Cover Story
The boundary normal fault of the Chem Co half-graben and its conceptual model for the accelerated extension mechanism. A series of grabens trending nearly north-south are dis-tributed in southern and central Tibet. They are the youngest tectonic deformation features. The latest results show that during the Late Qua-ternary, the extension rate of the Chem Co graben in the westernmost segment of the Qiangtang Block was much higher than that in the central segment and the South Tibet, indicating that the Qiangtang Block and even the entire western Tibetan Plateau are in an unsteady state with accelerated extensional deformation. In the active Qiangtang Block of central Tibet, the direct effects of subduction and collision be-tween the Indian and Eurasian plates are weak, except in its westernmost segment, where rapid uplift is ongoing driven by oblique colli-sion. As a result, the eastward migration of ma-terial has been characterized by a diffuse manner with higher extension rate, reflecting an incomplete decou-pled from the middle-lower crust. The research achievement, led by Professor LI Haibing of the Insti-tute of Geology, CAGS, ranks the second among the “Top Ten Sci-tech Progresses of CAGS in 2024”. For details, see pp. 1-16 of this issue. (Photo by ZHENG Yong)
