Open access peer-reviewed chapter
Abstract
Understanding the crustal evolution of any orogen is essential in delineating the nomenclature of litho units, stratigraphic growth, tectonic evolution, and, most importantly, deciphering the paleogeography of the Earth. In this context, the Himalayas, one of the youngest continent-continent collisional orogen on the Earth, has played a key role in understanding the past supercontinent cycles, mountain building activities, and tectonic-climate interactions. This chapter presents the journey of Himalayan rocks through Columbian, Rodinia, and Gondwana supercontinent cycles to the present, as its litho units consist of the record of magmatism and sedimentation since ~2.0 Ga. The making of the Himalayan orogen started with the rifting of India from the Gondwanaland and its subsequent movement toward the Eurasian Plate, which led to the closure of the Neo-Tethyan ocean in the Late-Cretaceous. India collided with Eurasia between ∼59 Ma and ∼40 Ma. Later, the crustal thickening and shortening led to the metamorphism of the Himalayan crust and the development of the north-dipping south verging fold-and-thrust belt. The main phase of Himalayan uplift took place during the Late-Oligocene-Miocene. This chapter also provides insights into the prevailing kinematic models that govern the deep-seated exhumation of Himalayan rocks to the surface through the interplay of tectonics and climate.
Keywords
- Himalaya
- crustal evolution
- supercontinent cycles
- tectonics
1. Introduction
2. Overview of the Himalayan orogen
The Himalayan orogen is one of the youngest continent-continent collisional mountain belts on the Earth [13]. The orogen is a part of the greater Himalayan-Alpine system, which extends from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Sumatra arc of Indonesia in the east over a distance of >7000 km. The composite belt had evolved since the Paleozoic when the Tethyan Ocean closed between two converging landmasses of Eurasia and India. The collision of India and Eurasia took place between ∼59 Ma and <40 Ma [14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23] and it was brought about by rifting of India from Africa and East Antarctica during the Mesozoic. The convergence of the Indian landmass is continuing toward the north relative to stable Eurasian landmass forming an orogenic wedge to the south of the Tibetan Plateau [24].
The Himalayan mountain belt with ~2500 km long arc stretches between the structural syntaxial bends of Nanga Parbat in the west to the Namche Barwa in the east (Figure 1). The Gangdese Shan, Karakorum Mountains, also known as Trans-Himalaya [25], and Tibetan Plateau lie in the north of the Himalaya. In the west of the range lies the Hindu Kush Mountains and to the east, the Indo-Burma ranges, also known as the Rongklang range [9, 26]. The Indo-Gangetic plains/depression lies in the south of the raised Himalayan front. The arc can be further divided into western, central, and eastern sectors (Figure 2). The width of the Himalayan Mountain is at its narrowest (100–150 km) in the central sector [9]. The longitudinal river system in the central Himalayas is responsible for the presence of the world’s deepest canyons and eight out of the 10 highest mountain peaks on Earth. However, the average relief is significantly less in the western and eastern Himalayas.
Figure 1.
Topographic map of Himalayan orogen (source:
Figure 2.
Geological map of the Himalaya showing main tectono-stratigraphic units (after ref. [
3. Geological setting
The Himalaya has been divided into four tectonostratigraphic domains along the entire arc between Indo-Gangetic Plains in the south and Indus Tsangpo Suture Zone (ITSZ) in the north [3, 10, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31]. These are (a) Sub-Himalaya, (b) Lesser Himalayan Sequence (LHS), (c) Greater Himalayan Sequence (GHS)/Higher Himalayan Crystallines (HHC), and (d) Tethyan Sedimentary Zone (TSZ) (Figure 2). These domains are characterized as south-vergent fold and thrust belts that have emerged as a result of crustal shortening and thickening.
