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Himalayan Tectonics - an introduction
M. P. S E A R L E 1 & P. J. T R E L O A R 2
1 Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK
2 School of Geological Sciences, Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey
KT1 2EE, UK
The Himalaya are renowned as an excellent
example of the effects of continent-continent
collision, in this case, the results of the closure of
Tethys and the subsequent collision and inden-
tation of the Indian plate into the collage of
plates or terranes that made up Central Asia
some 50 Ma ago. Although the Himalayan chain
has long been recognized as a spectacular ex-
ample of the result of this collision, its effects are
recognized over a much larger region than that
of the Himalaya alone.
Since initial collision with Asia, India has
moved northwards for a further 2000 km, result-
ing not only in compressional tectonics within
the Himalayan chain to the south of the Indus
suture, but in compression in the Karakoram,
Hindu Kush, Pamir, Kun Lun and Tien Shan
mountain ranges, as well as uplift of the 5 km
high Tibetan plateau. Earlier Palaeozoic or
Mesozoic suture zones across the Tien Shan,
Kun Lun and Tibet have been reactivated by the
collision of India with Asia as crustal thickening,
with associated regional metamorphism and
anatexis, spread north of the collision zone into
the Karakoram and Pamirs, as well as south
across the Himalaya. The totality, of crustal
shortening required by continued indentation of
India into Asia is accommodated by thrusting
and folding in the Himalaya as well as in the
mountain ranges to the north of the suture,
internal homogeneous thickening of Tibetan
lithosphere, partial underthrusting of the Indian
Plate beneath Tibet, and lateral eastward extru-
sion of Tibet and southeast Asia.
The Indus suture zone extends for at least
2500 km along the northern margin of the Hima-
laya in northern Pakistan, northwest India and
south Tibet, and marks the actual zone of
collision. Deep water Tethyan sediments, mel-
anges with both serpentinite and shaley matrix,
remnant ophiolites, blueschists and thick con-
tinental molasse deposits are all exposed along
the suture zone. In the Pakistan and western
Ladakh sector a large island-arc terrane, the
Dras-Kohistan-Nuristan arc, is sandwiched
within the Indus suture zone. West of Nanga
Parbat, Kohistan is bounded along the south by
the Main Mantle Thrust, deformation along
FromTRELOAR,P.J. & SEARLE,M.P. (eds), HimalayanTectonics
Geological Society Special Publication, No. 74, pp. 1-7.
which began at about 55 Ma ago, and along the
north by the Shyok suture zone which closed at
about 100 Ma ago.
The northern continental margin of the Indian
plate is exposed along the Zanskar Range, south
of the Indus suture zone and north of the High
Himalaya. It continues eastward into the Spiti
region and along the south Tibet border region
with both India and Nepal. These strongly
folded and thrust rocks are composed of a thick,
Mesozoic, dominantly shelf carbonate sequence
which overlie Palaeozoic sediments and Carbon-
iferous to Permian Panjal Trap volcanic rocks.
Early Tertiary marine limestones of Palaeocene
to Lower Eocone age are the youngest marine
sediments exposed, after which continental red-
bed deposition characterized both the Indian
shelf and the Indus suture zones. The Tethyan
Himalayan zone is bounded along the south or
southwest by the major South Tibetan detach-
ment system, a north-dipping extensional fault
that separates the sedimentary succession above
from the High Himalayan Central Crystalline
complex below.
