Development of major unconformities in the forearc regions: A signal of west Myanmar−Asia assemblage before the late Paleocene

Abstract

It has long been debated whether the India-Eurasia collision was a single-stage event that began 60-55 million years ago, or whether it was a two-stage process that involved a collision between India and the Trans-Tethyan Arc before the early Paleocene, and the collision of India with Eurasia during the middle Eocene. Here, we report a late Paleogene angular unconformity (ca. 40-28 Ma) in western Myanmar. This angular unconformity developed around the same time as the Assam unconformity (NE India) but is younger than those found in northern Myanmar. Development of these unconformities indicates that an oblique convergence margin in western Myanmar formed before the middle Eocene, with a major dextral strike-slip fault (proto-Sagaing/Shan Scarp Fault) in the backarc. We interpret this oblique convergence margin to be partial continental collision between the West Myanmar Terrane (WMT) and NE India. In backarc regions, syn-rift successions of the Shwebo sub-basin have formed as a consequence of transtensional tectonics along the proto-Sagaing/Shan Scarp Fault since at least the late Paleocene. The syn-rift successions consist of Asian-derived materials that were not identified in the forearc because of the Wuntho-Popa Arc served as a geographical barrier. The presence of the unconformities and tectonic configuration of the Myanmar backarc sub-basins are inconsistent with the scenario inferred from paleomagnetic data, in which the WMT was part of an intra-oceanic arc at near-equatorial latitudes before the late Oligocene. Instead, we propose that the WMT has been part of continental SE Asia since at least the Paleocene (ca. 60-58 Ma). We reconsider the paleomagnetic data and suggest that the Mawgyi Arc, rather than the WMT, is the oceanic fragment that rifted from the northern Gondwana margin during the Late Jurassic. The Mawgyi Arc collided with continental SE Asia (WMT) during the Late Cretaceous, and then with India during the early Eocene (ca. 51-49 Ma). Our results support the collision between India and Eurasia is a multistage event.