the mutual interaction between continental scale ice sheets and atmospheric stationary waves the great continental ice sheets of the pleistocene represented significant obstacles to the northern hemisphere midlatitude westerlies they must therefore have forced large changes in the atmospheric circulation and consequently also in the patterns of accumulation and melting over the ice sheets themselves a simplified threedimensional coupled ice sheet stationary wave model is developed in order to understand the ice sheet s response to the circulation changes that it induces consistent with ice age climate simulations the ice sheet topography induces an anticyclonic circulation over the ice sheet causing a slight warming over the western slopes and a stronger cooling over the remainder the modeled feedbacks significantly affect the ice sheet configuration with the most important influences being the patterns of summer temperature and the topographically induced precipitation field the time evolution of the ice sheet is also changed by the atmospheric feedbacks and the results suggest the possibility of multiple equilibrium solutions

large normal sense displacement on the south tibetan fault system in the eastern himalaya the extensional south tibetan fault system stfs crops out for more than 2000 km along the length of the himalayan range crest interpretations of the significance of this structure in himalayan tectonics vary while many regard it as rooted northward beneath tibet with offset estimates ranging as high as 200 km others regard it as a relatively minor rootless structure such inconsistent interpretations are possible because except for the everest region where glacial erosion has exposed a cross section of the stfs there are few direct constraints on the amount of slip on this feature arguments for very large displacements have been based on indirect lines of evidence e g geothermobarometric data that are multiply interpretable however new field work and remote sensing data reported here directly support the petrologic arguments for large displacements at least in the eastern himalaya near the western boundary of bhutan the trace of the stfs is apparently offset 70 km across a nne ssw trending graben the yadong cross structure this offset has been attributed by previous authors to left lateral slip along the jomolhari fault system which bounds the eastern edge of the graben in fact the basal structure of the stfs is not offset but forms a regionally continuous low angle detachment surface the outcrop pattern of the structure kinematic indicators in fault related tectonites and the lack of matchable correlative hanging wall and footwall units require a minimum displacement of 65 km for the detachment such displacements are comparable with estimates for major contractional structures in the eastern himalaya such as the main central thrust system and confirm the importance of stfs extension in the evolution of the orogenic system

contact metamorphism and depth of emplacement of the manaslu granite central nepal implications for himalayan orogenesis abstract the manaslu massif central nepal provides a well exposed example of a deeply eroded pluton its contact aureole can be followed from the base to the top along medium to low grade mesozonal to anchizonal tethyan metasediments contact metamorphic mineral assemblages and thermobarometric estimations suggest that the granite was emplaced at 18 21 km for the base and 9 13 km for the roof calculated temperatures within the aureole at 550 40 c are compatible with the intrusion temperature of a leucogranitic magma microstructural evidence shows that the temperature remained high 500 c at the base of the massif during and after granite emplacement whereas towards the top of the granite deformation proceeded rapidly at lower temperature heating of the abundant calcareous rocks in the contact aureole released a local co2 rich fluid whereas a h2o and boron rich fluid seems to have pervaded the whole zone this fluid is probably exsolved from the granitic melt during its crystallization the depth of emplacement of the massif has an important implication for the reconstruction of the himalayan geodynamic evolution implying a burial of the tethyan metasediments by a major refolding of the sedimentary cover or more probably by extensive development of the north himalayan nappes towards the south for more than 70 km before granite emplacement i e before the miocene the young age of the granite and its depth of emplacement suggest a rapid tectonic denudation in the order of 1 mm a 1 probably by normal faulting north of the massif during its cooling

development of extension faults on the oblique thrust ramp hanging wall example from the tethys himalaya abstract inhomogeneous strain at late stages of deformation of modelling clay models with frontal and oblique thrust ramp geometries results in formation of extension faults on the hanging wall the extension faults trend nearly parallel to the axis of maximum compression and orthogonal to the trend of the frontal ramp faults with similar geometries occur in the upper satluj river basin of the tethys himachal himalaya the experimental results help in understanding the present day normal faulting and related active tectonics of the area

correlation between melting deformation and fluid interaction in the continental crust of the high himalayas langtang valley nepal combined metamorphic stable isotope and structural studies from the high himalayan crystalline sequence in the langtang valley of north central nepal reveal a strong positive correlation between distance above the base of the section the main central thrust the amount of melt material and evidence of prolonged fluid and deformation histories thus suggesting that these processes are strongly interdependent kyanite grade rocks at the base of the section are unmelted and have undergone little syn or post metamorphic internal deformation and little prograde or retrograde fluid rock interaction by contrast sillimanite grade rocks higher in the section contain progressively larger volumes of melt have suffered increasingly complex syn and post metamorphic deformation and show increasing evidence for the presence of fluids although the factors that initiated these processes remain problematic it is suggested that fluid distributions within the langtang section have been passively controlled by the movement of melts these melts may have provided a primary control on deformation during both the magmatic stage and subsequently through the exsolution of exsolved aqueous fluids