The High Himalaya, or Tibetan Slab, is the
zone of regional metamorphic rocks, migmatites
and crustal melt derived leucogranites that cor-
responds to the belt of topographically highest
mountains. This northward-dipping slab is
bounded along its top, in the north, by the
normal fault, and along its base in the south by
the Main Central Thrust. Although the High
Himalaya is extremely difficult terrain in which
to work, there is surprisingly good accessibility
along the many valley systems which cut south-
wards through the High Himalaya. Many such
antecendent rivers rise on the Tibetan Plateau,
and drain south through the Himalaya into
either the Indus drainage system in the west or
the Ganges in the east. Metamorphic isograds
are the right way-up along the top of the slab
where they are exposed in Zanskar, and are
everywhere inverted along the Main Central
Thrust zone at the base of the slab. The larger
leucogranite bodies tend to be concentrated
along the top of the High Himalayan slab,
frequently forming some of the highest moun-
tains along the Himalaya, although in the east,
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2 M.P. SEARLE & P.J. TRELOAR
particularly in Bhutan, they intrude up into the
Tethyan sedimentary zone.
The Lesser Himalaya comprises the Pre-
cambrian and Palaeozoic sedimentary cover to
the Indian basement, intruded by early Palaeo-
zoic, mainly Cambrian granites, and exposed in
a series of south-vergent thrust sheets. The
Lesser Himalayan zone is bounded above by the
Main Central Thrust zone of inverted metamor-
phism, and along its base by the Main Boundary
Thrust that marks the southern topographic
limit of the Himalaya. The Main Boundary
Thrust places the Palaeozoic and Precambrian
rocks of the Lesser Himalaya over the late
Tertiary Siwalik molasse deposits of the Sub-
Himalayan zone. Thrusting has continued to
propagate southwards into the foreland, and is
particularly well-exposed in the Pakistan sector
in the west, notably in the Potwar Plateau and
Salt Ranges. Within the foreland basins, late
Tertiary, Quaternay and Recent folds and
thrusts, often related to spectacular geomorphic
features, extend around the Himalayan arc to
the Sulaiman and Kirthar Ranges in western
Pakistan, east of the Chaman fault system.
Karakoram and Afghanistan
geology
Over the years numerous Italian expeditions
have visited the Karakoram region. The first
three papers include data derived from the more
recent of these. Caporali describes recent grav-
ity measurements from two new gravimetric
profiles, one across the Aghil Range and Shaks-
gam region, north of K2, the other from Skardu
to Gilgit along the Biafo and Hispar glaciers.
Using GPS (Global Position System) satellites,
several astrogeodetic stations were established
for measuring the deflection of the vertical. The
data indicate a northward increase in depth to
the Moho across the Main Karakoram Thrust
into the Karakoram mountains. Zanchi de-
scribes the structural evolution of the north
Karakoram Permian to Cretaceous sediments
from the Chapursan and Shimshal valleys. Post-
Cretaceous north and northeast vergent folds
and thrusts have been cut by later south vergent
breakback thrusts and an important set of strike-
slip faults. East-west aligned faults show left-
lateral, sinistral slip, while NW-SE aligned
faults are right-lateral, showing dextral displace-
ments, similar to the Karakoram fault. Gaetani
et al. used the ages of the sedimentary rocks to
define the major deformation periods in the
northern Karakoram. The earliest is Liassic to
early-middle Jurassic and is probably related to
the Cimmeride collision of Gondwana-derived
micro-plates. A mid-Jurassic marine trans-
gression then covered the Karakoram and ma-
rine conditions lasted up to the late Cretaceous.
New discoveries of Campanian nannofossils
date the youngest marine sediments known from
the Karakoram.
Crawford & Searle describe the field re-
lations, geochemistry and isotope chemistry of
the post-collisional granites of the Hunza Kara-
koram. The Hunza dyke swarm consists of a
cogenetic suite of granodiorites, monzogranites
and leucogranites which are volatile-depleted,
non minimum melts similar to the Baltoro
pluton further east. The dykes intrude the early
phase of the Karakoram batholith as well as the
sillimanite-grade metamorphic rocks to the
south. The Sumayar pluton is a homogeneous,
water-saturated, minimum melt leucogranite
with abundant tourmaline and evolved Sr iso-
tope ratios, similar to the Manaslu leucogranite
in the High Himalaya of Nepal. Treloar & Izatt
provide a synthesis of the tectonics of Afghanis-
tan and western Pakistan. They argue that two
phases of Himalayan collision can be recognised
in the western part of the arc. The first one, at
about 55 Ma, involved collision of India with
Asia. However, collision between India and
Afghanistan did not occur until the Pliocene, a
conclusion indicated by the post-Miocene age of
deformation across much of southern and cen-
tral Afghanistan as well as in the Sulaiman
Ranges and Kohat Plateau of western Pakistan.
