Geology of Nepal

 Geological division of Nepal

 Engineering geological problem of each geological division of Nepal
 Major rock type, soil type, construction material and geological structure
found in different geological division of Nepal
 Geological Division of Nepal
• The Geology of Nepal is dominated by the Himalaya the
highest, youngest and a very highly active mountain range
(Upreti 2014). Himalaya is a type locality for the study of on-
going continent - continent collision tectonics.
• Since 55 Ma the Himalayan orogeny beginning with the
collision of Indian subcontinent and Eurasia at
the Paleocene/Eocene epoch (Rowley 1996), has thickened the
Indian crust to its present thickness of 70 m (230 ft) (Le Fort
1975).
• The Himalaya range is about 2400 km. long and extends from
Indus rive of Pakistan in the west to Assam in east. The
Himalaya belt is the results of collision of two tectonic plates,
Indian plate and Tibetan plate on the north. Before the collision
of the plates, the place was occupied by Tethys Sea. The
collision of the plates was still going on.
 Geological division of Nepal
Geologically Nepal Himalayas can sub-divide in to
five tectonic zones from south to north. The
tectonic are extending east to west and almost
parallel to sub-parallel. The zones are as follows.
1. Indo-gangetic plain or terai zone
2. Sub Himalayas or siwaliks or churia zone
3. Lesser Himalayan zone
4. Higher Himalayan zone
5. Tibetan-Tethys-zone
Geological Map of Nepal
 Indo-Gangetic plain
• The gangetic plain is also called the Terai which is a rich, fertile and ancient
land in the southern parts of Nepal.
• It represents Holocene/Recent sedimentation belt where fluvial
sedimentation is still in progress.
• This plain is less than 200 m above sea level and has thick (about 1500 m)
alluvial deposit.
• The alluvial deposits mainly consists of boulders, gravel, sand, silt and clay.
• It is a foreland basin which consists of the sediments brought down from
the northern part of Nepal.
• It is the Nepalese extension of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, which covers
most of northern and eastern India, the most populous parts of Pakistan,
and virtually all of Bangladesh. The Plains get their names from the rivers
Ganges and Indus.
• The vast alluvial plains of the Indo-Gangetic Basin evolved as a foreland
basin in the southern part of the rising Himalaya, before breaking up along
a series of steep faults known as the Himalayan Frontal Fault (Nakata
1989) or the Main Frontal Thrust (HFT) (Gansser 1981).
• It comprises several sub-basins and all of them are quite shallow towards
the south, but rather deep in the northern sections.
 Sub-Himalaya (Siwaliks)
• The Sub-Himalayan Sequence borders the Indo-Gangetic
Floodplain along the Himalayan Frontal Fault and is dominated by
thick Late Tertiary mollassic deposits known as the Siwaliks that
resulted from the accumulating fluvial deposits on the southern
front of the evolving Himalaya.
• In Nepal, it extends throughout the country from east to west in
the southern part.
• It is delineated by the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) and Main
Boundary Thrust (MBT) in south and north respectively.
• The youngest sediments on the top are the conglomerates, and
the sandstones and mudstones are dominant in the lower
portions.
• The upward coarsening sequence of the sediments obviously
exhibit the time-history in the evolution and growth of the
Himalaya during the early Tertiary time (Gansser 1964).
• The Sub Himalayan zone is the 10 to 25 km wide belt of Neogene
Siwaliks (or Churia) group rocks forming the topographic front of
the Himalaya.
 Siwalik Contd……..
• It rises from the fluvial plains of the active
foreland basin, and this front generally mapped as
the trace of the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT).
• The Siwaliks Group consists of upward-coarsening
successions of fluvial mudstone, siltstone,
sandstone, and conglomerate.
• According to lithology, this unit is further divided
into three zones as follows:-
• Upper Siwaliks: consists of Conglomerate
• Middle Siwaliks: consists of coarse sandstone
• Lower Siwaliks: consists of fine sandstone,
mudstone
 Lesser Himalayas
• The Lesser Himalayas lies in between the Sub-Himalayas and
Higher Himalayas separated by the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT)
and the Main Central Thrust (MCT) respectively.
• The total width ranges from 60–80 km. The Lesser Himalayas is
made up mostly of the unfossiliferous sedimentary and
metasedimentary rocks; such as shale, sandstone,
conglomerate, slate, phyllite, schist, quartzite, limestone and dolo
mite.
• The rocks range in age from Precambrian to Miocene. The geology
is complicated due to folding, faulting and thrusting and are largely
unfossiliferous.
• Tectonically, the entire Lesser Himalayas consists of two sequences
of rocks: allochthonous, and autochthonous-paraautochthonous
units; with various nappes, klippes and tectonic windows.
• The northernmost boundary of the Siwaliks Group is marked by
the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), over which the low-grade
metasedimentary rocks of the Lesser Himalaya overlie.
 Contd……..
• The Lesser Himalaya, also called the Lower Himalaya, or the
Midlands, is a thick (about 7 km) section of para-autochthonous
crystalline rocks made up of low- to medium grade rocks.
• These lower Proterozoic clastic rocks (Parrish & Hodges 1996) are
subdivided into two groups.
• Argillo-arenaceous rocks dominate the lower half of the
succession, whereas the upper half consists of
both carbonate and siliciclastic rocks (Hagen (1969); Le Fort
1975; Stöcklin 1980).
