Tectonics of the western margin of the Shan plateau (central Myanmar): implication for the India-Indochina oblique convergence since the Oligocene

We present new data and interpretations on the Neogene tectonics of the Shan scarp area (central Myanmar) and its relationship with the India-Indochina oblique convergence. We describe ductile and brittle fabrics associated with the major features in this area, the Mogok Metamorphic Belt (MMB), the Shan scarp and the Sagaing fault. From these data we identify a succession of two tectonic regimes. First, a dominant NNW-SSE-trending extension, marked by ductile stretching that characterizes the MMB, and associated N70E brittle normal faults. Later. from Middle or Upper Miocene to the Present, these structures were cross-cut by brittle right-lateral faults, among which the most important are the N20W transpressive Shan scarp fault zone and the N-S Sagaing fault. To explain this transition from a dominant transtensive to a transpressive stress regime, that occurred during Miocene, we place our data within a larger geodynamic context. We suggest that, like the intraplate deformation in the Indian Ocean, the end of spreading in the South China sea, the opening of the Andaman basin or the end of subduction within the Indo-Burma range, the change in the tectonic regime in central Myanmar could be in response to a major Miocene regional plate kinematic reorganization. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.