North and West Pakistan
Ahmed describes various leucocratic rocks, in
particular trondhjemites, from the Bela ophio-
lite complex in western Pakistan that is one of
the ophiolites emplaced onto the western and
northern margins of the Indian Plate during the
Palaeocene. He distinguishes between a
trondhjemitic suite fractionated from a basic
magma in a marginal basin, and a potassic suite
generated by anatexis during ophiolite em-
placement. As acidic plagiogranites from both
suites have similar U-Pb zircon ages of
65-4-1 Ma, he concludes that ophiolite em-
placement must have closely followed volcanism
in the marginal basin.
The geochemical evolution of rocks of the
Kohistan island arc are described in a number of
papers. Arif & Jan describe the chemistry of
podiform chromite within the serpentinized
ultramafic rocks of the Mingora ophiolitic mel-
ange located within the Main Mantle Thrust
zone in the Shangla area, to the west of the well
known Jijal Complex. Chromite chemistry is
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INTRODUCTION
consistent with a transition from ocean floor to
island arc, although these rocks have sub-
sequently undergone amphibolite to granulite
facies regional metamorphism. Jan et al. de-
scribe the Sapat layered mafic-ultramafic com-
plex which outcrops on the hanging wall of the
Main Mantle Thrust to the east of the Jijal
Complex. These rocks have many petrographi-
cal and mineralogical similarities to those of the
Jijal Complex, and like them are interpreted as
forming the base of the Kohistan terrane being
derived from an island-arc related magma
which, in Jijal, has been typified as a high-Mg
tholeiitic type that shows some form of inter-
action between oceanic lithosphere and island
arc magmatism. Khan et al. summarize the trace
element and rare earth element geochemistry of
both the Kamila amphibolite belt, which marks
the middle to lower island arc crust, and the
Chilas Complex. Approximately 40 Ma of sub-
duction-related intra-oceanic magmatism is pre-
served from the early MORB-related Kamila
amphibolite belt to the transitional tholeiite to
calc-alkaline plutons intruded during early
stages of arc growth. The extensive Chilas
complex gabbronorites were derived from par-
tial melting of a mantle diapir emplaced, most
probably, during early stages of sub-arc split-
ting. Later stages of back-arc splitting led to the
eruption of picrites and high-Mg basalts. Sulli-
van et al. reconstruct the palaeogeography of the
Dir Group, which marks the last stages of arc
magmatism and which forms the upper part of
the Kohistan arc. Following emplacement of
granitoid intrusions at about 80 Ma, there was a
hiatus in igneous activity until about 55 to 60 Ma,
when sediments of the Baraul Banda Slates were
deposited unconformably on the unroofed plu-
tons. During this hiatus from the late Cretaceous
to early Eocene, the locus of magmatism had
migrated northwards within the Kohistan arc.
The Baraul Banda Slates were deposited in an
extensional basin, deposition ceasing at about
the time that extrusion of the Utror volcanics
commenced. Basin development and the abun-
dance of rhyolites and pyroclastic flows suggests
that extensional tectonics predominated within
Kohistan during the early Eocene despite a
regionally compressive environment.