spatiotemporal variation in exhumation of the crystallines in the nw himalaya india constraints from fission track dating analysis abstract during himalayan orogeny coeval thrusting along the main central munsiari thrust mct mt and extension along the south tibetan detachment system stds are widely responsible for rapid exhumation of the higher himalayan crystalline hhc zone apatite and zircon fission track data along the kaliganga and darma valleys in the kumaon himalaya serve to document the shallow bedrock exhumation history of the hhc taking into account sample location within the hhc with respect to the mct mt the apatite fission track aft data sets along the darma 1 0 0 1 to 2 8 0 3 ma and kaliganga 1 4 0 2 to 2 4 0 3 ma which are sharing same structural setting and rock types and being separated by 40 km show very similar patterns of exhumation histories since plio quaternary in the kumaon himalaya data sets along darma and kaliganga are very similar to data set of adjacent traverse 50 km away along the goriganga valley studied by patel and carter 2009 whole data sets within the hhc in kumaon himalaya provide clear evidence for plio quaternary tectonic activity along the vaikrita thrust vt precipitation in this region exerts a strong influence on erosional surface processes fluvial erosional unloading along the himalaya is focused on the high mountainous region of the hhc where the orographic barrier forces out the maximum percentage of annual rainfall ft cooling ages reveal coincidence between rapid erosion and exhumation that is focused in a 25 30 km wide sector of the hhc rather than covering the entire orogen similarity of aft age pattern and exhumation rates along all three major traverses goriganga darma and kaliganga indicates that the region has been experiencing constant rate of crustal uplift and erosion since long time comparison of fission track ages from the kumaon himalaya with other segments of the nw himalaya shows spatiotemporal variation in exhumation it is described due to the development of local structures such as dome window in jammu and kashmir and himachal himalayas and quaternary active thrusting along the vt and mct mt in the garhwal kumaon himalaya

polyphase metamorphism and the development of the main central thrust along a cross section through the lesser and higher himalayan units at the kishtwar window area north west india a polyphase barrovian type metamorphism has been delineated in relation to the development of the main central thrust mct in the metapelitic mineral assemblages three metamorphic phases have been distinguished a conditions up to amphibolite grade at moderate to high pressures alm rut ilm kya qtz characterize the m1 phase b pressure release and or temperature increase as a result of movement along the mct and the formation of gneiss domes in the higher himalaya as expressed by oriented n70 100 e fibrolite defines the m2 phase and c finally during uplift of the kishtwar window area a retrogressive m3 phase is characterized by the assemblage quartz muscovite chlorite both optically zoned and single stage garnets have been examined with the electron microprobe to determine their element partitioning normal zoning has been found in samples below the mct in the lesser himalaya indicating prograde growth during the m2 phase whereas tectonically above in the higher himalaya unit the garnets reveal double stage growth with a complex zoning pattern due to reaction partitioning during m1 and m2 and reverse zoning at their rims during the retrogressive m3 phase geothermometry on metapelites along a cross section through the mct zone and the higher himalaya imply distinct readjustments of garnet biotite exchange equilibria and indicate isothermal conditions 500 600 c throughout the section during the m3 retrogression pressure calculations gro an kya qtz and alm rut ilm kya qtz suggest a decrease in pressure towards the top of the section 6 7 5 to 4 5 5 kbar as corroborated by fibrolite replacing kyanite the spatially inverse metamorphism exposed within the lesser himalaya of the kishtwar window is regarded as a product of polyphase metamorphism combined with ongoing thrusting and shearing and is reflected by condensed m2 isograds around the kishtwar window

