Is pull-apart basin tectonic model feasible for the formation of Kashmir basin, NW Himalaya

Abstract

Kashmir Basin in NW Himalaya is considered a Neogene-Quatermary piggyback basin that was formed as result of the continent-continent collision of Indian and Eurasian plates. This model however is recently challenged by a pull-apart basin model, which argues that a major dextral strike-slip fault that runs through the Kashmir basin is responsible for its formation. And here it is demonstrated that this tectonic model is structurally unrealistic, and poses problems with geomorphology, geology, and tectonic setting of Kashmir basin. The major flaw of the model remains its orientation, and geometry, because a major dextral fault, which form a pull-apart basin, cannot cut through the center of a basin. It is therefore shown that the recently suggested pull-apart model is structurally impossible, and thus the Central Kashmir Fault (CKF), a proposed major dextral fault of Alam et al. (2015), could not exist.