Research: Asian Tectonics
Plate tectonics theory predicts crustal deformation and other tectonic activities to be confined to narrowly defined plate boundaries, yet in Asian continent recent and active crustal deformation, earthquakes, and volcanism are widespread and extend thousands of kilometers away from plate boundaries. These geological processes make Asian continent an ideal place to study diffuse plate boundary zone processes, or intrplate tectonics. I have been collaborating with colleagues in China and other countries on studies of numerous aspects as Asian tectonics, including basin-orogen dynamic coupling between the Tarim and the Tianshan mountains, the rift zones surrounding the Ordos (loess) plateau, intraplate tectonics in north China, and astheonosphere-lithosphere interactions in the development of Cenozoic volcanism in southeast Asia and opening of the South China Sea.
Recent and Ongoing Projects
Collisional tectonics in western China: Tarim and Tianshan
Mantle extrusion and South China Sea
last update: winter 2005
credits
copyright 1999 Mian Liu
and The Curators of the University of Missouri