the crystalline units of the high himalayas in the lahul zanskar region northwest india metamorphic tectonic history and geochronology of the collided and imbricated indian plate in the high himalayan belt of northwest india crustal thickening linked to palaeogene collision between india and eurasia has led to the formation of two main crystalline tectonic units separated by the syn metamorphic miyar thrust the high himalayan crystallines sensu stricto hhc at the bottom and the kade unit at the top these units are structurally interposed between the underlying lesser himalaya and the very low grade sediments of the tibetan nappes they consist of paragneisses orthogneisses minor metabasics and chiefly in the hhc leucogranites the hhc registers a polyphase metamorphism with two main stages designated as m1 and m2 a metamorphic zonation with high temperature recrystallization and migmatization at middle structural levels and medium temperature assemblages at upper and lower levels in contrast the kade unit underwent a low temperature metamorphism rb sr and u th pb isotope data point to derivation of the orthogneisses from early palaeozoic granitoids while the leucogranites formed by anatexis of the hhc rocks and were probably emplaced during miocene time most of the complicated metamorphic setting is related to polyphase tectonic stacking of the hhc with the cooler kade unit and lesser himalaya during the himalayan history however a few inconsistencies exist for a purely himalayan age of some ml assemblages of the hhc as regards the crustal derived leucogranites the formation of a first generation mixed with quartzo feldspathic leucosomes was possibly linked to melt lubricated shear zones which favoured rapid crustal displacements at upper levels they intruded during stage m2 and the latest movements along the syn metamorphic miyar thrust but before juxtaposition of the tibetan nappes along the late metamorphic zanskar fault

orogen parallel ductile extension and extrusion of the greater himalaya in the late oligocene and miocene 1 predominant stretching structures in the greater himalayan crystalline complex ghc trend perpendicular to the belt and are linked to the southward exhumation or emplacement of the ghc between the south tibet detachment std and the main central thrust however our field investigations in southern tibet reveal the widespread presence of gently dipping shear zones with a penetrative orogen parallel stretching lineation which separates the tethyan himalayan sequence and the underlying ghc the shear zones are well preserved in the upper part of the ghc south to and structurally lower than the std field criteria microstructures and quartz fabrics indicate top to the east shearing in the yadong shear zone eastern ghc coexistence of top to the east and top to the west shearing in the nyalam shear zone central ghc but top to the west shearing in the pulan shear zone western ghc characteristic microstructures and slip systems of quartz in the high grade ghc rocks resulted from the lateral flow under upper amphibolite up to 650 700 c to greenschist facies conditions u pb ages of metamorphic zircon rims by sensitive high resolution ion microprobe shrimp and laser ablation multi collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la mc icp ms analyses yield 28 26 ma for the initiation of the yadong and nyalam shear zones and 22 15 ma for the activation of the pulan shear zone in addition 40ar 39ar cooling ages of biotite and muscovite suggest cessation of ductile sharing at 13 11 ma on the yadong shear zone which is coeval with the activation of the std combined with previous studies we propose that initiation of orogen parallel extension marks the transition from burial crustal thickening to exhumation of the ghc due to lateral crustal thickness gradients in a thickened crust orogen parallel gravitational collapse occurred within the convergent himalayan orogen in the late oligocene miocene this tectonic denudation triggered and enhanced partial melting and ductile extrusion of the ghc in the miocene

nappe tectonics extension and metamorphic evolution in the indian tethys himalaya higher himalaya se zanskar and nw lahul in the southern part of the indian tethys himalaya between se zanskar and nw lahul nappe tectonics with transport toward the wsw during the main deformation phase has been ascertained if the stratigraphy of the different units considered as nappes is combined it results in a composite section ranging from lower cambrian to middle cretaceous a metamorphism of amphibolite facies in the lowest unit is associated with the nappe stacking the lower miocene cooling ages of metamorphic biotite and muscovite suggest that the nappe emplacement starts at the oligocene or at the oligocene eocene boundary after the compressional phases an extension provokes the reactivation of older main thrusts as normal fault and the formation of a steeply dipping normal fault this interpretation is based on detailed mapping

analogue models of laccolith formation abstract this paper describes dynamically scaled analogue models of laccolithic intrusions experiments consisted of the injection of a newtonian fluid low viscosity silicone putty into a sandpack with or without an interbedded ductile layer of silicone putty acting as a potential decollement level boundary conditions were chosen to analyze the influence of the thickness of the brittle cover and of the decollement layer on the pattern of intrusion further experiments were made to examine the effects of an extensional regime during intrusion experiments showed that 1 laccolith formation requires the occurrence of a decollement layer between two competent units 2 the critical thickness of the decollement layer necessary for laccolith formation decreases with increasing depth 3 laccoliths change from lenses to bell shaped with decreasing overburden 4 for a constant thickness of the decollement layer the largest diameter of laccoliths is proportional to the thickness of the overburden and 5 a syn injection gravitational sliding regime results in an asymmetric laccolith with amplification of the bell shape

