Greater Himalayan Crystalline Research Articles

Imbrication and Erosional Tectonics Recorded by Garnets in the Sikkim Himalayas

The Sikkim region of the Himalayas (NE India) may form an important microplate between Nepal and Bhutan. Here we report high-resolution pressure-temperature (P-T) paths taken from garnet-bearing rocks across the northern and eastern portion of the region’s Main Central Thrust (MCT) shear zone. The MCT separates units affiliated with the Greater Himalayan Crystallines (GHC) in its hanging wall from the Lesser Himalayan Formation (LHF). Late Miocene monazite ages are reported from the LHF (10–14 Ma), whereas those from the GHC are Miocene (18–20 Ma). Some paths from the LHF and GHC show a P decrease before burial, consistent with erosion before compression. MCT shear zone and GHC rocks show a P increase and then decrease over a short T interval. This hairpin P-T path is consistent with an imbrication model for the Himalayas. LHF P-T path conditions and those obtained using conventional thermobarometry are best in agreement. These paths also are consistent with observed mineral assemblages and garnet zoning. Although we have the most confidence in LHF results, MCT shear zone and GHC P-T path shapes suggest processes to establish imbrication tectonics may have occurred here as early as the Miocene.

On the origin of high-pressure mafic granulite in the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis: Implications for the tectonic evolution of the Himalayan orogen

The Himalayan orogen, resulting from the Early Cenozoic collision of the Indian and Asian plates, is an ideal vehicle to study active orogenic processes and test geodynamic models of how the crust responds to collisional orogeny. This paper focused on migmatitic high-pressure (HP) mafic granulite and associated leucosome from the Greater Himalayan Crystallines (GHC) in the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis (EHS) in order to understand the conditions and timescales over which high-grade rocks and partial melts were produced during the Himalayan orogeny. Combining with previous study results from the Western and Central Himalayas and Trans-Himalayan magmatic arc, we obtained the following conclusions: (1) The mafic granulites from the EHS underwent HP and high-temperature (HT) granulite facies metamorphism and partial melting, with peak metamorphic conditions of 15–17 kbar and 820–880 °C. The GHC, at least its western part of the EHS, underwent coherent HP granulite-facies metamorphism. (2) The HP mafic granulites experienced long-lived dehydration melting of amphibole from ~40 Ma to ~20 Ma during prograde metamorphism and generated up to ~16 vol% partial melt. The variable degrees of dehydration melting of the HP mafic, pelitic and felsic granulites in the EHS generated voluminous granitic melts with distinct compositions, and provided the source for the Himalayan granites. (3) Peak metamorphic pressure of the GHC gradually decreases, whereas the metamorphic temperature progressively increases from the Western to Eastern Himalayas. This indicates that the Indian continental crust deeply subducted into the mantle in the Western Himalaya after the Indo-Asia collision, whereas the Indian crust underthrusted or relaminated beneath the Asian continental crust, and formed the thickened lower crust in the Central and Eastern Himalayas and Gangdese arc. (4) The melts derived from the underthrusted Indian crust probably resulted in isotopic compositional enrichment of the Early Cenozoic mantle- and juvenile crust-derived magmatic rocks of the Gangdese arc.

Petrogenesis of deformed tourmaline leucogranite in the Gurla Mandhata metamorphic core complex, Southwestern Tibet

The Himalayan leucogranites, which were derived from crustal anatexis during the India-Asia continental collision, have recorded the tectono-magmatic evolution process of the Himalayan orogenic belt. In the Gurla Mandhata area of the western Himalaya, tourmaline leucogranites accompanied by variable deformation are observed along the Gurla Mandhata detachment fault. Whole-rock compositions show that these leucogranites have high SiO2, alkaline elements and low CaO, MgO, FeO, TiO2 contents, and are strongly peraluminous with A/CNK value of 1.13–1.27. For trace elements, these leucogranites are characterized by low Ba Sr, Nb, Nd concentrations and relatively high Rb, U concentrations with significant negative Eu anomalies. Zircon UPb dating on the tourmaline leucogranites reveals a crystallization age of 11–12 Ma. Field observations, mineral assemblage, and geochemical features indicate that the Gurla Mandhata tourmaline leucogranites experienced high-degree fractional crystallization, which mainly induced by the long-distance migration from generation to emplacement, and the enrichment of volatile component (B, F, Cl, and H2O) facilitates the transportation ability of the leucogranite magma. Two types of tourmaline, Tur I and Tur II, are identified in the tourmaline leucogranites, enclosing relationships and mineral compositions suggest that these tourmalines should have formed at late and early stage in terms of magma evolution, respectively. The occurrence of early-stage tourmaline suggests that the primitive magma of the Gurla Mandhata tourmaline leucogranites is enriched in boron and H2O, which is most likely derived from fluid-flux melting of metasedimentary rocks from the Greater Himalayan Crystalline. The existence of the inherited zircon with ages of Paleoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic in combination with previous whole-rock SrNd isotopic study implies that the source region of the Gurla Mandhata tourmaline leucogranites is a two-component mixture between the Greater Himalayan Crystalline and the Lesser Himalayan Sequence.

