Tectonics and evolution of the Himalaya

Abstract

During the period 2011-2015, scientific investigations in the Himalaya incorporated various geological and geophysical aspects of evolution of this mountain, including sub-surface configuration, structure and metamorphism of the Lesser Himalaya and Himalayan Metamorphic Belt, geochemistry, magmatism, stratigraphy and paleontology of the Paleo- Mesozoic Tethyan sedimentary cover, the Himalayan foreland basins, exhumation, paleoseismology and GPS measurements of convergence rates. Certain remote areas of western Arunachal Pradesh in Kameng were covered for their metamorphism and exhumation. Sm-Nd isochron plot of garnet crystals from the Lesser Himalayan Jutogh Group metamorphics provided a mean regression age of 479.7±8.5 Ma as the timing of its crystallization during an Early Ordovician tectonometamorphic event. High-resolution work on metamorphism of the Lesser and Higher Himalayan belts of Sikkim incorporating P-T-t paths and geochronology of the imbricate zones of the Main Central Thrust provided better insight into their evolution.