Lyell Collection
Journal of the Geological Society
Lyell Centre  |   Lyell Collection  |   Subscriptions   |   Geological Society  |   Email alerts  |   Online bookshop  |   Help

Keywords:
Author:
Advanced search>>
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Leloup, P.H.
Right arrow Articles by Searle, M.P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Journal of the Geological Society; 2007; v. 164; issue.6; p. 1253-1260;
DOI: 10.1144/0016-76492007-065
© 2007 Geological Society of London

Discussion

Discussion on the role of the Red River shear zone, Yunnan and Vietnam, in the continental extrusion of SE Asia Journal, Vol. 163, 2006, 1025–1036

P.H. Leloup1, P. Tapponnier2, R. Lacassin2 & M.P. Searle3

1 1 CNRS, UMR 5570, Université de Lyon, Université Claud Bernard Lyon1, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Science de la Terre, UMR 5570 CNRS, 2 rue Dubois, Bat géode, la Doua, 69622 Villeurbanne, France (e-mail: herve.leloup@univ-lyon1.fr)
2 2 Tectonique et Mécanique de la Lithosphère, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, and Université Paris 7, CNRS, Paris, France
3 3 Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK (e-mail: mike.searle@earth.ox.ac.uk)

The first 250 words of the full text of this article appear below. Images appear only in PDF or full-text views.

P. H. Leloup, P. Tapponnier & R. Lacassin write: In his recent paper, Searle (2006) acknowledges that the 1000 km long Ailao Shan–Red River shear zone is a large Miocene left-lateral shear zone, but speculates that left-lateral slip started after 21 Ma and claims that the total finite offset remains unknown. From this he concludes that continental extrusion was only a relatively minor tectonic factor during the India–Asia collision, as long argued by other workers (e.g. England & Houseman 1986; Cobbold & Davy 1988; Dewey et al. 1989; Houseman & England 1993). We summarize below the field and geochronological evidence that makes us maintain a viewpoint in better accordance with facts.

Timing of left-lateral shear along the Ailao Shan–Red River shear zone. The Ailao Shan–Red River shear zone is composed mostly of high-grade metamorphic rocks and deformed granitoids with ubiquitous evidence for left-lateral shear parallel to the belt (e.g. Tapponnier et al. 1986, 1990; Leloup et al. 1993, 1995, 2001). The crystallization of the granitoids has been dated between 22 and 35 Ma (Fig. 1d–f), for example by Schärer et al. (1990, 1994) and Zhang & Schärer (1999), leading those workers to propose that left-lateral shear started at least c. 35 Ma ago. In contrast, Searle (2006) claims that all the deformed granitoids found within the shear zone predate left-lateral shear and that their crystallization ages should thus be interpreted to provide an upper limit . . . [Full Text of this Article]