PALEOMAGNETISM IN THE TAJIKISTAN - CONTINENTAL SHORTENING OF EUROPEAN MARGIN IN THE PAMIRS DURING INDIAN EURASIAN COLLISION

A stable and well defined magnetization with D = 350-degrees, I = 55.5-degrees and alpha-95 = 4-degrees, carried by hematite, is isolated in the red beds of the Tajik basin. The fold test is positive (99% probability) and this magnetization predates the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene folding phase in the Tajik basin. The coordinates of the VGP are: 82-degrees N, 323-degrees E, dp = 4, dm = 6 with a paleolatitude of Dushanbe (38-degrees 38 N, 68-degrees 51 E) of 35.6 +/- 5-degrees. A high blocking temperature component with weak intensity and reverse polarity has been demonstrated in the site of Ragoon, but it has not been isolated. This component predates the Long Cretaceous Normal Period and is compatible with the older stratigraphic age attributed to the formation (Valanginian); these arguments indicate that this component is likely of primary origin. The other component, of higher intensity and clearly isolated in all the sites, is a pre-folding remagnetization. The process of remagnetization is attributed to the tectonic events, such as fluids migration and slight heating during a few million years, which took place just before the first Late Eocene-Early Oligocene phase of folding. An anticlockwise rotation of 26-degrees encountered by the region of Dushanbe is in good agreement with the indentation model of collision leading to anticlockwise rotation West of the Indian wedge and clockwise rotation to the east. A comparison of the paleolatitude of Dushanbe, computed from the direction of magnetization, and the paleolatitude expected from the apparent polar wander path for Eurasia, gives an estimate of the post-collision continental shortening north of the Tajik basin. This shortening did not exceed a few hundred kilometers and was probably between 100 and 300 km. An estimate of the roles of the different classical mechanisms of crustal shortening is discussed and a paleogeographic reconstruction giving the location of the southern margin of Eurasia at 45 Ma is proposed. The paleolatitude deduced from the prefolding remagnetization of the Red Beds of the Tajik basin is then compared with the results obtained by Soviet workers in Tertiary sediments of the same area, revealing strong contradictions in interpretation. This contradiction emphasizes the problem of the rigidity of European plate.