lithospheric imaging

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 A

Tajik Basin and Southwestern Tian Shan, Northwestern India-Asia Collision Zone: 3. Preorogenic to Synorogenic Retro-foreland Basin Evolution in the Eastern Tajik Depression and Linkage to the Pamir Hinterland

©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. The Tajik basin archives the orogenic evolution of the Pamir hinterland. Stratigraphic-sedimentologic observations from Cretaceous-Pliocene strata along its eastern margin describe the depositional environment and basin-formation stages in reaction to hinterland exhumation and basin inversion. During the Late Cretaceous-Eocene (preorogenic stage: ~100–34 Ma), a shallow-marine to terrestrial basin extended throughout Central Asia. An alluvial plain with influx of conglomerate bodies (Baljuvon Formation) indicates a first pulse of hinterland erosion and foreland-basin formation in the late Oligocene-early Miocene (synorogenic stage Ia: ~34–23 Ma). Further hinterland exhumation deposited massive alluvial conglomerates (Khingou Formation) in the early-middle Miocene (synorogenic stage Ib: ~23–15 Ma). Westward thickening growth strata suggest transformation of the Tajik basin into the Tajik fold-thrust belt in the middle-late Miocene (synorogenic stage IIa: ~15–5 Ma). Increased water supply led to the formation of fluvial mega-fans (Tavildara Formation). Latest Miocene-Pliocene shortening constructed basin morphology that blocked sediment bypass into the central basin from the east (Karanak Formation), triggering drainage-system reorganization from transverse to longitudinal sediment transport (synorogenic stage IIb: < ~5 Ma). Accelerated shortening (~27–20 Ma) and foreland-directed collapse (~23–12 Ma) of Pamir-plateau crust loaded the foreland and induced synorogenic stages Ia and Ib. Coupling of Indian and Asian cratonic lithospheres and onset of northward and westward delamination/rollback of Asian lithosphere (i.e., lithosphere of the Tajik basin) beneath the Pamir at ~12–11 Ma transformed the Tajik basin into the Tajik fold-thrust belt (synorogenic stage IIa). The timing of the sedimentologically derived basin reconfiguration matches the thermochronologically derived onset of Tajik-basin inversion at ~12 Ma

Atmospheric dynamics patterns in southern central Asia since 800 ka revealed by loess-paleosol sequences in Tajikistan

The atmospheric mechanisms responsible for the loess grain‐size variations in central Asia are less clear, and an increasing number of studies have found that the coarse‐grained component is likely supplied by the surface circulation rather than by the westerlies (westerlies circulation). In this study, we attempt to determine the atmospheric dynamics patterns in the Afghan‐Tajik Basin during the past 800 kyr, based on the coarse grain‐size fraction of loess, combined with a study of modern dust transport processes. We suggest that the coarse grain‐size fraction can be used to indicate the intensity of near‐surface winds, while on glacial‐interglacial time scales, the variations of loess grain size in Tajikistan are dominated by Northern Hemisphere ice volume via its effect on the strength of the Siberian High. In addition, we suggest that atmospheric greenhouse gases concentration affected the loess grain size during interglacials via their influence on the temperature of southern high latitudes

Seismic imaging of subducting continental lower crust beneath the Pamir

Exhumation of ultra-high pressure metamorphic rocks testifies that the continental crust can subduct to significant depth into the mantle despite its buoyancy. However, direct observation of ongoing subduction of continental crust is rare. The Pamir is r

Geometry of the Pamir-Hindu Kush intermediate-depth earthquake zone from local seismic data

We present new seismicity images based on a two-year seismic deployment in the Pamir and SW Tien Shan. A total of 9532 earthquakes were detected, located, and rigorously assessed in a multistage automatic procedure utilizing state-of-the-art picking algo