| Abstract: | A Sino|French refraction|reflection experiment was conducted in October 1998 in the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau from the Qiang Tang through the north Kunlun block.The successive wide|angle reflection traveltime curves are modeled trying to keep the minimum structure. First results obtained along this 700km transect, show the contrast of crustal structure between the three blocks crossed and the state of the crustal material.North of the Kunlun suture, a change of the Moho depth appears from the Qaidam basin, 55km, to the south approaching the Kunlun range, 65km. But the main crustal characteristic is a great thickness of upper crustal material and the lack of lower crust. This implies a crustal average velocity of 6 2km/s, which is much lower than the worldwide average of 6 45km/s. Interpretations of this crustal column may consider, assuming the crust had been normal that while its upper part thickened the lower one was transported away, underthrust to the south or to depth. Alternatively the velocity in the lower crust may have been changed by metamorphism. |