• The Lesser Himalaya thrust over the Siwaliks along the MBT to the
south, and is overlained by the allochthonous thrust sheets of
Kathmandu and HHC along the MCT.
• The Lesser Himalaya is folded into a vast post-
metamorphic anticlinal structure known as the Kunchha-
Gorkha anticlinorium (Pêcher 1977). The southern flank of the
anticlinorium is weakly metamorphosed, whereas the northern
flank is highly metamorphosed.
 Higher Himalaya
• It consists of huge pile of strongly high grade metamorphosed
rocks and is situated in between the fossiliferous Tibetan
sedimentary zone in the north and MCT in south.
• It consists of about 10km thick succession of crystalline rock
of Himalaya extending continuously along the entire length of
the country, whereas the width is about 20 km.
• It consists of essentially high grade crystalline rocks including
various kinds of gneiss, schist and magnetite in Nepal.
• This zone covers 14 peaks of Himalaya.
• The age of rocks found in Higher Himalaya zone is Pre-
Cambrian and the granite was intruded in Tertiary period as
determined by radio-metric dating.
• Ganser (1964) has divided the Higher Himalaya Zone into two
sections:
• a) Kaligandaki Section
• b) Everest Section
 Tibetan-Tethys Himalayas
• The Tibetan-Tethys Himalayas generally begins from the top of the
Higher Himalayan Zone and extends to the north in Tibet.
• In Nepal these fossiliferous rocks are well developed in Thak
Khola (Mustang), Manang and Dolpa area.
• This zone is about 40 km wide and composed of fossiliferous
sedimentary rocks such as shale, sandstone and limestone etc.
• The area north of the Annapurna and Manaslu ranges in central
Nepal consists of metasediments that overlie the Higher
Himalayan zone along the South Tibetan Detachment system.
• It has undergone very little metamorphism except at its base
where it is close to the Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks.
• The thickness is currently presumed to be 7,400 m (Fuchs, Widder
& Tuladhar 1988).
• The rocks of the Tibetan Tethys Series (TSS) consist of a thick and
nearly continuous lower Paleozoic to lower Tertiary marine
sedimentary succession. The rocks are considered to be deposited
in a part of the Indian passive continental margin (Liu & Einsele
1994).
 Engineering Geological Problem
Terai
• The Terai is made up of recent river deposits and consists of coarse
sediment in the north, near to the base of Siwaliks Range and fine in the
south, near to the Indian border to Nepal. The elevation of Terai ranged
from 65 m in eastern Nepal to 200 m in western Nepal with broad plain
area.
• All rivers of Nepal drain to the Ganga River of India through the Terai. As a
result, every year, Terai is facing extreme problems of floods and river bank
erosion.
• Area near to the Siwaliks Range is also confronting problems of debris
flows. Moreover, both small and large rivers have shown channel shifting
nature in the last 300 years.
• Riverbeds in the Terai may rise at annual rates of 15 to 30 cm, and satellite
imagery clearly shows that the Koshi River in eastern Nepal has shifted
about 125 km west of its original course in 250 years (Joshi, 1985). Thus,
river channel management during road construction is main geological
engineering issue of Terai.
• In 18 August, 2008, the Koshi River now changed its route and started to
flow through the channel before 51 year ago. As a results, nearly
150,00,000 people were displaced from the area both in India and Nepal.
 Siwalik
• The Siwalik (Churia) Range is made up of geologically very young
sedimentary rocks such as mudstones, shale, sandstones, siltstones
and conglomerates. These rocks are soft, unconsolidated and easily
disintegrable.
• The Upper Siwalik contains thick beds of conglomerates and they are
loose and fragile.
• Similarly Lower Siwalik and Middle Siwalik have problem from
alternating beds of mudstones and sandstone. In such alternating
bands, mudstone can flow when saturated with water which results
overhanging sandstone beds. Such overhang jointed sandstone beds
easily disintegrate into blocks.
• Similarly, throughout Nepal, the rainfall within Churia Range is
normally in the range of 2000 to 2500 mm per year. As a result,
geological conditions and the climate render the Churia Range highly
susceptible for landslides processes.
• Basically, rock failures, shallow slides and debris flows are common in
Siwaliks.
 Lesser Himalaya
• The Mahabharat Range is belongs to the Lesser Himalayan Zone. It is the
most important barrier of the monsoon clouds and it greatly influences the
rainfall distribution pattern in Nepal.
• Almost in whole Nepal, southern face of Mahabharata Range gets extensive
rainfall in comparison to Midland.
• The annual rainfall in Mahabharat Range area is comparatively higher and
the frequency of high intensity rainfall is also high. Thus, these areas are
getting extensive problem of floods, debris flows and shallow landslides.
These events are periodically causing big disasters.
• Disaster of south and south east Kathmandu in 1993 and disaster of the
Mugling-Narayanghat Road in 2003 are examples of such problems.
• Not only rainfall but geological condition and very steep slopes also plays
major role to soil slips and debris flows in the Mahabharat Range.
• It is noticed that the area made up of rocks such as limestone, dolomite
marble and granites, the slopes are more stable in the Mahabharat Range
whereas area consisting of rocks such as phyllites, slates, intercalation of
phyllites and quartzites render the terrain most prone to landslides.
 Higher Himalaya
• The Fore Himalaya is a northern part of Midlands and it is the frontal portion of the
Higher Himalaya.

