The largest orogen in model PB2002, running from the Zagros through Tibet to Burma. Deformation across it is distributed over thousands of kilometres, which is why a rigid-plate description fails there and why Bird’s subduction criteria explicitly exclude the Zagros, Pamirs, Himalaya and Tien Shan.
The thirteen regions model PB2002 calls orogens, shown over faint plate outlines. In that model an orogen is a region where deformation is distributed rather than confined to a boundary, so the rigid-plate description fails there. These are NOT orogenic belts: their outlines delimit the limits of a model, not the extent of any geological province, and Bird gives them spelled-out names specifically to prevent confusion with plates. Several of them — Alps, Persia–Tibet–Burma — coincide with mountain belts, because distributed deformation and mountains have a common cause; the coincidence is not an identity.
Figure by Lithoen. Plate model PB2002 from Bird (2003), doi:10.1029/2001GC000252; GIS conversion by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil, ODC-By 1.0. Made with Natural Earth. Underlying data remain under their own licences. · LITHOEN-ORIGINAL · Derivative: Generated from published Lithoen spatial records by scripts/generate-maps.ts; no coordinate was edited by hand. Features spanning ±180° are split for rendering only; the stored geometry is unchanged.
Classification
region kind
diffuseDeformationZone
domain realm
asia
How this is mapped
One published representation of where Persia–Tibet–Burma diffuse deformation zone is. Each is one interpretation, by one identified source, at one scale — not the shape of the thing itself.
Tectonic model geometry
Polygon · 315 positionspreferred for publication
Geometry that exists because a model defines it — a rigid-plate outline, a zone where a model declares itself inapplicable. It is a property of the model, and changes when the model is revised. It is present-day geometry from a present-day model; a palaeogeographic reconstruction is a different thing and Lithoen does not hold one.
The outline of the "Persia-Tibet-Burma" orogen in model PB2002 (Bird, 2003). In that model an orogen is a region where the rigid-plate description does not apply because deformation is distributed, so this outline delimits where a MODEL stops working — it is not the extent of a mountain belt and carries no claim about crustal structure, age or thickness. Digitised by by Peter Bird, October 2001.
Boundary certainty
DefinedThe boundary is fixed by a definition rather than found in the field — a model boundary, a stated coordinate limit, an administrative extent of a survey. It is exactly where it says it is, because it is a definition.
Status of this geometry
modelledThe status of the geometry, which need not match the status of what the entity’s claims assert.
Dataset
PB2002 plates, boundaries and orogens as GeoJSON (fraxen/tectonicplates)Plate model PB2002 from Bird (2003), doi:10.1029/2001GC000252; GIS conversion by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil, ODC-By 1.0.
What was done to this geometry
By Lithoen — Coordinates rounded to 4 decimal places, about 11 m of longitude at the equator.
Before it reached Lithoen — Digitised by Peter Bird for model PB2002; the outlines delimit where the model declares itself inapplicable.
Before it reached Lithoen — The GIS conversion (Ahlenius, ODC-By 1.0) split segments spanning the -180/180 meridian and moved them, as its README states.
How this record is known
1
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.
1 of 1 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.
What Lithoen records
Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.
EstablishedA PB2002 orogen marks where a plate model does not apply, not where a mountain belt is.
General principle, shown here for context — not an observation about this record.
The regions PB2002 calls orogens are not orogenic belts. In that model an orogen is an area where the rigid-plate description fails because deformation is distributed rather than confined to a boundary, and its outline delimits where the model stops working. The names overlap with mountain belts because distributed deformation and mountains have a common cause, but the definitions are different and the outlines are not interchangeable.
precision note: Bird gives orogens spelled-out names specifically, in his words, "to help prevent confusion between orogens and plates". Lithoen records them under regionKind diffuseDeformationZone for the same reason.
generality: GENERAL_PRINCIPLE
Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence· one source
