Slab detachment

[1] The isostatic response to the detachment of the downgoing slab is rapid uplift.

Slab detachment is also followed by the upwelling of relatively hot asthenosphere to fill the gap created, leading in many cases to magmatism.

[2] The uncritical use of the slab-detachment model to explain disparate observations of magmatism, uplift and exhumation in continental collision zones has been criticised.

The propagation of the detachment will be accompanied by lateral migration of both the associated uplift and the magmatism.

[5] Such laterally propagating tears have been recognised from several collision zones, such as the Hindu Kush part of the Himalayan Belt.