The India-Eurasia collision is a first order tectonic event, which reorganised plate boundaries in SE Asia and resulted in the formation of the Himalayas and crustal thicknesses that are double the global average.
However, the timing of the initial collision between the two continents remains controversial, with estimates ranging from ~ 60 Ma to 35 Ma.
By implementing competing kinematic scenarios of the India-Eurasia convergence and linking these to mantle convection models allows us to determine which scenario better predicts the present-day mantle structure beneath the geographic collision window. The method allows us to test alternative collision scenarios where the present-day geology is complex and other vital evidence (such as preserved seafloor) has been destroyed by extreme deformation.