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1. The India-Asia collision results from two possible pre-collisional crustal configurations of northern Greater India

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2023.118098  

   Li, Yipeng; Robinson, Delores M. (May 2023, Earth and Planetary Science Letters)

   Interpretations of pre-collisional configurations of Greater India are highly controversial and predict distinct processes during the India-Asia collision. To better determine the possible pre-collisional configuration(s) of Greater India, we conduct a mass-balance analysis combined with previously published geologic, paleomagnetic, and geodynamic evidence. The mass-balance analysis determines the magnitude of northern Greater India (NGI) width needed to provide sufficient crustal accretion to form the Tethyan-Greater Himalaya orogenic wedge in Cenozoic time. Applying endmember crustal thicknesses of 10–40 km to a mass-balance equation yields a broad range of plausible pre-collisional NGI widths of ∼3016±1000 km and ∼956±283 km, respectively, which we further assess considering contrasting models/evidence. The integrated evidence requires a thin NGI continental crust to form 1) continuous Tethyan-Greater Himalayan crustal thickening, 2) a narrow foredeep width of Himalayan foreland basin, 3) continuous Gangdese arc magmatism with oceanic-subduction-style mantle wedge, and 4) low-magnitude exhumation in the North Himalaya and Gangdese arc-forearc from ∼60-30 Ma. Adding the structurally restored ∼740 km wide southern Greater India, the synthesized analyses yield two possible configurations: 1) an ∼1350±440 km wide and ∼23-30 km thick NGI indicating an ∼2080±450 km wide Greater India with ∼500-1000 km wide oceanic basin systems in both Asia and NGI; and 2) a ≥1815±630 km wide and ∼10-23 km thick Zealandia-type NGI indicating a ≥2550±640 km wide pre-collisional Greater India without or with limited ∼500-1000 km Xigaze back-arc oceanic basin. The former is conditionally consistent with the integrated evidence by assuming no Cenozoic oceanic subduction initiation within NGI and predicts multi-stage collision since ∼60 Ma. The latter is consistent with the integrated evidence and predicts an approximate-single-stage collision at ∼60 Ma. Both configurations predict significant post-collisional NGI crustal shortening that may have been accommodated by the Eocene-Oligocene Greater Himalayan structural discontinuities. 

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2. Three-dimensional kinematics of the India–Eurasia collision

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00815-4  

   Wang, Lifeng; Barbot, Sylvain (December 2023, Communications Earth & Environment)

   Abstract The collision between India and Eurasia mobilizes multiple processes of continental tectonics. However, how deformation develops within the lithosphere across the Tibetan Plateau is still poorly known and a synoptic view is missing. Here, we exploit an extensive geodetic observatory to resolve the kinematics of this diffuse plate boundary and the arrangement of various mechanisms down to upper-mantle depths. The three-dimensional velocity field is compatible with continental underthrusting below the central Himalayas and with delamination rollback below the western syntaxis. The rise of the Tibetan Plateau occurs by shortening in the Indian and Asian crusts at its southern and northwestern margins. The subsidence of Central Tibet is associated with lateral extrusion and attendant lithospheric thinning aided by the downwelling current from the opposite-facing Indian and Asian collisions. The current kinematics of the Indian-Eurasian collision may reflect the differential evolution of the inner and outer Tibetan Plateau during the late Cenozoic. 

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3. The science case for LIGO-India

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/ac3b99  

   Saleem, M; Rana, Javed; Gayathri, V; Vijaykumar, Aditya; Goyal, Srashti; Sachdev, Surabhi; Suresh, Jishnu; Sudhagar, S; Mukherjee, Arunava; Gaur, Gurudatt; et al (December 2021, Classical and Quantum Gravity)

   Abstract The global network of gravitational-wave detectors has completed three observing runs with ∼50 detections of merging compact binaries. A third LIGO detector, with comparable astrophysical reach, is to be built in India (LIGO-Aundha) and expected to be operational during the latter part of this decade. Such additions to the network increase the number of baselines and the network SNR of GW events. These enhancements help improve the sky-localization of those events. Multiple detectors simultaneously in operation will also increase the baseline duty factor, thereby, leading to an improvement in the detection rates and, hence, the completeness of surveys. In this paper, we quantify the improvements due to the expansion of the LIGO global network in the precision with which source properties will be measured. We also present examples of how this expansion will give a boost to tests of fundamental physics. 

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4. The controlling factors of urban heat in Bengaluru, India

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100881  

   Sussman, Heather S.; Dai, Aiguo; Roundy, Paul E. (July 2021, Urban Climate)
5. First rhynchocephalian (Reptilia, Lepidosauria) from the Cretaceous–Paleogene of India

   https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2022.2118059  

   Anantharaman, S.; DeMar, David G.; Sivakumar, R.; Dassarma, Dilip Chandra; Wilson Mantilla, Gregory P.; Wilson Mantilla, Jeffrey A. (June 2022, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology)