The Cenozoic India-Eurasia collision has had profound impacts on shaping the Tibetan plateau, but its early history remains controversial due to uneven availability of constraints. Recent plate reconstructions reveal two prominent counterclockwise rotation (azimuthal change) rate peaks of the Indian plate at 52-44 and 33-20 Ma, respectively, which could bear key information about this collision history. Using fully dynamic three-dimensional numerical modeling, we show that the first rotation rate peak reflected the initial diachronous collision from the western-central to eastern Indian front, and the second peak reflected the full collision leading to strong coupling between India and Eurasia. Further comparison with observation suggests that the initial and complete India-Eurasia collision likely occurred at 55 ± 5 and 40 ± 5 Ma, respectively, an inference consistent with key geological observations. We suggest that this collision history is instructive for studying the tectonic history of the Tibetan plateau and its surrounding areas.

新生代印度-欧亚大陆碰撞对青藏高原的形成产生了深远的影响，但由于约束条件不均匀，其早期历史仍然存在争议。最近的板块重建揭示了印度板块的两个突出的逆时针旋转（方位角变化）速率峰值，分别位于 52-44 Ma 和 33-20 Ma，这可能包含有关这次碰撞历史的关键信息。利用全动态三维数值模型，我们发现第一个自转速率峰值反映了从中西部到东部印度锋线的初始穿时碰撞，第二个峰值反映了导致印度与欧亚大陆强耦合的全面碰撞。与观测结果的进一步比较表明，印度-欧亚大陆的初始和完整碰撞可能分别发生在55±5 Ma和40±5 Ma，这一推论与关键地质观测结果一致。我们认为这段碰撞历史对于研究青藏高原及其周边地区的构造历史具有指导意义。