Five papers describe aspects of the geology of
the internal zones of the Indian Plate in North-
west Pakistan. Pognante et al. describe some
high-pressure regional metamorphic rocks along
the northeastern margin of the Nanga Parbat -
Haramosh syntaxis. These are part of a re-
gionally developed high to very high pressure
metamorphism, locally eclogitic, developed on
the footwall of the Main Mantle Thrust. This
3
metamorphism followed shortly after collision
and was followed by a rapid isothermal ex-
humation by processes as yet unidentified. This
metamorphic history is very different from that
of the High Himalaya to the east. George et al.
describe the northwestern margin of the Nanga
Parbat - Haramosh syntaxis. Post collisional
magmatic histories and magma source regions in
Kohistan are significantly different from those of
the Indian Plate rocks within the syntaxis.
Following the collision of Kohistan with the
Indian Plate, biotite granite sheets followed by
muscovite granite sheets were emplaced into the
Kohistan batholith at around 30 Ma. Tourma-
line lecuogranite dykes and plutons were em-
placed into the Nanga Parbat gneisses belonging
to the Indian plate at 2 to 12 Ma. Geochemistry
and Sr-Nd isotope systematics suggest that these
were the products of vapour-absent batch melt-
ing of pelites, probably Precambrian metase-
diments. The very recent, rapid exhumation of
the Nanga Parbat region may be linked to
decompression melting associated with high
heat productivity. Cronin et ai. present a linea-
ment map of the northern Nanga Parbat -
Haramosh massif based on Landsat imagery.
Although some of the lineaments relate to
known neotectonic faults, the majority appear
not to and there is clear scope for future
extensive fieldwork. DiPeitro et al. describe the
metamorphosed sedimentary sequence of the
Lower Swat region of north Pakistan, south of
the Main Mantle Thrust, which they relate to a
depositional history from the late Palaeozoic
breakup of Gondwana to Mesozoic passive
margin development and finally to drowning of
the shelf at the start of the Himalayan orogeny.
Greco & Spencer describe the stratigraphy,
structure and metamorphism of the Kaghan
Valley to the north of the Hazara Syntaxis and
provide a coloured map of much of this region of
the Northwest Himalaya.
Tethyan Himalaya
The Carboniferous to Permian rifting of Tethys
and the breakup of Gondwana is recorded in the
Panjal Traps of SE Zanskar and NW Spiti,
which, as described by Vannay & Spring, are
slightly evolved continental flood volcanics. In
addition to these lavas, the region contains the
Baralacha-la dyke swarm, a cogenetic suite of
tholeiitic to alkalic basalts which evolved by
fractional crystallisation and may have under-
gone some crustal contamination. They are
chemically dissimilar to the Panjal Traps with
which they cannot be comagmatic. The dykes
may predate extrusion of the Panjal Traps
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4 M.P. SEARLE & P.J. TRELOAR
basalts and could represent magmatism during
early stages of rifting of Tethys. Spring et al.
describe the Yunam granitic dykes that intrude
the Ordovician Thaple Fm. in SE Zanskar and
Lahoul. U-Pb zircon dating suggests an early
Permian age of magmatism, which they relate to
anorogenic magmatism during the Permo-
Triassic rifting of Tethys. Steck et al. present a
structural and stratigraphic synthesis of a section
across the eastern Zanskar shelf and Indus
suture zone in east Ladakh, based on detailing
mapping. They also provide an excellent colour
map of this transect and several detailed cross-
sections. Garzanti describes the sedimentary
evolution of the early Cretaceous Guimal Group
which he relates to the drowning of a passive
continental margin in the Zanskar Himalaya, as
well as being related to major magmatic and
tectono-eustatic events which affected the Tet-
hys Himalaya at this time. Robertson & Degnan
reconstructed the deep-water passive margin
rocks of the Lamayuru complex, exposed along
the Indus suture zone in Ladakh, and made
comparisons with other such passive margin
sequences, for example in the Oman mountains.
The Lamayuru complex rocks, despite being
structurally very complicated, can be restored to
their sedimentary position outboard of the
Zanskar shelf sediments.