3.1 Sub-Himalaya
The Sub-Himalaya represents the southernmost part of the Himalayan orogen. The Main Frontal Thrust (MFT) separates it from the Indo-Gangetic Plains to the south, while the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) separates it from the LHS to the north (Figure 2). It comprises marine sediments of Paleocene-Eocene and sediments from the continental origin of Miocene-Pliocene [32]. The marine sediments comprising shale, sandstone, and limestone are known as Subathu Formation, while the sediments of continental origin are characterized as Dagshai, Kasauli, and Siwalik group of rocks. The sedimentation record of Subathu formation is described to be ~61.5–43.7 Ma from magnetostratigraphic data [32]. The age of Dagshai formation has been estimated to be ~32–25 Ma, followed by overlying Kasauli formation of ~32–22 Ma and Siwalik sediments of ~14 Ma [33, 34, 35, 36, 37]. The thickness of this sequence is ~9–10 km, which was deposited by southward flowing river systems of the Himalaya, forming the erosional history of the orogen [38]. The MFT, bounding the Himalayas to the south is commonly expressed as a zone of folds and blind thrusts [39, 40], which was active during the Pliocene-Holocene [41].
3.2 Lesser Himalayan sequence
The LHS is bounded by MBT to the south and Main Central Thrust (MCT) zone to the north and consists of three sub-units from south to north [3, 42]. These are: (a) Outer Lesser Himalayan (oLH) belt; (b) Lesser Himalayan Crystalline (LHC) nappe, and (c) Inner Lesser Himalayan (iLH) belt (Figure 2). The oLH represents Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic-Mesozoic-Eocene sedimentary sequence between MBT and the Tons Thrust (TT)/North Almora Thrust (NAT). These sequences are locally known as Shimla-Jaunsar (comprising of Mandhali, Chandpur, and Nagthat Formations)-Blaini-Krol-Tal Groups in the NW Himalaya [43]. The detrital zircon U-Pb geochronological ages with the oLH belts are 0.95 Ga in the oldest Mandhali Formation, 0.88 Ga in Chandpur Formation, 0.82 Ga in Nagthat Formation, 0.70 Ga in Balini diamictite and Krol sandstone, and 0.525 Ga in lower Tal trilobite bearing strata [44, 45, 46, 47]. These ages provide the maximum timing of their deposition from the source rock and are considered synchronous with the Paleozoic magmatism in the source region.
The LHC nappes are basically the synformal klippe that are thrust over LHS and are equivalent to the GHS rocks, which form their root zone. These are locally named as Jutogh-Ramgarh-Almora-Askot-Chiplakot nappe in the western Himalaya and Kathmandu nappe in the central Nepalese Himalaya. The mylonite orthogneiss of Kulu-Ramgarh Nappe provides the oldest zircon U-Pb age of ~1.85 Ga, which is overlain by the Nathuakhan Formation of ~0.80 Ga [48, 49]. The Almora nappe in the Kumaun region of western Himalaya is characterized by equivalent ~1.85 Ga of mylonite granite-gneiss at its base and younger populations of ~0.85 to 0.58 and 0.55 Ga from garnetiferous-quartzite-schists and intrusive granites, respectively [49, 50].
The iLH belt is the Paleoproterozoic meta-sedimentary sequence between TT/NAT and MCT and represents the oldest and lowermost sequence of the LHS that was deposited between ~1.90 and 1.80 Ga as constrained by detrital zircon Geochronology [42, 47, 48, 51]. It is noteworthy that the rocks of iLH are characterized by fewer older minor peaks also between ~2.4 and 2.6 Ga [2, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59]. These rocks are locally known as Rautgara-Gangolihat-Deoban-Berinag Groups in the western Himalaya, Kushma Group in Central Nepal, and Daling-Shuma Groups in the Eastern Himalayas of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh [43, 53, 55, 60]. It is significant to note that there has been a stratigraphic break of nearly ~1 Ga between the timing of deposition of the iLH and oLH [3].
