Structural basin

Geology

Collision zone

Mathematics

Collision

Cretaceous

Geodesy

Metamorphism

Latitude

Paleontology

Seismology

Paleomagnetism

Earth science

Geometry

Eurasian Plate

Computer science

Subduction

Island arc

Tectonics

Arc (geometry)

Computer security

Cenozoic

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Significance We present paleomagnetic constraints on the latitude of an intraoceanic subduction system that is now sutured between India and Eurasia in the western Himalaya. Our results demonstrate that the India–Eurasia collision was a multistage process involving at least two subduction systems rather than a single-stage event. This resolves the discrepancy between the amount of convergence and the observed crustal shortening in the India–Eurasia collision system, as well as the 10–15 Ma time lag between collision onset in India and the initiation of collision-related deformation and metamorphism in Eurasia. The presence of an additional subduction system in the Neotethys ocean explains the rapid India–Eurasia convergence rates in the Cretaceous and global climate variations in the Cenozoic.

Paleocene latitude of the Kohistan–Ladakh arc indicates multistage India–Eurasia collision