High Himalaya
Papers by Pognante & Benna and Lombardo et
al. both deal with regional metamorphism in the
Everest-Makalu area of Nepal and south Tibet.
Crustal thickening and subduction caused the
main metamorphism in the High Himalaya zone
with migmatisation and in situ melting of the
leucogranites formed at medium pressure and
aided by fluids released during prograde meta-
morphism. Previously proposed models, dis-
cussed here, for both the location of the
leucogranites and the thermal history of the
High Himalaya, include the condutivity contrast
across the normal fault at the top of the slab, and
the recumbent folding and thrust imbrication of
isograds. The melting is interpreted by Lom-
bardo et al. as being synchronous with extension
along the South Tibetan Detachment Zone and
as being dominated by the dehydration melting
of muscovite during isothermal decompression.
Schneider & Masch describe the metamorphism
in the Manang area in the Marysandi valley of
central Nepal, where the metamorphic zonation
increases in grade down-structural section, at
the top of the slab. The fluid composition at the
base of the Tibetan Series was CO2 rich and
maximum temperatures based on carbonate
solvus thermometry were around 510-530 ° C.
Moving east to the Langtang area north of
Katmandu, Reddy et al. describe the meta-
morphic units and structural evolution of the
High Himalayan gneisses above the MCT zone.
Kyanite is the stable alumino-silicate phase
above the MCT, whereas sillimanitc is present at
higher structural levels. Microstructures show
that foliation development occurred during peak
metamorphism and was consistent with shearing
towards the SW. The apparent metamorphic
inversion resulted from tectonic juxtaposition
along high-temperature shear zones and later
brittle thrusts. Two sets of leucogranites are
recognised. An early set, intruded into silli-
manite-grade gneisses, are essentially layer
parallel in situ melts emplaced during top to SW
shearing. A later set, which intrude extensional
features, are more probably decompression
melts. Mapping of the upper Langtang valley
also showed the normal fault to be located
entirely within the Shisha Pangma region of
Tibet to the north of Langtang.
The High Himalayan leucogranites are one of
the most characteristic geological features of the
Himalaya. Although there are some 15-20 large-
scale individual plutons, such as Manaslu or
Makalu in Nepal and the Chomolhari and Mon-
lakarchung plutons in Bhutan, vast areas of the
High Himalaya at the top of the Tibetan slab
show migmatisation and intrusion of numerous
dykes and sills of leucogranite. Many of the
papers included in this volume (see Pognante &
Benna, Lombardo et al., Reddy et al., Harris et
al., Guillot et al., Patel et al.) argue that many of
these are decompression melts, intrusion of
which was synchronous with, or postdated,
extension within the upper parts of the High
Himalayan crystallines and along the normal
fault zone above them. If melting was truly
synchronous with extension, then thermo-
dynamics of melting reactions would be consist-
ent with melting being through vapour absent or
dehydration melting rather than vapour present
melting. The former reactions have positive
slopes in P - T space, readily crossed during
isothermal decompression, whereas the latter
have negative slopes. Harris etal. show, by using
isotope systematics and metamorphic phase
equilibria, that micaceous metasediments are
the most likely source rocks for the leuco-
granites, and that incongruent melting of musco-
vite is the most likely melt reaction. These
authors argue that as Rb/Sr ratios are between 3
and 6 for most Himalayan leucogranites, these
high ratios could not have formed under fluid-
present conditions. They therefore suggest that
fluid-absent melting occurred during fractional
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INTRODUCTION
melting, and that the migration of the granite
was aided by decompression melting. England &
Molnar discuss the problem of extensional fault-
ing in an overall compressive regime and provide
a number of possible explanations for its occur-
rence. Decrease of shear stresses on the MCT
caused by melting along the fault; reduction of
strength within the High Himalayan wedge
through devolatization reactions; elevation of
the Himalaya due to lithospheric delamination,
or by the transference of active motion onto
another structurally lower, fault could each have
resulted in normal faulting. They suggest that
normal faulting was responsible for most of the
exhumation and, consequently, also for anatexis
through decompression melting. On balance,
the most likely probable cause of normal faulting
was either uplift of the Himalaya or cessation of
slip along the MCT and transference of slip to a
new underlying fault.
