Doming in compressional orogenic settings: New geochronological constraints from the NW Himalaya

Abstract

In the central and southeastern parts of the Himalayas, the High Himalayan Crystalline (HHC) high‐grade rocks are mainly exhumed in the frontal part of the range, as a consequence of a tectonic exhumation controlled by combined thrusting along the Main Central Thrust (MCT) and extension along the South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS). In the NW Himalaya, however, the hanging wall of the MCT in the frontal part of the range consists mainly of low‐ to medium‐grade metasediments (Chamba zone), whereas most of the amphibolite facies to migmatitic gneisses of the HHC of Zanskar are exposed in a more internal part of the orogen as a large‐scale dome structure referred to as the Gianbul dome. This Gianbul dome is cored by migmatitic paragneisses formed at peak conditions of 800°C and 8 kbar. This migmatitic core is symmetrically surrounded by rocks of the sillimanite, kyanite ± staurolite, garnet, biotite, and chlorite mineral zones. The structural data from the Miyar‐Gianbul Valley section reveal that the Gianbul dome is bounded by two major converging thrust zones, the Miyar Thrust Zone and the Zanskar Thrust Zone, which were reactivated as ductile zones of extension referred to as the Khanjar Shear Zone (KSZ) and the Zanskar Shear Zone (ZSZ), respectively. Geochronological dating of monazites from various migmatites and leucogranite in the core of the Gianbul dome indicates ages between 26.6 and 19.8 Ma. These results likely reflect a high‐temperature stage of the exhumation history of the HHC of Zanskar and consequently constrain the onset of extension along both the ZSZ and the KSZ to start shortly before 26.6 Ma. Several recent models interpret that ductile extrusion of the high‐grade, low‐viscosity migmatites of HHC reflects combined extension along the ZSZ and thrusting along the MCT. Hence our new data constrain the onset of the thrusting along the MCT to start shortly before 26.6 Ma.