3.3 Greater Himalayan sequence/higher Himalayan Crystallines
This sequence represents the Himalayan orogen’s backbone, which exhibits the most uplifted and most eroded part of the orogen. The sequence is bounded by the South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS) in the north, which separates it from the TSZ. The Munsiari Thrust (MT)/MCT forms the southern boundary of this sequence, where it abuts against the iLH rocks. The ~15 to 20 km thick sequence is divided into two main groups: (a) Munsiari Group/MCT zone and (b) Vaikrita Group. The Munsiari Group overrides the iLH along the MT/MCT 1 or lower MCT (in Nepal Himalaya)/MCT [3, 9, 23, 25, 43, 61, 62, 63] and contains mylonitized and imbricated Paleoproterozoic megacryst granite gneiss, fine-grained biotite paragneiss, garnetiferous mica schist, phyllonite and sheared Amphibolite [3]. Based on the geochemistry and geochronological studies, these rocks have been part of the Paleoproterozoic magmatic arc [42], as most of the zircon U-Pb ages of these rocks lie between ~1.97 and 1.75 Ga [55, 59, 60, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69], that is, similar to iLH rocks.
The Vaikrita Group consists of amphibolite facies to migmatitic ortho- and para-gneisses rocks and characterizes typical inverted metamorphism [70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80]. The Vaikrita Thrust (VT)/MCT 2 or upper MCT (in Nepal Himalaya) forms the base of this group while these rocks abut against the TSZ rocks along the STDS. This group is different from the Munsiari Group and iLH rocks as the rocks of the Vaikrita Group provide characteristic Neoproterozoic zircon U-Pb ages between ~1.05 and 0.80 Ga with fewer peaks at ~2.50 and ~ 1.80 Ga [3, 4, 60, 69, 81, 82, 83].
The GHS generally forms a continuous belt along the entire length of the orogen. Still, it also occurs as isolated patches surrounded by low-grade Tethyan strata, such as in the Zanskar and Tso Morari regions of NW India and in the Nanga Parbat massif of northern Pakistan [84, 85, 86]. This coeval slip along the MCT and STDS during ~20 to 15 Ma is responsible for the ductile extrusion of the GHS/HHC rocks between these bounding fault zones [30, 87, 88, 89]. It is noteworthy that all the north-dipping faults in the Himalaya sole into a mid-crustal décollement at depth, the Main Himalayan Thrust [MHT, 90], which lie over the Indian basement.
Apart from the Munsiari and Vaikrita Group of rocks, the presence of Cambro-Ordovician granitoids are unique within the HHC (Figure 2). These granitoids belong to Pan-African magmatism and lie to the north of
The Proterozoic rocks of GHS have undergone crustal thickening and shortening, metamorphism, and partial melting during Himalayan orogeny, that is, post-India-Asia collision [9]. The leucocratic magmatism in the Himalayas, mainly by muscovite dehydration melting, can be traced along the entire arc of the orogen in the GHS and as well as TSZ [60, 69, 104, 105, 106]. In the late stage, the high-grade metamorphic rocks of the GHS exhumed to the surface through the interplay of tectonics and climatic processes [10, 11, 12, 107].
3.4 Tethyan sedimentary zone (TSZ)
Late Precambrian to Eocene siliciclastic and carbonate sedimentary rocks interbedded with Paleozoic and Mesozoic volcanic rocks are exposed to the north of GHS, mainly forming the TSZ [9, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119]. It is bounded in the north by Great Counter Thrust where it is juxtaposed with Tso Morari Crystallines and/or ITSZ rocks, and in the south by north-dipping STDS. The STDS is locally named as Zanskar Shear Zone (ZSZ) [79, 120], Rohtang Shear Zone (RSZ) in Himachal Pradesh [121], Trans-Himadri Fault (THF) in Kumaon Himalaya [122], and STDS in Nepal Himalaya [87, 123]. The TSZ has been divided into four subsequences [9]: (a) Early Cambrian to Devonian pre-rift sequence characterized by lithologic units deposited in epicratonal setting, (b) Carboniferous-Lower Jurassic rift and post-rift sequence, (c) Jurassic-Cretaceous passive continental margin sequence, and (d) Cretaceous-Eocene syn-collisional sequence. These rocks form the cover sequence of the GHS and are also known as Haimanta Formation in the NW Himalaya that yields detrital zircon U-Pb ages between 0.55 and 3.0 Ga [3, 69, 121].