Guillot et al. investigated the emplacement
mechanism of the Manaslu leucogranite using
field and magnetic data. They suggest that
granite emplacement post-dated the north-
dipping collapse structures and were more di-
rectly related to E - W dextral shearing. Searle et
al. working on the emplacement structures in
and around the Bhagirathi leucogranites in the
Garhwal Himalaya describe a series of low-
angle, en echelon, lensoidal intrusions around
the mountains of Shivling, Bhagirathi and
Thalay Sagar. Early coaxial mineral growth was
re-oriented by later non-coaxial deformation
associated with a major zone of ductile N N E -
SSW extension across the normal fault at the top
of the slab. The final emplacement level was
constrained by the density contrast between
melt and country rock, the thermal blanketing of
the Tethyan sediments above the fault and the
extensional stress field at higher structural
levels.
Along much of its strike length, the Higher
Himalayan Crystallines are bounded above by a
normal fault with downthrow to the north or
NE. In the Zanskar region, this fault is rep-
resented by the Zanskar shear zone which is
known to have acted as a major NE-dipping
normal fault during culmination of the High
Himalayan Central crystalline rocks along the
footwall. Patel et al. reinterpret this structure as
having had an earlier phase of top-to-SW thrust-
ing superposed by layer-parallel N E - S W exten-
sion during the later stages of deformation
associated with ramping onto the Lesser Hima-
layan foreland. Field photos in their paper imply
that melting and emplacement of leucogranite
sheets was synchronous with extension. Brown
& Nazarchuk studied the normal fault in the
5
Thakkola region of central Nepal. Here the
Annapurna normal fault is marked by a 2-3 m
thick ductile to brittle shear zone which separ-
ates kyanite-bearing gneisses and leucogranites
on the footwall from greenschist facies Tethyan
rocks on the hanging wall. Two stages of ex-
tensional shearing are recognized, the first a
mid-crustal ductile one and the second an upper
crustal brittle one which may have been ac-
companied by orogen parallel extension. Earlier
SW-verging isoclinal folds in the Tethyan sedi-
ments above the detachment have been refolded
by spectacular NE-vergent backfolds themselves
cut by later SW-vergent folds and thrusts. The
origin of the NE-vergent folds is unclear as they
could be related to orogen thickening rather
than gravitational collapse of the High Hima-
laya. If the latter were to be the case then a
period of compression must have separated two
distinct phases of extension.
Main Central Thrust
The problem of the inverted metamorphic gradi-
ent across the Main Central Thrust zone remains
one of the most fascinating geological phen-
omena in the Himalaya. Ever since the recog-
nition of an inverted metamorphic sequence
along the MCT in Nepal, models for the thermal
evolution of the thrust have been developed in
terms of the thrusting of hot rocks over cold.
What these models have tended to overlook are
significant differences in the metamorphism and
structural geometry of the thrust along strike. In
places there is a sharp discontinuity from am-
phibolite facies rocks on the hanging wall to
greenschist facies rocks on the footwall, whereas
elsewhere it has been described as a ductile shear
zone across which there is no clear metamorphic
break. Recent studies have provided evidence
for syn-metamorphic thrusting within the fault
zone, post-metamorphic thrusting within the
fault zone, and diachronous movement that
spans the regional metamorphic event. These
seeming disagreements about the relative age of
thrusting and metamorphism may result from a
number of possible explanations: it is possible
that the MCT has become a generic term for any
fault zone that separates the physiographic
lower Himalaya from the higher; it may have
become a generic term for any fault zone that
separates higher grade rocks from lower grade
ones regardless of the age of metamorphism; it
may be the same structure all along the chain,
but the age and extent of metamorphism may
vary along strike; the true structural relationship
may be difficult to establish due to poor ex-
posure in forested areas. It has been shown that
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6 M.P. SEARLE & P.J. TRELOAR
dissipative frictional heating at shear stresses of
>100 MPa may contribute significantly to the
development of inverted thermal sequences and
consequent inverted metamorphic isograds.
