Palaeomagnetic estimates of crustal shortening in the Himalayan thrusts and Zangbo suture

This article reports new palaeomagnetic results from precisely-dated late Palaeocene limestones from the former northern margin of the Indian subcontinent, now in Tibet, between the major Himalayan thrusts and the India–Tibet suture zone. Convergence in the suture and intracontinental thrusting can be estimated separately and are respectively found to be of the order of 550 km (±650 km) and 400 km (±400 km). Comparison with kinematic models derived from magnetic anomalies constrains the age of the collision at about 50 Myr.