4. Crustal evolution of Himalayan rocks since Paleoproterozoic
4.1 Paleoproterozoic
The iLH and MCT zone represent the oldest terrane of the Himalayan rocks that were formed during the Paleoproterozoic. The rocks of both of these terranes have been hypothesized to be a part of an Andean-type arc system that formed during the assembly of the Columbian supercontinent at ~1.9 Ga (Figure 3a) [3, 42, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128]. The assembly of Columbia involved North America (NA), Eastern Antarctica (EA), North China (NC), and India (I) continents that formed the arc system. The granitoids of the MCT Zone/Munsiari Group were formed due to hydrous partial melting of the older crust that involved mafic sources and sediments from the subduction zone (Figure 3b and c). The volcano-sedimentary sequence of iLH, forming Rautgara-Gangolihat-Berinag, their equivalent formations, was deposited during ~2.0–1.8 Ga in the rifted back-arc basin (Figure 3c) [3]. The sediments in this back-arc basin were supplied from both the Proterozoic magmatic and Indian Shield (Figure 3c). However, some workers believe that the iLH and MCT zone rocks were part of a rift and passive continental margin set up that was originated from the mantle plume (Figure 4) [129, 130]. In this hypothesis, the ~2.0 to 1.8 Ga rocks of the iLH and MCT zone are considered equivalent to the Paleoproterozoic Coronation Supergroup in the Wopmay orogen, northwest Canada [131, 132].
Figure 3.
Reconstruction of Columbia supercontinent ca. 1.9 Ga showing position of India and the Proterozoic magmatic arc (after ref. [
Figure 4.
A possible model for the deposition of iLH and MCT zone rocks in a rift and passive continental margin set up as originated from the mantle plume (after ref. [
4.2 Neoproterozoic
The Columbian supercontinent broke up during the Neoproterozoic, resulting in the separation of the Indian craton from Columbia, which thus later became a passive margin along its northern limit. India had reassembled again within a short duration of 1 Ga at ca. 1.1–0.9 Ga with Madagascar, Seychelles, Karakoram Terrane/Pamir, Tarim in the west, South China in the north, Australia in the east, and East Antarctica in the southeast, respectively, forming the Rodinia Supercontinent (Figure 5). The Neoproterozoic granitoids have been recognized in the GHS throughout the Himalayan arc and are associated with the Rodinia Supercontinent assembly [60, 66, 81, 134, 135, 136, 137]. Apart from the magmatic origin of granitoids within the GHS, the sediments containing detrital zircons of ca. ~1.1 to 0.8 Ga in the Vaikrita Group and the oLH sequences have been sourced from (a) Within-basin magmatic bodies, that is, granites intrusive and orthogneisses, for example, Peshawar, Black mountain of Western Himalaya syntaxis, Chor region of Himachal Himalaya, and Cona, Bhutan and Hapoli regions of Arunachal Himalaya [3], (b) “In-board” Indian Craton, that is, Aravalli Delhi Mobile Belt (ADMB) and Central Indian Tectonic Zone (CITZ), which is collectively known as Great Indian Proterozoic Fold Belt (GIPFOB, Figure 6) [3], and (c) external “Out-board” terranes of Nubian-Arabia, Africa, Madagascar, eastern Antarctica, Australia, that is, those belonged to Rodinia Supercontinent assembly [45, 53, 81], through erosion and transportation of sediments by long paleo-river systems.
Figure 5.
Reconstruction of Rodinia supercontinent showing the position of India (after refs. [
Figure 6.