subsidence history of the tethys himalaya abstract this article reconstructs the evolution of the passive northern margin of peninsular india facing the neotethys from the earliest rifting stages in the carboniferous to final collision with the active southern margin of asia in the early eocene classical techniques of basin analysis were applied to an extensive and coherent stratigraphic data base facies analysis biostratigraphic dating and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of an over 10 km thick sedimentary succession from eight main composite sections allowed us to draw accurate sedimentation and backstripped subsidence curves and to place quantitative constraints on the palaeotectonic scenario inferred from the sedimentary record in each of the investigated composite sections three major stratigraphic gaps are consistently recognised in the rift sequence the rift unconformity mississippian the carboniferous permian hiatus largely kasimovian to asselian and the break up unconformity mid sakmarian two or even all three gaps may merge into a single hiatus spanning up to 70 ma overall gaps are associated with rift shoulder uplift which after calculation of backstripped subsidence sums up to 600 m at least in three of the investigated sections thermal subsidence and low sedimentation rates are documented by the mid permian to middle triassic drift sequence deposited while the neotethys was expanding between northern gondwana and the detached peri gondwanan blocks a marked increase in accumulation rates is recorded in the carnian norian but calculations of uniform lithospheric stretching suggest that extension was minor and associated with tectonic processes affecting distant parts of gondwana the tethys himalayan margin was uplifted around the jurassic cretaceous boundary at the onset of a major volcanic episode finally uplift exceeding in magnitude all previous events is documented by the uppermost units of the stratigraphic column deposited during the earliest stages of collision between india and asia in the latest paleocene to early eocene

tectonic evolution of the high himalaya in upper lahul nw himalaya india the upper lahul region in the nw himalaya is located in the transition zone between the high himalayan crystalline hhc to the sw and the tethyan zone sedimentary series to the ne the tectonic evolution of these domains during the himalayan orogeny is the consequence of a succession of five deformation events an early dl phase corresponds to synmetamorphic ne verging folding this deformation created the tandi syncline which consists of permian to jurassic tethyan metasediments cropping out in the core of a large scale synformal fold within the hhc paragneiss this tectonic event is interpreted as related to a ne directed nappe stacking shikar beh nappe probably during the late eocene to the early oligocene a subsequent d2a phase caused sw verging folding in the hhc this deformation is interpreted as contemporaneous with late oligocene to early miocene sw directed thrusting along the main central thrust in the tethyan zone a d2b phase is marked by a decollement thrust a system of reverse faults and gentle folds associated with sw directed tectonic movements this deformation is related to an imbricate structure characteristic of a shallow structural level and developed in the frontal part of a nappe affecting the tethyan zone units of se zanskar nyimaling tsarap nappe a later d3 phase generated the chandra dextral shear zone cdsz a large scale ductile dextral strike slip shear zone located in the transition zone between the hhc and the tethyan himalaya the cdsz most likely represents a part of a system of early miocene extensional and or dextral strike slip shear zones observed at the hhc tethyan zone contact along the entire himalaya a final d4 phase induced large scale doming and ne verging back folding

himalayan leucogranites and migmatites nature timing and duration of anatexis widespread anatexis was a regional response to the evolution of the himalayan tibetan orogen that occurred some 30 ma after collision between asia and india this paper reviews the nature timing duration and conditions of anatexis and leucogranite formation in the greater himalayan sequence ghs and compares them to contemporaneous granites in the karakoram mountains himalayan leucogranites and associated migmatites generally share a number of features along the length of the mountain front such as similar timing and duration of magmatism common source rocks and clockwise p t paths despite commonalities most papers emphasize deviations from this general pattern indicating a fine tuned local response to the dominant evolution there are significant differences in p t xh2o conditions during anatexis and timing in relation to regional decompression further to that some regions underwent a second event recording melting at low pressures zircon and monazite ages of anatectic rocks range between c 25 and 15 ma suggesting prolonged crustal melting typically a single sample may have ages covering most of this 10 ma period suggesting recycling of accessory phases from metamorphic rocks and early formed magmas recent studies linking monazite and zircon ages with their composition have determined the timing of prograde melting and retrograde melt crystallization thus constraining the duration of the anatectic cycle in some areas this cycle becomes younger down section towards the leading front of the himalayas whereas the opposite is true in other areas the relationship between granites and movement on the south tibetan detachment std reveals that fault motion took place at different times and over different durations requiring complex internal strain distribution along the himalayas the nature and fate of magmas in the ghs contrast with those in the karakoram mountains ghs leucogranites have a strong crustal isotopic signature and migration is controlled by low angle foliation leading to diffuse injection complexes concentrated below the std in contrast the steep attitude of the karakoram shear zone focused magma transfer feeding the large karakoram baltoro batholith anatexis in the karakoram involved a cretaceous calcalkaline batholith that provided leucogranites with more juvenile isotopic signatures the impact of melting on the evolution of the himalayas has been widely debated melting has been used to explain subsequent decompression or conversely decompression has been used to explain melting weakening due to melting has also been used to support channel flow models for extrusion of the ghs or alternatively to suggest it triggered a change in its critical taper in view of the variable nature of anatexis and of motion on the std it is likely that anatexis had only a second order effect in modulating strain distribution with little effect on the general history of deformation thus despite all kinds of local differences strain distribution over time was such that it maintained the well defined arc that characterizes this orogen this was likely the result of a self organized forward motion of the arc controlled by the imposed convergence history and energy conservation balancing accumulation of potential energy and dissipation independent of the presence or absence of melt

