The Hindu Kush slab break-off as revealed by deep structure and crustal deformation

Sofia-Katerina Kufner (), Najibullah Kakar, Maximiliano Bezada, Wasja Bloch, Sabrina Metzger, Xiaohui Yuan, James Mechie, Lothar Ratschbacher, Shokhruhk Murodkulov, Zhiguo Deng and Bernd Schurr
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Sofia-Katerina Kufner: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Najibullah Kakar: Norwegian Afghanistan Committee
Maximiliano Bezada: University of Minnesota
Wasja Bloch: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Sabrina Metzger: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Xiaohui Yuan: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
James Mechie: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Lothar Ratschbacher: TU Bergakademie Freiberg
Shokhruhk Murodkulov: Tajik Academy of Sciences
Zhiguo Deng: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Bernd Schurr: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Break-off of part of the down-going plate during continental collision occurs due to tensile stresses built-up between the deep and shallow slab, for which buoyancy is increased because of continental-crust subduction. Break-off governs the subsequent orogenic evolution but real-time observations are rare as it happens over geologically short times. Here we present a finite-frequency tomography, based on jointly inverted local and remote earthquakes, for the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan, where slab break-off is ongoing. We interpret our results as crustal subduction on top of a northwards-subducting Indian lithospheric slab, whose penetration depth increases along-strike while thinning and steepening. This implies that break-off is propagating laterally and that the highest lithospheric stretching rates occur during the final pinching-off. In the Hindu Kush crust, earthquakes and geodetic data show a transition from focused to distributed deformation, which we relate to a variable degree of crust-mantle coupling presumably associated with break-off at depth.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21760-w

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