New 40Ar/39Ar dating and paleomagnetism of the Pana Formation rocks from the Linzhou basin, Lhasa Block: implications for the India-Asia collision

Our paleomagnetic and 40Ar/39Ar geochronologic investigation herein indicates a paleolatitude of ~31°N for the LB around ~53 Ma. Combined with the revised Late Cretaceous paleolatitude estimates, the LB was inferred at a paleolatitude of ~24°N in the Late Cretaceous and then reached a present-like location at ca. 53 Ma. Incorporating a reasonable estimate (~1000 km) for the northward extension of the Greater India, our paleomagnetic reconstruction of the Neo-Tethyan tectonic realm strongly supports a two-stage collision scenario consisting of the ~55 Ma Arc-India collision followed by the final collision between the India-Arc assemblage and Asia at ~36-31 Ma.