Crustal assembly of Myanmar: establishing a geo/thermochronologic data base for magmatism, metamorphism, deformation, and exhumation in central and eastern Myanmar

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Lothar Ratschbacher
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2006 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 32111795

The Mesozoic to Recent tectonic evolution of Asia is the result of the convergence and collision of fragments of Gondwana and Eurasia. Whereas it is widely accepted that the collision of India with Eurasia substantially thickened and uplifted the Tibetan plateau, there is considerable controversy about the amount and distribution of strain in eastern Tibet and Southeast-Asia. In the Himalayas, Pamirs, and Tibet a growing geochronologic database is placing constraints on the timing and duration of magmatic, metamorphic, deformation, and exhumation episodes. In contrast, there is very little comparable modern geo/thermochronology, petrology, and structural analysis for the areas south and southeast of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis. This project will initiate the acquisition of amodern geo/ thermochronologic data base by dating recently collected samples from east-west traverses across central and eastern Myanmar, the state that contains the eastern plate boundary of India and that has been nearly inaccessible over the last decades.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants