Indochina Peninsula and the collision of India and Eurasia

The collision of India with Asia results in a rapidly changing stress pattern around both Himalayan syntaxes. The maximum compressive stress, which is north- south north of the indenter, fans radially through nearly 180° around the syntaxes to accommodate the necessary strike-slip motion on the edges of the indenter. Thus, the whole Indochina Peninsula was swept by the migrating stress and associated strain pattern as the eastern syntaxis moved to the north. As a result, the maximum horizontal component of the stress field is predicted to have been first oriented east-west, then north-south. We propose that this changing stress field controlled the opening of the sedimentary basins and of the South China Sea as well as the direction of motion of the major strike-slip faults.