Right-lateral shear and rotation as the explanation for strike-slip faulting in eastern Tibet

Bounds are placed here on the rate of rotation proposed by Cobbold and Davy (1988) for the major strike-slip faults in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. It is also concluded here that the image of lateral transport on such faults, known also as continental escape, extrusion, or expulsion, is an illusion, and that instead the left-lateral slip on east-striking plates in eastern Tibet is a manifestation of north-striking right-lateral simple shear. If this conclusion is correct, the east-striking left-lateral faults and the crustal blocks between them are rotating clockwise at 1-2 deg/Myr, the east-west dimension of eastern Tibet is shortening at 10-20 mm/yr, and little material is moving eastward out of India's path into Eursasia by left-lateral simple shear.