Indus-Yarlung suture zone

The ophiolites within the Indus-Yarlung suture zone occur in two discontinuous belts. During the trench-continent collision, segments of the crust and upper mantle were emplaced onto the Indian plate. However, following the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates, the northern segment of ophiolitic rock was backthrust onto the edge of the Eurasian plate, separating from the southern ophiolite group and forming two distinct belts.

Some think that the many ophiolites that define the suture are not remnants of a very big ocean, but of a small back-arc basin structure. More recently it has been suggested that these ophiolites formed during Early Cretaceous subduction initiation (Hu and Stern, 2020).