Neoproterozoic detrital zircon in the great Himalayan sequence (GHS) and correlatable successions in the lesser Himalaya are sourced from various parts of the Indian craton (after ref. [
4.3 Late Neoproterozoic to Cambro-Ordovician
Rodinia supercontinent broke up during 750–600 Ma, which led to the pathway for the formation of Gondwanaland during the Cambrian–Ordovician (Figure 7) [e.g., 133, 138, 139]. India was a part of the Gondwanaland that also consisted of South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, and Antarctica [140]. Together, these continents formed a subduction system along the northern margin of the Gondwanaland [141, 142, 143, 144]. Thus, a thermal event associated with the Pan-African orogeny during the Cambro-Ordovician resulted in the formation of granitoids, such as Dalhousie, Chauri, Dhauladhar, Palampur, Mandi, Pandoh, and Karsog Granite, presently within the GHS and TSZ of the Himalayan arc. Many researchers have proposed the Cambrian-Ordovician event as the pre-Himalayan metamorphic event that resulted in the crustal anataxis of the local Neoproterozoic crustal rocks during syn-to post-collisional crustal thickening, leading to the generation of S-type granitoids [91, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153].
Figure 7.
Position of India during the Gondwana supercontinent assembly in Cambro-Ordovician (after refs. [
4.4 Silurian to cretaceous
The Gondwanaland was the southern part of the most recent supercontinent Pangea. The Pangea attained its condition of maximum packing at ~250 Ma and started breaking up during ~250 to 230 Ma (Figure 8) [140, 154, 155]. The northern part was named Laurasia or Mega Laurasia and contained the northern continents—North America, Greenland, Europe, and northern Asia. The present-day Karakoram Terrane forms the south-western margin of the Tibetan Plateau. It is equivalent to the SE-Pamir terrane and Central Pamir terrane in the west and Qiangtang terrane in the east, which belonged to Gondwanan ancestry (Figure 9). These terranes of Central Pamir, SE-Pamir, Karakoram, and Quiangtang got separated from Gondwana during Permian due to the rifting process that formed the part of the Cimmerian belt [156]. This event resulted in the opening of the Neo-Tethys Ocean (Figure 10a). This event was followed by the accretion of these terranes of the Cimmerian belt with the Asian Plate along the Jinsha Suture Zone (JSZ) during the Middle-Cretaceous or maybe earlier [157, 158], resulting in the closure of Paleo-Tethys Ocean (Figures 9 and 10b). Initially, the Central Pamir and SE-Pamir were accreted along the Rushan-Pshart suture during Triassic-Jurrasic (Figure 9), with slightly later accretion of Southern Pamir and the Karakoram along Tirich Boundary Zone (TBZ) (Figure 9) [159].
Figure 8.
Paleogeographic map showing the break-off of the Cimmerian terranes from Pangea (based on refs. [
Figure 9.
Tectonic map of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogenic belt showing a present-day configuration of the Karakoram, SE-Pamir terrane, and central Pamir, which were part of the Cimmerian terrane, rifted from Gondwana and led to the opening of neo-Tethys Ocean (after, ref. [
Figure 10.
