Teleseismic P-wave tomography of lithospheric mantle beneath west Kunlun orogenic belts

3-D seismic velocity structure of lithospheric mantle beneath the western Kunlun orogenic belt and its foreland was obtained by a tomographic method using P-wave arrival times from 86 teleseismic events recorded by 14 broad-band stations, which were deployed by Xinjiang Global Geoscience Transect Project in the west Kunlun orogenic belts and the southern margin of Tarim basin during 1997 ∼ 1998. Combined with the previous seismological studies in the region, our results show that the lithospheric mantle beneath the west Kunlun orogenic belts is perhaps the frontier of the subducted lithospheric mantle of the Indian Plate. The image along 80°E in the study area clearly shows that the lithospheric mantle beneath west Kunlun orogenic belts with high-velocity anomaly collided with that of the Tarim blocks in the front of Eurasia Plate with low-velocity anomaly, in the depth range of 150 to 300km.