An explosive seismic sounding profile across the transition zone between west Kunlun Mts. and Tarim Basin

The explosive seismic sounding profile across the transition zone from the west Kunlun Mts. to the Tarim Basin revealed the complex deep structure formed by continent-continent collision on the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The profile shows that the attitude of the Moho is in agreement with that of the crystalline basement in the Tarim Basin and the whole crust dips as a thick slate southwards with an angle from 5° to 7°. Meanwhile, the Moho depth increases from 40 km to 57 km within a distance of 150 km in the southern Tarim region, depicting the subduction of the crust of this region towards the west Kunlun Mts. The crust of the northern slope of the west Kunlun Mts. shows an evident compressed and shortened feature, that is, the basement is uplifted, the interface dips northwards and the Moho rises abruptly to become flat, so that the lower crust is as thick as 20 km.