progress in paleoclimate modeling this paper briefly surveys areas of paleoclimate modeling notable for recent progress new ideas including hypotheses giving a pivotal role to sea ice have revitalized the low order models used to simulate the time evolution of glacial cycles through the pleistocene a prohibitive length of time for comprehensive general circulation models gcms in a recent breakthrough however gcms have succeeded in simulating the onset of glaciations this occurs at times most recently 115 kyr b p when high northern latitudes are cold enough to maintain a snow cover and tropical latitudes are warm enhancing the moisture source more generally the improvement in models has allowed simulations of key periods such as the last glacial maximum and the mid holocene that compare more favorably and in more detail with paleoproxy data these models now simulate enso cycles and some of them have been shown to reproduce the reduction of enso activity observed in the early to middle holocene modeling studies have demonstrated that the reduction is a response to the altered orbital configuration at that time an urgent challenge for paleoclimate modeling is to explain and to simulate the abrupt changes observed during glacial epochs i e dansgaard oescher cycles heinrich events and the younger dryas efforts have begun to simulate the last millennium over this time the forcing due to orbital variations is less important than the radiance changes due to volcanic eruptions and variations in solar output simulations of these natural variations test the models relied on for future climate change projections they provide better estimates of the internal and naturally forced variability at centennial time scales elucidating how unusual the recent global temperature trends are

on the structure and origin of major glaciation cycles 1 linear responses to milankovitch forcing time series of ocean properties provide a measure of global ice volume and monitor key features of the wind driven and density driven circulations over the past 400 000 years cycles with periods near 23 000 41 000 and 100 000 years dominate this climatic narrative when the narrative is examined in a geographic array of time series the phase of each climatic oscillation is seen to progress through the system in essentially the same geographic sequence in all three cycles we argue that the 23 000 and 41 000 year cycles of glaciation are continuous linear responses to orbitally driven changes in the arctic radiation budget and we use the phase progression in each climatic cycle to identify the main pathways along which the initial local responses to radiation are propagated by the atmosphere and ocean early in this progression deep waters of the southern ocean appear to act as a carbon trap to stimulate new observations and modeling efforts we offer a process model that gives a synoptic view of climate at the four end member states needed to describe the system s evolution and we propose a dynamic system model that explains the phase progression along causal pathways by specifying inertial constants in a chain of four subsystems solutions to problems involving systems of such complexity are not born full grown like athena from the head of zeus rather they evolve slowly in stages each of which requires a pause to examine data at great lengths in order to guarantee a sure footing and to properly choose the next step victor p starr

sequencing events across the permian triassic boundary guryul ravine kashmir india abstract the permian triassic boundary ptb section at guryul ravine kashmir india comprises a 100 m thick apparently conformable succession of mixed siliciclastic carbonate sediments deposited in a deep shelf or ramp setting this section although long important in debates concerning placement of the ptb has not previously been the focus of an integrated chemostratigraphic study in the present study samples from a 20 m thick interval straddling the ptb were analyzed for major and trace element concentrations toc tic rees and organic 13c 15n to investigate contemporaneous environmental changes the guryul ravine section exhibits a sequence of discrete events that provide potentially important information about the character and cause s of the ptb two transient negative c isotopic excursions within the upper changxingensis zone predate the late permian event horizon lpeh i e the global mass extinction event by 200 400 kyr and are associated with the onset of a major eustatic rise and with secondary extinction peaks these excursions may record minor environmental disturbances prior to the main end permian crisis supporting an intrinsic mechanism such as volcanism and climate change rather than an extrinsic mechanism such as a bolide impact the onset of a large 4 0 to 4 5 sustained negative c isotope shift marks the lpeh which is located at the zewan khunamuh formation contact 260 cm below the biostratigraphically defined ptb the guryul ravine section exhibits a stepwise extinction pattern with the largest peak between the lpeh and ptb and a secondary peak just above the ptb a pattern similar to that observed in the meishan d gssp

a solution of the nonlinear boussinesq equation for phreatic flow using an integral balance approach abstract an analytical solution of the nonlinear boussinesq equation is presented using the integral balance method the solution obtained is the same as that obtained by basak 1979 following a different approach

