资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

The timing of the India‐Asia collision onset, essential to understanding the evolution of the Himalayan‐Tibetan orogen, has been widely investigated through multidisciplinary approaches. Among these, the India to Asia provenance reversal documented in the Indian passive margin successions has proved to be most effective. We present integrated stratigraphic, sedimentological, and provenance data on Upper Cretaceous‐Paleogene strata from the newly investigated Mubala section exposed south of the Yarlung‐Zangbo suture zone in southern Tibet, which preserves continuous deep‐marine turbiditic and biogenic sedimentation on the distal Indian passive margin. Sandstone petrography, heavy minerals, detrital zircon geochronology and Hf isotopes, and detrital Cr‐spinel geochemistry constrain the India to Asia provenance reversal to later than 62.7 Ma (youngest zircon ages from the earliest Asian‐derived sandstone) and by 61.0±0.3 Ma (SIMS age of a tuffaceous layer ∼30 m above this bed). The onset of intercontinental collision along the Yarlung‐Zangbo suture zone began by 61 Ma.