Is Himalayan leucogranite a product by in situ partial melting of the Greater Himalayan Crystalline? A comparative study of leucosome and leucogranite from Nyalam, southern Tibet

Widespread leucogranites in the Himalayan orogenic belt are thought to have originated by in situ partial melting of the Greater Himalayan Crystalline (GHC) when it underwent high-grade metamorphism during Cenozoic orogenesis. Therefore, the leucogranites and associated migmatites can be used to constrain the exhumation history of the GHC. However, the petrogenetic relationship between the GHC, leucogranites, and migmatites is not well-constrained. As such, we carried out a detailed petrographic, mineralogical, geochronological, and geochemical study of leucosomes and leucogranites from the Nyalam region in southern Tibet. Monazite U–(Th)–Pb dating indicates that anatexis of the GHC occurred during the late Eocene and Miocene (40–14 Ma), whereas leucogranite emplacement occurred from 27 to 14 Ma. There are marked differences between the leucosomes in migmatites and leucogranites in terms of field geology, mineralogy, and geochemistry, suggesting different origins. The leucosomes occur mainly as pockets or are interlayered with melanosomes in stromatic metatexites. The leucosomes contain oligoclase and Fe-rich biotite, and have whole-rock compositions with high K2O contents (4.8–7.4 wt%) and K2O/Na2O ratios (1.35–2.97), positive Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 0.93–2.61), and low rare-metal (Li, Be, Cs, Sn, and Ta) contents. These features are consistent with an origin by muscovite dehydration melting of the GHC. However, the leucogranites intrude the GHC and occur as small plutons along the South Tibetan Detachment System. In contrast to the leucosomes, the plagioclase and biotite in the leucogranites are albite and siderophyllite, respectively. The leucogranites have relatively low K2O (4.3–4.7 wt%) contents and K2O/Na2O ratios (1.04–1.24), high rare-metal contents, and marked negative Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 0.47–0.70), indicating an origin by extensive fractional crystallization. We propose that the leucogranites were magmas produced in the deeper GHC during peak metamorphism, and subsequent extensive fractional crystallization occurred during long-distance, upward migration of magma along the South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS) during exhumation of the GHC. During these processes, the high-grade metamorphic rocks of the GHC were partially melted, resulting in the formation of leucosomes within migmatites. Therefore, the leucosomes and leucogranites have different origins and should be considered separately in studies of Himalayan orogenesis.

A review on out-of-sequence deformation in the Himalaya

AbstractOut-of-sequence deformation in the Himalaya has been caused mainly by thrusting. Out-of-sequence thrusts, usually north- to NE-dipping foreshear planes, occur inside the Sub-Himalaya (SH), Lesser Himalaya (LH) and Greater Himalayan Crystalline (GHC) sequences. Where absolute dates are available, the youngest slip within the SH occurred near the Janauri Anticline (India) atc.AD 1400–1460. The Munsiari Thrust (India) activated within the LH atc.1–2 Ma and the Main Central Thrust zone in the Marsyandi valley (Nepal) in the GHC was formed during the Holocene (c.0.3 ka). Except for the Riasi Thrust (Kashmir, India), the Paonta Thrust (Himachal Pradesh, India) in the Siwalik and the Tons Thrust (Garhwal region, India) within the Main Central Thrust zone, crustal shortening related to out-of-sequence thrusting in the Himalaya has been insignificant. The major litho-/stratigraphic contacts within the SH and the GHC at some places acted as out-of-sequence thrusts. Out-of-sequence thrusts in the SH have been detected mainly based on geomorphological observations. However, more quantitative geochronological studies have detected out-of-sequence thrusting fromc.22 Ma up to Holocene age in the GHC based on age jumps, especially within the Main Central Thrust zone. Crustal channel flow (specifically for the GHC) and/or the critical taper model with or without erosion can be used to explain the Himalayan out-of-sequence thrusts.

Did the Himalayan Crystallines extrude partially molten from beneath the Tibetan Plateau?

Abstract The hypothesis that the Himalayan crystalline core originated by ductile channel flow of partially molten mid-crust from beneath the Tibetan Plateau is critically reviewed. The proposal that widespread shallow anatexis exists beneath southern Tibet today is inconsistent with numerous observations (e.g. ‘bright spots’ restricted to a single rift and evidence that they represent aqueous fluids rather than molten silicate; the seismogenic southern Tibetan Moho; 3 He/ 4 He data indicating the presence of mantle heat and mass in the rift valley; the likelihood that any melt present is due to late Neogene calc-alkaline magmatism; the lack of Tertiary migmatites in the crustal section exposed in the uplifted rift flank of the Yangbajain graben; the lack of Gangdese zircon xenocrysts in the Greater Himalayan Crystallines (GHC); and the broadly coherent stratigraphy in the GHC). Evidence advanced in support of this model is equally or better explained as resulting from localized Neogene calc-alkaline magmatism. A recently developed rapid denudation/channel flow model does explain key petrogenetic and thermochronological features of the Himalaya, but is inconsistent with several geological constraints, most notably the small portion of the collision front over which focused erosion has localized exposure of the GHC. It is concluded that no evidence has yet been documented that requires the existence of partially molten crust flowing in a channel from beneath the Tibetan Plateau to form the Himalaya.