a low order dynamical model of global climatic variability over the full pleistocene a previously formulated dynamical model of the late pleistocene ice ages based on the hypothesis that the global co sub 2 system can provide the instability to drive a natural oscillation involving feedbacks between the cryosphere atmosphere and ocean is extended to include 1 additive earth orbital forcing summer insolation changes at 65 degree n and 2 tectonic forcing in the form of a postulated variation in the multiplicative parameters rate constants of the model system the structural e g bifurcation properties of the model are examined in detail to reveal the regions of parameter space wherein the geologically inferred features of the full pleistocene can be simulated including the observed chronology the phase relationships between ice co sub 2 and north atlantic deep water formation and the mid pleistocene transition

quantitative estimate of the milankovitch forced contribution to observed quaternary climate change a number of records commonly described as showing control of climate change by milankovitch insolation forcing are reexamined the fraction of the record variance attributable to orbital changes never exceeds 20 in no case including a tuned core do these forcing bands explain the overall behavior of the records at zero order all records are consistent with stochastic models of varying complexity with a small superimposed milankovitch response mainly in the obliquity band evidence cited to support the hypothesis that the 100 ka glacial interglacial cycles are controlled by the quasi periodic insolation forcing is likely indistinguishable from chance given the small sample size andnear integer ratios of 100 ka to the precessional period s at the least the stochastic background noise is likely to be of importance r 2004 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

the spectral description of climate change including the 100 ky energy core records both ice and deep sea suggest that the dominant character is that of a red noise process or random walk examination of a few typical records supports the inference that the contribution of the milankovitch frequencies to climate change at most represents only a small fraction of total climate variance most spectral densities are sufficiently flat that rates of change will be dominated by the highest frequencies present in the forcing a broad maximum near 100 ky period can be readily rationalized without invoking an oscillator one need only suppose that there is an approximate threshold beyond which the climate system collapses the quasiperiodicity is then governed by a combination of the collapse threshold the system memory time scale and the intensity of the stochastic forcing changes in the forcing intensity would lead to a shift in the dominant time scale some inferred spectral power laws may be inaccurate owing to undersampling of the records

cause and effect among thrust and normal faulting anatectic melting and exhumation in the himalaya the transition from compression to extension in a regime of overall convergence in a narrow mountain belt requires a change with time in at least one of the following horizontal normal stress applied to the belt by its surroundings the distribution of shear traction on the base of the belt the constitutive relation between stress and strain rate of material in the belt itself the surface height of the belt the following processes could have caused one or other of these changes in the himalaya in miocene time and thus could have triggered the onset of extension by normal faulting on planes parallel to thrust faults that were active at the same time the shear stress on the thrust fault at the base of the himalaya could have decreased for instance because of melting on the fault plane alternatively the creation of a new deeper thrust fault and hence a new locus of convergence could have initiated extensional faulting if the distribution of shear stress on the new thrust fault were unable to support the himalaya above it the himalaya could have been weakened by an increase in pore fluid pressure for instance owing to metamorphic dehydration reactions within the wedge the himalaya could have been elevated for instance following the detachment of a tongue of mantle lithosphere from beneath it or by the underthrusting of a lens of material beneath its base the apparent simultaneity of thrust and normal faulting on nearly parallel planes of anatexis and of exhumation in the himalaya in miocene time can be explained if normal faulting was responsible for most of the exhumation and through decompression melting for anatexis existing data suggest that the most probable cause for miocene normal faulting was either uplift of the himalaya or the cessation of slip on the main central thrust at the base of the orogenic wedge and the creation of a new deeper thrust fault and a new base to the deforming himalaya 1993 the geological society

tectonic evolution of the boundary between the central iberian and ossa morena zones variscan belt southwest spain three tectonometamorphic units can be differentiated in the boundary between the central iberian and ossa morena zones of the iberian massif variscan belt the three units have been named the northern unit central unit and southern unit the northern unit corresponds to the border of the central iberian zone it evolved at low temperature and intermediate or low pressure metamorphic conditions and was affected by top to the se ductile shearing the central unit placed under the northern unit preserves high pressure silurian eclogitic assemblages retrograded by high to medium temperature and finally low temperature ductile shearing with top to the nw sense of movement oblique left lateral the central unit is superposed on the southern unit the latter corresponds to the border of the ossa morena zone and underwent low pressure intermediate temperature metamorphism synchronous with right lateral top to the se ductile shearing the envisaged tectonic evolution is as follows after a stage of lower paleozoic rifting subduction of the central unit under the northern unit took place in silurian times as a result of the crustal thickening a gravitational instability developed giving way to left lateral extensional shearing that affected the entire central unit the combined action of oblique thrusting at the front of the wedge and oblique extensional shearing at the rear caused the exhumation of the high pressure rocks of the central unit this tectonic evolution reveals that the boundary between the central iberian and ossa morena zones is a suture of the variscan belt

