The progress in the study of continental dynamics of the Tibetan Plateau

Based on the previously research, the research group of Key Laboratory of Continental Tectonics and Dynamics has achieved lots of great progress in the study of the continental dynamics of the Tibetan Plateau, especially in the evolution of Tethys and the growth of the Tibetan Plateau during the past decade. These achievements can be summarized as follows:(1) The Hypothesis on Tibetan Plateau as a orogenic plateau was proposed; (2) the reconstruction of the tectonic framework and the Tibetan-Tethys system; (3) the discovery of in situ diamond and deep mantle-derived mineral group in the ophiolites distributed along the Neotethyan suture zone; (4) the understanding of the subduction mechanism of the Neotethy oceanic basins; (5) the role of magmatism formed in the early stage of the Indo-Asian collision for the exhumation of Himalaya; (6) the establishment of the 3D models of the collisional orogeny and exhumation of the Himalaya; (7) the new proposal on the extrusion of the SE Tibetan Plateau:‘crustal bending and decouple’; (8) the subduction-related, collision-related and continental gneiss domes with Tibetan Plateau; (9) the tectonic setting and the Wenchuan Earthquake mechanism on the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau; (10) Numerical modeling of the Indo-Asian collisional process. This paper aims to communicate with and stimulate interest among global geologists to make further development in the continental dynamics of the Tibetan Plateau.