Active faulting south of the Himalayan Front: Establishing a new plate boundary

Abstract

New tectonic uplifts south of the Salt Range Thrust and Himalayan Front Thrust (HFT) represent an outward step of the plate boundary from the principal tectonic displacement zone into the Indo-Gangetic Plain. In Pakistan, the Lilla Anticline deforms fine-grained overbank deposits of the Jhelum River floodplain 15 km south of the Salt Range. The anticline is overpressured in Eocambrian non-marine strata. In northwest India south of Dehra Dun, the Piedmont Fault (PF) lies 15 km south of the HFT. Coalescing fans derived from the Himalaya form a piedmont (Old Piedmont Zone) 15–20 km wide east of the Yamuna River. This zone is uplifted as much as 15–20 m near the PF, and bedding is tilted 5–7° northeast. Holocene thermoluminescence-optically-stimulated luminescence dates for sediments in the Old Piedmont Zone suggest that the uplift rate might be as high as several mm/a. The Old Piedmont Zone is traced northwest 200 km and southeast another 200 km to the Nepal border. These structures, analogous to protothrusts in subduction zones, indicate that the Himalayan plate boundary is not a single structure but a series of structures across strike, including reactivated parts of the Main Boundary Thrust north of the range front, the HFT sensu stricto, and stepout structures on the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Displacement rates on all these structures must be added to determine the local India-Himalaya convergence rate.