ductile extrusion of the higher himalayan crystalline in bhutan evidence from quartz microfabrics quartz textures measured from deformed quartz tectonites within the lesser himalaya and higher himalaya crystalline of bhutan show similar patterns orientation and distribution of the quartz crystallographic axes were used to confirm the regional shear sense the asymmetry of c axis and a axis patterns consistently indicates top to the south shearing the obliquity of the texture and the inferred finite strain plane strain to moderately constrictional suggest the strain regime had a combination of rotational and irrotational strain path in most of the samples from the bhutan himalaya the inferred deformation mechanisms suggest moderate to high temperature conditions of deformation that produced the observed crystallographic preferred orientation much higher temperature of deformation is indicated in the quartz veins from a leucogranite the observed ductile deformation is pervasively developed in the rocks throughout the investigated area the intensity of deformation increases only slightly in the vicinity of the main central thrust simultaneous southward shearing within a large part of the higher himalaya crystalline near and above the main central thrust and normal faulting across the south tibetan detachment is explained by the tectonically induced extrusion of a ductily deforming wedge the process of extrusive flow suggested here can be approximated quantitatively by channel flow models that have been used to describe subduction zone processes channel flow accounts for some observed phenomena in the himalayan orogen such as inverted metamorphic sequences near the main central thrust not related to an inversion of isotherms and the syntectonic emplacement of leucogranites into the extruding wedge locally leading to an inversion of isotherms due to heat advection

zanskar shear zone northeast southwest extension within the higher himalayas ladakh india a complete geologic section through the northwestern himalayas is well exposed in ladakh india the collision between the indian shield and the tibetan platform caused large scale intracrustal thrusting and piling up of the himalayan nappes this compressional event was accompanied by prograde regional metamorphism the metamorphism ranges from low grade anchimetamorphism in the indus suture zone in the northeast to upper amphibolite grade in the higher himalaya tectonic unit in the southwest in the zanskar area a well exposed and morphologically prominent shear zone 2 25 to 6 75 km wide can be followed from the northwest to the southeast for at least 80 km in contrast to the main compressional tectonics this shear zone indicates an extensional event within the higher himalaya tectonic unit the zanskar shear zone involves granitic rocks leucogranites of miocene age and various metasediments and in general separates the late precambrian early cambrian sedimentary sequence phe formation from the underlying crystalline basement zanskar crystalline unit a normal sense of shear has been determined by using asymmetric macroscopic and microscopic structures such as pegmatite boudins feldspar augen and crystallographic fabrics the metamorphic isograds are very close within this shear zone as a result of shear deformation a gradual transition from upper amphibolite to lower greenschist facies occurs within 200 m movement in this zone occurred late in the metamorphic history under greenschist or lower metamorphic conditions the minimum horizontal extension and vertical displacement are on the order of 16 and 19 km respectively

a model for continental crust genesis by arc accretion rare earth element evidence from the irish caledonides abstract the formation of continental crust is a complex problem with a paradox at its center continental material is believed to form by arc magmatism a model that does not reconcile the bulk mafic and light rare earth element lree depleted composition of intra oceanic arcs with the andesitic lree enriched composition of continents we present evidence supporting an arc origin for continental crust by demonstrating significant changes in magmatic chemistry during arc continent collision we use as an example the connemara region of the western irish caledonides where metamorphism and orogenesis of dalradian sedimentary sequences record the collision of the oceanic lough nafooey arc with the passive margin of laurentia at 475 ma arenig this arc was mafic and lree depleted during its oceanic activity during collision rhyolites more lree enriched than the surrounding continental crust were erupted while the mid crust was intruded by similarly lree enriched gabbro and diorite crystal fractionation caused lree enrichment to exceed that expected by assimilation of continental crust alone we propose that subsequent loss of the corresponding lower crustal cumulates into the mantle removed this lree depleted material from the net crust added to the continent the combined processes of crystal fractionation and lower crustal loss during arc continent collision drive the average bulk arc composition toward that of average continental crust