However, the logical consequence of this is that
differences in temperature between footwall and
hanging wall and of shear stress and slip rate may
result in substantial differences in the scale of the
thermal inversion. Part of the MCT problem
may lie in the resolution of these differences.
A number of papers in this volume are
relevant to this discussion. Grasemann shows,
through numerical modelling of the thermal
history of the Kulu Himalaya, that in a two-
dimensional solution using realistic convergence
rates of several centimetres a year, a tempera-
ture inversion does not occur. This contrasts
with the temperature inversion assumed by one
dimensional instantaneous thrust models. He
assumes that the High Himalayan metamor-
phism occurred before movement on the MCT
and that there must be a significant conductivity
contrast between different rock types which then
acted as a thermal barrier to the transport of
heat. Meier & Hiltner describe the MCT zone in
eastern Nepal as a zone, several hundred meters
wide, of intensively mylonitised rock showing
non-coaxial shearing. Although the main meta-
morphism in the high grade rocks on the MCT
hanging wall predating shearing, metamorphism
on the lower grade footwall both increases
upwards and, on the basis of garnet rotations,
was synchronous with the thrusting along the
MCT. Metcalfe presents constraints on the
pressure, temperature and timing of metamor-
phism and movement on the MCT zone, along
the Bhagirathi River transect in the Garhwal
Himalaya. Pressure and temperature both in-
crease sharply across the Vaikrita Thrust (MCT)
from south to north from c. 500 ° C to 770 ° C and
from 6 to 12 kbars, but decrease slightly with
increasing structural height to the north. The top
9 km (horizontal distance) of the slab remained
at roughly isothermal and isobaric conditions.
K-Ar muscovite cooling ages decrease to the
south and 4°Ar/39Ar hornblende ages show that
the MCT cooled through 500 ° C during the early
Miocene, but that structurally lower rocks have
not been heated above 500°C since the Pre-
cambrian. Morrison & Oliver emphasize that
metamorphism in the Lesser Himalaya was
largely Palaeozoic in age, both in Kumaun and
central Nepal. The Kathmandu klippe forms an
outlier of the Tibetan crustal slab resting on the
MCT and consists mainly of Precambrian and
Palaeozoic metasediments and granites where
the metamorphic zones are normal or right
way-up. As pressure increases upwards across
the MCT they argue that, in this most southerly
exposed part of the MCT, metamorphic in-
version is a structural feature and not a thermal
one. Two faults mark the MCT zone in this
vicinity. The structurally higher one that out-
crops to the north, the MCT1 which is equivalent
to the Vaikrita Thrust, shows the classic inverted
Himalayan metamorphism. By contrast the
structurally lower thrust, the MCT2 which out-
crops to the south, shows no effects of inverted
metamorphism.
Main Boundary Thrust, Lesser Himalaya
and beyond
The Main Boundary Thrust marks the southern
limit of the Lesser Himalaya and places Precam-
brian and Palaeozoic rocks southwards over the
Tertiary molasse of the Siwalik fold belt. Thrust-
ing has propagated even further south, into the
Indian foreland and this is most spectacularly
displayed in the Salt Ranges and Potwar Plateau
region in the west. Najman et al. describe the
early stages of foreland basin evolution in the
north Indian segment of the Lesser Himalaya.
During the late Cretaceous, a shallow shelf
carbonate marine transgression onlapped the
Precambrian to Palaeozoic basement of the
Indian plate. During the Late Eocene, clastic
sedimentation replaced marine carbonates,
marking the onset of uplift of the Himalaya.
