Long-term growth of the Himalaya inferred from interseismic InSAR measurement

Abstract

The rise and support of the ∼5000 m topographic scarp at the front of Indian-Eurasian collision in the Himalaya involves long-term uplift above a mid-crustal ramp within the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) system. Locking of the shallower portion of the flat-ramp-flat during the interseismic period also produces transient uplift above the transition zone. However, spatial and temporal relationships between permanent and transient vertical deformation in the Himalaya are poorly constrained, leading to an unresolved causal relationship between the two. Here, we use interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to measure interseismic uplift on a transect crossing the whole Himalaya in central Nepal. The uplift velocity of 7 mm/yr at the front of the Annapurna mountain range is explained by an 18–21 mm/yr slip rate on the deep shallow-dipping portion of the MHT, with full locking of the mid-crustal ramp underlying the High Himalaya. The transient uplift peak observed by InSAR matches spatially with the long-term uplift peak deduced from the study of trans-Himalayan river incision, although models of the seismic cycle involving thrusting over a ramp of fixed geometry predict an ∼20 km separation between the two peaks. We argue that this coincidence indicates that today’s mid-crustal ramp in central Nepal is located southward with respect to its average long-term location, suggesting that mountain growth proceeds by frontward migration of the ramp driven by underplating of material from the Indian plate under the Himalaya.