Surface Response to Lithosphere Removal: Sedimentology, Structural Geology, Geochronology, and Geodynamics

Abstract

Removal of dense lower lithospheric material is critical to the maintenance of gravitational equilibrium and mass balance in convergent orogens, yet it is one of the least understood orogenic processes because its transience leaves faint imprints, if any, on the surface geological record. This has limited our understanding of this potentially commonplace process. Integrating sedimentology, structural geology, geochronology, analytic and geodynamic modeling, this work focuses on case studies of the Bidahochi Basin on the Colorado Plateau and the Maerguo Basin on the Tibetan Plateau to examine the hypotheses that these basins were formed in direct response to mantle dynamics related to lithosphere removal.