Indian Plate Peels Apart Under Tibet, Redrawing Himalayan Tectonics

New seismic evidence shows the Indian Plate beneath southern Tibet is peeling away and tearing, with delamination of the mantle lithosphere and a tear likely forming a patchwork beneath the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau. By combining S-receiver functions and shear-wave splitting across thousands of stations, researchers map two mantle domains and surface gas signals that hint at mantle sources. The work challenges the classic single-slab view of continental collision and highlights deep Earth processes that shape mountain building and earthquake hazards in Asia.