(a) Palaeotethys Ocean is getting closed as Cimmerian terrane is approaching toward Eurasia. Please note the position of India, that is, the position of rifting from Gondwana land, (b) Cimmerian terrane that includes the Karakoram as a part of Eurasia. Note the formation of Dras island arc. India is moving toward Eurasia (based on refs. [
The Neo-Tethyan ocean closed due to the rifting of the Indian Plate from Gondwana and its subsequent journey toward the Asian Plate (Figure 10b). The interoceanic Dras volcanic island arc was formed by the initial subduction within the Neo-Tethyan Ocean during Middle Jurassic (Figure 11a) [23]. The closure of the Neo-Tethyan ocean resulted in the subduction of the Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere below the southern margin of the Asian Plate along the Shyok Suture Zone (SSZ) in the north-western domain of Karakoram and along the BNS in central Tibet (Figure 11b and c) [160, 161]. The formation of calc-alkaline continental arc magmatism at ca. ~205–100 Ma due to the subduction of Neo-Tethys oceanic lithosphere along the SSZ produced Karakoram Batholith on the southern margin of the Asian Plate [160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165]. The final collision between the Indian and Asian plates occurred along the ITSZ that was accompanied by the formation of the Kohistan-Ladakh arc (KLA). Subsequently, the formation of ophiolitic and sedimentary sequences took place along the ITSZ (Figure 11) [23, 162, 166, 167]. The KLA witnessed a major episode of subduction-related magmatism at ∼85 to 40 Ma with small pulses at ∼110 to 100 Ma. The magmatism led to the emplacement of Andean-type plutons during the Late Cretaceous to middle Paleogene [23]. These magmatic rocks are collectively known as the Ladakh Batholith in the western Himalayas, Gangdese Batholith in Tibet, and Lohit Batholith in the Eastern Himalayas [9]. The SSZ closed at ca. 85 Ma through the juxtaposition of the Ladakh arc and Karakoram batholiths [160, 168]. The palaeomagnetic anomalies in the Indian ocean suggest that the convergence of the Indian plate slowed down at ~55 ± 1 Ma [18]. The palaeolatitude evidence suggests that Tethyan succession in the Himalayas overlaps with the Lhasa terrane overlap at 22.8 ± 4.20 N palaeolatitude at 46 ± 8 Ma [169, 170]. The final closure of the Indian Plate with the Asian Plate took place along the ITSZ between ∼59 Ma to <40 Ma [14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23].
Figure 11.
Schematic model showing the stages for the collision of Indian and Asian plate (a) Dras-Shyok volcanic formed due to subduction of oceanic lithosphere within the neo-Tethys Ocean arc during middle Jurassic to late cretaceous and formation of Karakoram batholith during early cretaceous due to subduction of Tethyan oceanic lithosphere beneath the southern Asian plate margin along SSZ; (b) closure of SSZ due to collision of Dras volcanic arc and Karakoram terrane during late cretaceous; (c) formation of Ladakh batholith due to subduction of Tethyan oceanic lithosphere below Dras volcanic arc during late cretaceous (after ref. [
4.5 Cenozoic
The Cenozoic era represents the main phase of Himalayan orogeny. In the initial stage (~45–23 Ma, Figure 12a), after the India-Asia collision, crustal shortening and thickening led to the early prograde regional metamorphism mainly during ~45 to 35 Ma under ~8 to 11 kbar and ~ 600 to 700°C [9, 30]. In this phase, thrusting along the STDS started [9, 171]. This was the time when the GHS/LHS were covered by the TSZ and Gondwana sediments. The initiation of MCT led to the emplacement of the GHS over the LHS during the Early Miocene, that is, at ~23 to 18 Ma (Figure 12b) [9, 172, 173, 174]. The younger event of metamorphism at ~23 to 15 Ma at ~6 to 8 kbar and ~ 500 to 750°C is considered to be synchronous with the ductile deformation along the MCT zone [9, 30]. The intense ductile shearing caused the formation of the inverted metamorphism sequence across the GHS along with Miocene leucogranites generation [9, 78, 104, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181]. The MCT forms the roof of the major thrust duplex within the LHS (Figure 12c) [60, 83, 174]. The LHS duplex formation led to erosion of the GHS and the formation of the antiformal stack in the form of LH window zones and synformal nappes in the Himalaya, mainly during ~18 to 14 (Figure 12c). Thus, the HHC and LH Window zones became the fastest exhuming bodies, with exhumation rates up to ~3 mm/yr., in the Himalayas since Miocene [10, 11, 12, 107, 121, 182]. Later, the activation of the MBT at ~10–12 Ma led to the thrusting of the LHS over the Sub-Himalaya [183, 184, 185], while the deposition of Siwalik sediments initiated at ~14 Ma (Figure 12d). In the Plio-Quaternary, the initiation of MFT took place that forms the southernmost boundary of the Himalaya and juxtaposes the older rocks of Sub-Himalaya along the modern Indo-Gangetic alluvium (Figure 12e). In this phase, the MCT also got reactivated in an out-of-sequence manner that led to the rapid exhumation of the rocks of the MCT zone [186, 187, 188].
