학술논문

Constraining the exhumation history of the Greater Himalayan sequence, Kali Gandaki, central Nepal
Document Type
Academic Journal
Source
Journal of the Geological Society of London.
Subject
16|Structural geology
(U-Th)/He
absolute age
apatite
Asia
Cenozoic
deformation
ductility
exhumation
faults
fission-track dating
geochronology
Greater Himalayas
high temperature
Himalayas
Indian Peninsula
Kali Gandaki Valley
kinematics
Miocene
monsoons
Neogene
Nepal
nesosilicates
new data
one-dimensional models
orthosilicates
P-T conditions
phosphates
shear zones
silicates
South Tibetan Detachment System
spatial variations
temperature
Tertiary
thermal history
thermochronology
zircon
zircon group
Language
English
ISSN
0016-7649
Abstract
Understanding how the South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS) evolved through time and space is necessary for understanding the evolution of the Himalayan orogen. We present new (with previously published) thermochronologic results from a transect in the footwall and ductile shear zone of the basal structure of the STDS in the Kali Gandaki region: the Annapurna detachment. The exhumation history is interpreted from observations using 1D thermal-kinematic models that invert for the exhumation rate of samples. Recently published data suggested that high-temperature slip on the detachment persisted until at least ca. 12 Ma, more recently than is commonly assumed for STDS deformation. Our new data and modelling support those findings and suggest that the cessation of slip coincided with a dramatic, >50% decrease in the exhumation rate of the shear zone and its footwall at ca. 12-10 Ma. Exhumation rates remained low until ca. 3 Ma, after which they increased to levels comparable with those that characterised STDS activity. Plausible causes of this late pulse of exhumation include an intensification of the Asian Winter monsoon and establishment of today's Indian Summer Monsoon, glaciation, and/or an internal structural reorganisation of the Himalayan orogenic wedge driving localised rock uplift in the hinterland. Supplementary material: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6949467