The marine Paleogene at Gangba, south Tibet is characterized by shallow water deposits and in vertical succession shows a clear facies change from fluvial plain through carbonate platform to retro-platform mud flat. From the bottom of Danian to Upper Priabonian, nine 3rd -order depositional sequences are recognized, which in turn make up four supersequences and constitute two clear transgression-regression cycles. These requences were developed in a tectonic setting of strong compression resulted from the collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates. Between the Paleocene and Eocene, there exists an important hiatus that has consumed at least 5.5 Ma of deposition. This unconformity is thought to be created by the basement uplift coupled with eustatic fall and marks the basin transformation from epicontinental sea to remnant hay. The rapid basement subsidence and relative sea level rise in Late Eocene are thought to be caused by the loading flexure of the Eurasian continent onto the Indian plate, which resulted in the southward migration of depocenter in the epoch.
