Crust and Mantle Flow From Central Tibetan Plateau to the Indo‐Burma Subduction Zone.

The extremely oblique Indo‐Burma subduction zone exhibits dextral strike‐slip faulting along the Sagaing, Kabaw, and Churachandpur‐Mao Faults as well as east‐west shortening between the Sagaing Fault and Bengal Basin. Through regional stress analysis, considering areas from central Tibet, around the eastern Himalaya Syntaxis, to Burma, it has been determined that the principal compressive stress directions align with the principal strain rates. The northeast‐southwest oriented compressive stress direction from the western Shan Plateau continues into Burma. Notably, P axes align with the topographic gradients, and T axes are sub‐parallel to the topographic contours in the Shan Plateau region south of 27°N. These stress patterns are consistent with a gravitational potential energy induced crustal and mantle flow. The alignment of the fast shear wave with the maximum strain rate and the colinear NW‐SE to E‐W fast direction of the SKS wave and T axis determined from focal mechanisms in the Shan Plateau suggest that the mantle lithosphere deforms in concert with the crust. We suggest crust and mantle flow south of the Red River Fault has resulted in widening of the lithosphere in the Shan Plateau in an east‐west direction. Therefore, the Sagaing Fault has bowed approximately 50–100 km westward if we assume that the Sagaing Fault was originally straight. Our results of regional stress inversion are consistent with late Miocene to present E‐W shortening in the Indo‐Burma subduction zone resulting from the release of gravitational potential energy from the central Tibetan Plateau. Plain Language Summary: The movements of the Earth's crust in the Indo‐Burma region are partially caused by India sliding underneath southeast Asia at an angle. The Sagaing Fault, along with other strike‐slip faults in the Indo‐Burma area, accommodates the motion of India and Asia. Even though India and Asia pushing together mostly causes east‐west compression in Burma and the far east of Bangladesh, only about half of the displacement comes from their collision. It's unclear what causes the remaining east‐west displacement. We suggest that the additional compression in Bangladesh and Burma happens because of the collapse of the Tibet Plateau and the flow of the Earth's lithosphere out of central Tibet. Key Points: The E‐W shortening of the Burma Plate is an effect of the release of gravitational potential energy from the central Tibetan PlateauGeometry and kinematics of the sinistral faulting in the Shan Plateau are consequences of radially directed compression from fan‐shaped lithospheric flowLithospheric flow around the southeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau has affected stress in northern southeast Asia and Burma [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]