• Geologically, it is generally belongs to the Lesser Himalayan Zone in many places

and in some places it is the Higher Himalayan Zone. Thus, main rock types of this
province are phyllites, schists, marble, quartzites, and gneisses.

• Tectonically, this zone is very active and uplifting at a high rate and the topography
is steep and rugged. Similarly, like the south faced slope of the Mahabharat Range,
the Fore Himalaya also gets high rainfall in the range between 2000 to 3500 mm.

• This province is also another vulnerable area for landslide occurrence, but because
of less soil on steep slope, mainly rock related failure problems are very frequent.

• Deep seated landslides are also common in this zone. Some landslide dams can be
also noticed in narrow river valleys of this province.
 Tibetan-Tethys Himalayan
• The province behind (north) the Higher Himalaya is called Trans
Himalaya. Geologically, this province
belongs to the Tibetan-Tethys Himalayan Zone.
• This area is situated in the rain shadow zone of the greater Himalayan
Range.
• This zone has average annual rainfall very low in comparison to the
Midlands and the Fore Himalaya.
• Thus soil related landslides are less frequent but debris flow in a
snow fed stream is quite common.
• The river bank made of alluvial and glacial moraine possesses bank
failure problem.
 Soil and Types
• Terai Alluvium
• Mountain soil
• Residual soil
• Colluvium soil
 Structures
• HFT
• MBT
• CCT
• MCT
• STDs
• Others
• Primary and secondary structures
• Major and minor folds
• Joint, cracks, fractures etc
• Others Faults/thrusts
 Terai
• Main hazard: River flooding

• Control
– Use of civil engineering structures.
– Proper drainage management.
 Siwalik
• Main hazard: Soil erosion, especially sheet, rill and gully erosion and
landslide.
• Causes:
– Soft and fragile nature of rocks
– High slope
– active tectonic stress (MFT),
– Immature topography
– Toe cutting of Rivers
– Hill cutting during road constructions etc.
• Control:
• By using civil engineering structures
• Bio- engineering
• Drainage managemant
• Detail geological investigation before construction works.
 Lesser Himalaya
• Main hazard:
– Landslide i.e. mainly slope failure and debris flow
– Soil erosion
– Toe cutting action of rivers
 Cause
 High slope
 Presence of geological structure such as folds, faults, joints etc.
 Activity of MBT and MCT (Seismicity)
 Inherently weak geological setting (i.e. harder rocks above softer)
 Concentrated precipitation
 Deforestation
 Improper landuse etc.
Control
 By using civil engineering structure ( Retaining structure)
 management of drainage
 Bio engineering
 Detail site investigation before construction work.
 Higher Himalaya
• Main Hazards
– Rock fall
– GOLF ( Glacier Lake Outburst Floods)

Control
 By using civil engineering structure
 By monitoring, locating and controling the possible
glacier lakes.