A 3D model of the India-Asia collision at plate scale

We present a 3D model of the evolution of the India-Asia collision-subduction system from the collision (55 Ma) until now. The pre-collisional history (120-55 Ma) is relatively simple and well constrained by the analysis of the oceanic magnetic anomalies which allow a Greater India to be defined and to determine precisely its position during its northward drift. The post-collisional history is complex because, during the subduction of India beneath Asia, the boundary between the two continents changed continuously in response to the penetration of India into Asia, producing intense shortening, rotations of the structures and erosion of the continental crust. We propose some 3D images of this history from the collision to present time, from geological and geophysical evidence and particularly seismic tomography. ((C) Academie des sciences / Elsevier, Paris.).