Lithospheric scale folding: numerical modelling and application to the Himalayan syntaxes

We describe the eastern and western Himalayan syntaxes, which are large-scale antiforms situated at geodynamically similar locations and the metamorphic evolution of which is coeval in the India-Asia collisional history. To understand the mechanical plausibility of the structural interpretation, we present two-dimensional finite-element modelling of lithospheric folding. The models reveal the coeval development of adjacent synformal basins, analogous to the Peshawar and Kashmir basins on both sides of the western syntaxis. Similarities between geological data and calculated models indicate that lithospheric buckling is a basic response to large-scale continental shortening and an efficient mountain building process.