Figure 12.
Sketch showing the general model for the structural evolution of the Himalayan orogen during the Cenozoic (based on refs. [
Apart from the aforementioned general model for the Himalayan evolution, it is noteworthy that the ductile extrusion of the GHS has been explained by three main models. The Channel flow-focused denudation model [8] considers the GHS as a partially molten lower/middle crust that extruded southward from Tibet during Eocene-Oligocene via the formation of the pressure gradient between Tibet and India due to the high elevation of the Tibetan plateau (Figure 13a). Wedge-extrusion model states that the MCT and STDS form the tapered core (Figure 13b). The gravitational collapse of over thickened continental crust resulted in the development of the STDS [189]. The tectonic wedging model, in which TSZ abut against the LHS (e.g., in the Himachal Pradesh, India) along the MCT due to its termination against the STDS. Thus, the GHS core remains at depth and subsequently forces itself toward the surface (Figure 13c) [190]. Thus, fault kinematics, that is, thrusting, folding, gravitational unloading, the geometry of the subsurface in combination with intense orographic precipitation, controlled the Cenozoic development of the Himalayan orogen.
Figure 13.
Tectonic models for the emplacement of the HHC: (a) channel flow model; (b) wedge extrusion model and (c) tectonic wedging (after ref. [
5. Conclusion
The Himalayan crust has evolved through multiple stages of supercontinent cycles since ~2.0 Ga. The iLHS and the MCT zone represent the oldest crust that was formed during the Columbian supercontinent assembly. The rocks of the MCT zone have been derived as Andean-type magmatic arc, while the iLHS was evolved as a back-arc basin, the sediments of which were supplied from both the MCT zone and Indian craton. There is no tectonostratigraphic evolutionary record available for ~1 Ga between the timing of deposition of iLHS rocks (~1.85 Ga) and the deposition of the Vaikrita Group of GHS and oLH (~0.85 Ga). Thus, the northern boundary of India was a passive margin before the deposition of GHS and oLH during the Rodinia supercontinent assembly. The Paleozoic granitoids (~0.48 Ga) within the GHS/TSZ represent the record of pre-Himalayan metamorphism during Pan-African orogeny that formed the Gondwanaland as the southern part of Pangea. The Gondwanaland broke up at ca. 230 Ma as the Cimmerian belt consisting of Central Pamir, SE-Pamir, Karakoram/Quiangtang terranes rifted and moved toward the Asian Plate and led to the closure of Paleo-Tethys ocean and opening of Neo-Tethys ocean. India rifted apart from the Gondwanaland at ~230 to 200 Ma and traveled toward Asia, leading to Neo-Tethys ocean’s closure. The Neo-Tethys ocean closed along the SSZ at ~85 Ma by forming the junction between the Asian margin and Dras Island Arc/Ladakh Batholith. The northern margin of the Indian continental crust closed along the ITSZ at <40 Ma, the Ladakh Batholith being its northern boundary. The major event of metamorphism and deformation of the Himalayan crust occurred since Eocene-Oligocene, leading to the formation of north-dipping thrust sheets along with MCT, MBT, and MFT. The fault kinematics, that is, thrusting and folding combined with climatic erosion, led to the exhumation of high-grade metamorphic rocks to the surface [9, 12].
Acknowledgments
We thank the editor Sara Debeuc for the invitation to submit the chapter on Himalayan Crustal Evolution. This work is supported by the CAP Himalaya grant (Activity 7) to V. Adlakha. Prof. A.K. Jain and Shailendra Pundir are thanked for fruitful discussions, informal review, and sharing their figure drafts. Kunal Mukherjee is thanked for extending his help during the final compilation and formatting work. Prof. Nand Lal and R. C. Patel are thanked for their constant encouragement. K. Sain acknowledges the SERB-DST for awarding him with the J.C. Bose National Fellowship.
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