The first is the continental suturing from soft collision through hard collision to deep subduction, leading to crustal shortening through slice thrusting mainly at 55–45 Ma in the Early Cenozoic.

Continental plates are usually quite thick (between 35 to 70 km) compared to the much thinner oceanic plates (between ... coastline of South America. Collision zones close collision zoneA ...

Three such collision zones form the Himalaya ... including the loss of continental margin with the detached oceanic slab, continental subduction and dripping, a process whereby 'blobs' of ...