Flexure from a superposition of sedimentary and structural loads: the Ganges-Brahamaputra Delta, the IndoBurma accretionary prism and the Shillong Massif
Abstract
The Bengal Basin is the outcome of the superposition of the heavily-sedimented passive margin of India being overthrust both by the IndoBurma accretionary prism from the east and the Shillong Plateau from the north. In response to the India-Asia collision, the remnant ocean between the Lower Cretaceous passive margin of India and the advancing Sunda subduction system has received an immense load of Himalayan sediment. This influx has prograded the shelf edge of the passive margin 300-400 km from the Hinge Zone in the Eocene, prior to the collision, to its current position. The delta coevolved with the now up to 250-km wide accretionary prism of the IndoBurma subduction zone that overthrusts it. The newest element is the Late Pliocene-Quaternary rise of the Shillong anticlinorium on the north side of the Bengal Basin. Shillong overthrusts the Bengal Basin, forming the Sylhet Basin foredeep, and is overthrust by the prism. Shillong represents the beginning of a forward jump of the Himalayas to the Indian passive margin hinge zone as it approached within a flexural wavelength of the mountains. GPS indicates 7 mm/y of N-S convergence in eastern Shillong where total relief reaches 5 km. The superposition of overlapping tectonic elements makes it difficult to estimate flexural rigidity from the basin shape or gravity field. The flexural subsidence of the Sylhet foredeep has downwarped and buried the frontal part of the foldbelt in this region. We therefore estimate flexural rigidities using a thermomechanical model based on the sediment and crustal structure and available thermal data. Receiver functions, local S-to-P converted phases, and seismic reflection data provide constraints on the crustal structure, and on the dip of the Dauki Fault bounding Shillong. We also consider the possibility of volcanically-thickened crust in the basin due to the 90 East Ridge plume. We use both 2-D finite difference and 2-D finite element models (ADELI) to model the flexure associated with the loads through time. The observed gravity anomalies, along with seismic reflections profiles, are used to constrain the models. Flexural rigidities vary from high values in the Indian craton to low (<30 km) in the Bengal Basin. Relatively low sedimentation rates in the Sylhet Basin may be due to the interaction of the Shillong flexure and the foldbelt advance.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.T11A2597S
- Keywords:
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- 7230 Seismicity and tectonics;
- SEISMOLOGYDE: 7240 Subduction zones;
- SEISMOLOGYDE: 8104 Continental margins: convergent;
- TECTONOPHYSICSDE: 8175 Tectonics and landscape evolution;
- TECTONOPHYSICS