Thrusting during the late Miocene to Quatern-
ary has placed these rocks over the fluvial
Siwalik Group sediments of the Sub-Himalaya
along the Main Boundary Thrust.
Much of the work recently done on the
development and deformation of foreland ba-
sins in the Himalayan external zones has concen-
trated on northern Pakistan where the foreland
basin is at its widest, where there is extensive
outcrop of Mesozoic and Cainozoic sequences,
good logistical support and access to subsurface
data acquired by petroleum exploration com-
panies. The emergent Main Boundary Thrust
system, exposed throughout India, Nepal and
around the Hazara syntaxis, cannot be followed
across northern Pakistan. Instead the boundary
between the Potwar Plateau and the hill ranges
to the north is now recognised as the erosional
effect of a stratigraphic break. The emergent
MBT trace presumably outcrops further south,
but is as yet unrecognized. A new phase of
deformation, that folds the MBT and thrust
imbricates on its hanging wall, has been recog-
nised although the cause of this folding remains
uncertain. Mapping and interpretation of indus-
try seismic data and well data across the Potwar
Plateau has highlighted a number of palaeo-
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INTRODUCTION
mountain fronts and deformation geometries
perpendicular to the strike of the basin. Lateral
changes in shortening geometry as well as un-
conformities in the Mio-Pliocene molasse have
been recognised, although opinions conflict as to
how these variations, breaks and oblique fronts
are related.
McDougall et al. constructed cross-sections
across the Main Boundary Thrust zone and
estimated over 60 km of internal shortening,
with 40 km of displacement along the thrust
itself, with a further minor amount accommo-
dated by blind thrusting south of the MBT. The
MBT is interpreted as having a very low angle of
dip. Although the MBT is currently inactive,
shortening of the MBT allochthon from the rear,
for instance in the Peshawar Basin, is currently
building up the critical taper of the thrust wedge.
Pivnik & Sercombe describe complex structural
patterns in the Kohat Plateau region of north-
western Pakistan that arise from the overprint-
ing of Miocene compression-related south-
verging structures by Plio-Pleistocene trans-
pressive structures that may date the initiation of
left lateral displacements across the Chaman
Fault between Afghanistan and the western
edge of the Indian Plate and which die out
eastward.
Further south in Baluchistan, the Triassic-
Pliocene sections of the Kirthar and Sulaiman
Ranges are interpreted as a shortened passive
margin. There is growing disagreement, though,
as to the geometry (thin skinned thrusting or
7
thick skinned basin inversion), amount (300 or
23 km) and timing (Oligocene or late Pliocene)
of this shortening. Jadoon et al. draw on surface
geology, well and seismic data to construct
cross-sections across foreland structures within
the Sulaiman Lobe of northwestern Pakistan. A
stratigraphic section about 10 km thick at the
deformation front is detached from the crystal-
line basement of the Indian Shield at the base of
the wedge. Structures within the Sulaiman Lobe
suggest an evolution from incipient fault-
propagation folds to broader concentric buckle
folds to duplex structures.
Much of the erosional detritus removed from
the southern flanks of the Himalaya are trans-
ported along river systems and deposited in the
two maj or fans of the Indus River in the west and
the Ganges river in the east. The Bengal Fan
occupies much of the Bay of Bengal between the
Coromandel coast of southeast India and the
Andaman Islands. France-Lanord et al. report
Sr, Nd, O and H isotope data from ODP Leg 116
cores, located at 1° S in the Bay of Bengal. They
conclude that the source of the Bengal Fan
sediments has not changed since the early
Miocene and that the major source was the High
Himalayan crystallines. The High Himalaya
must therefore have been a significant topo-
graphic feature since at least the early Miocene.
Minor variations in sedimentation and style
were probably a result of tectonic activity,
coupled with the effects of climate and sea-level
changes.