The Segmentation of the Indo-Pakistan Plate

  • Dietrich Bannert
  • Hilal A. Raza

Abstract

   The Kirthar and Sulaiman ranges of western Pakistan and the Kohat and Potwar area adjacent to the northeast have been structurally analyzed using Landsat-MSS colour and black and white images at a scale of 1:250,000, literature studies, and a limited field survey. The pattern of tectonic deformation caused by the collision of the Indo-Pakistan Plate with the Eurasian Plate have been analyzed. Tethyan oceanic crust covered by Triassic through Early Tertiary sediments, are preserved between the Eurasian Plate and the Indo-Pakistan Plate and called the Bela-Waziristan Ophiolite Zone.
The oblique collision ofthe Indo-Pakistan Plate with the Eurasian Plate forced the Indo-Pakistan Plate to rotate in an anticlockwise mode. The collision further opened a number of basement faults that segmented the western part of the Indo- Pakistan Plate – mostly on Pakistan territory – into several basement blocks, which were involved en-echelon in the collision. They are the Kirthar Basement Fault in the southwest, the Sulaiman Basement Fault, and the Jhelum Basement Fault in the northeast. The deformation of the sediments of the Indo-Pakistan Plate during the collision resulted in different tectonic patterns on the individual basement blocks.

Published
1993-07-01
Section
Articles