Origin and emplacement of the Higher Himalayan Leucogranite in the eastern Himalaya: Constraints from geochemistry and mineral chemistry

Abstract

The Higher Himalayan Leucogranites (HHLG) intruded into the high grade rocks of the Higher Himalayan Crystallines (HHC) in western Arunachal Pradesh, eastern Himalaya, yield distinctive field data, petrography, geochemical and mineral chemistry data. The HHLG mostly occur as sill like bodies of limited thickness and lateral extent within the HHC. The Arunachal HHLG are characterized by the presence of two micas; normative corundum; high contents of SiO2 (67–78 wt.%), Al2O3 (13–18 wt.%), A/CNK (0.98–1.44) and Rb (154–412 ppm); low contents of CaO (0.33–1.91 wt.%) and Sr (19–171 ppm), and a high ratio of FeO(tot)/MgO in biotite (2.54–4.82). These distinctive features, along with their strong depletion in high field strength elements (HFSE), suggest their affinity to peraluminous S-type granite generated by the partial melting of crustal material. Since the HHLG associated with high grade rocks of HHC and lack of basaltic magmatism, strongly suggests that the high grade rocks of HHC might represent the melt source and HHLG are product of pure crustal melt without any contamination of mantle material. Geothermobarometric estimations and mineral assemblages of the HHC metapelites confirm that the HHLG were probably generated in the middle crust (∼20 km) and the produced melts intruded the HHC in the form of sills/dykes.