detrital zircon fission track ages from the lower cenozoic sediments nw himalayan foreland basin clues for exhumation and denudation of the himalaya during the india asia collision detrital zircon fission track ft ages from the lower cenozoic sub himalayan foreland basin reflect the progressive effects of crustal thickening and exhumation on the himalayan source rocks as a consequence of the india asia collision the oldest stratum the transgressive marine paleocene eocene subathu formation 57 41 5 ma contains ca 50 ma detrital zircon p1 peak which was derived from the indus tsangpo suture zone and the ladakh batholith of the asian plate a dominant 302 4 21 9 ma peak with a few 520 ma grains in this formation has been derived by erosion of the zircon partial annealing zone zpaz of 240 180 c as the first imprint of the collision this zone affected the himalayan proterozoic basement and its tethyan sedimentary cover since the detritus in the subathu has been derived both from the indian and asian plates the possible suturing of these plates took place during the subathu sedimentation a sudden change in the provenance is recorded in the detrital zircon ft cooling ages in the oligo miocene dagshai and kasauli formations which have dominant 30 and 25 ma p1 peaks respectively we interpret a distinct unconformity spanning 10 m y between the subathu and dagshai formations since ca 30 ma molassic sedimentation coincides with shifting of the source rocks to the himalayan metamorphic belt this belt has sequentially undergone three distinct cooling and exhumation pulses after the ultrahigh pressure high pressure uhp hp metamorphism 53 50 ma in the extreme north and two widespread m1 and m2 metamorphisms 40 30 and 25 15 ma in the middle parts these events appear to be largely responsible for the deposition of the ca 30 ma zircon himalayan peak and ca 25 and 15 ma young himalayan peaks respectively the latter appears within the lower siwalik subgroup 13 11 ma during the lower siwalik deposition pre himalayan peaks gradually decrease with the intensification of the himalayan events in source rocks in spite of uninterrupted fluvial sedimentation in the dagshai kasauli lower siwalik sequences since 30 ma breaks of 5 7 m y in the zircon ft ages reveal pulsative cooling and exhumation in the well identified source areas although cooling and exhumation of the himalayan source rocks remained almost uniform during the eocene source heterogeneity is reflected in fluvial sedimentation since 37 ma from pakistan to nepal in response to the india asia collision

compressional metamorphic core complexes low angle normal faults and extensional fabrics in compressional tectonic settingscompressional core complexesm searle t lamont metamorphic core complexes mccs are interpreted as domal structures exposing ductile deformed high grade metamorphic rocks in the core underlying a ductile to brittle high strain detachment that experienced tens of kilometres of normal sense displacement in response to lithospheric extension extension is supposedly the driving force that has governed exhumation however numerous core complexes notably himalayan karakoram and pamir domes occur in wholly compressional environments and are not related to lithospheric extension we suggest that many mccs previously thought to form during extension are instead related to compressional tectonics pressures of kyanite and sillimanite grade rocks in the cores of many of these domes are c 10 14 kbar approximating to exhumation from depths of c 35 45 km too great to be accounted for solely by isostatic uplift the evolution of high grade metamorphic rocks is driven by crustal thickening shortening regional barrovian metamorphism isoclinal folding and ductile shear in a compressional tectonic setting prior to regional extension extensional fabrics commonly associated with all these core complexes result from reverse flow along an orogenic channel channel flow following peak metamorphism beneath a passive roof stretching fault in naxos low angle normal faults associated with regional aegean extension cut earlier formed compressional folds and metamorphic fabrics related to crustal shortening and thickening the fact that low angle normal faults exist in both extensional and compressional tectonic settings and can actively slip at low angles c 60 is needed

water flow from a horizontal tunnel in an unsaturated zone flow from a horizontal tunnel in an unsaturated zone is an important factor in calculation of water loss from the conveying tunnel and in predicting the amount of water table build up this study has investigated the three dimensional unsaturated flow from a tunnel by using the linearized richards equation it superposes the point source solution along the tunnel axis to yield the line source solution for treating the tunnel surface as a saturated water content boundary this study first provides an empirical function to numerically calculate the flux distribution along the tunnel axis it then provides an analytical solution to calculate flow from the tunnel we find that the recharge rate from a horizontal tunnel decreases with time and gradually approaches a steady state rate the recharge increases with increasing tunnel length and radius and also with increasing the pore size distribution parameter of the soil the vertical downward recharge beneath the tunnel becomes constant and equals the total recharge from the tunnel at late time

a northern lead in the orbital band north south phasing of ice age events abstract re analysis of existing data sets shows that they are fully consistent with northern insolation control of ice age cycles and do not provide strong support for alternate models invoking tropical or southern controls the coldest time of the last 100 ka in central greenland was nearly synchronous with the minimum in summer insolation about 24 ka bp thousand years before 1950 approximately one third of the total termination i warming since then was achieved over the almost 10 ka before the abrupt warming into the bolling which some workers have interpreted as the start of the warming southern warming as recorded in the byrd station antarctica ice isotopic record lagged northern warming co2 rise was roughly synchronous with southern warming methane rise may have been delayed a little as was sea level rise and the change in the isotopic composition of atmospheric oxygen was delayed significantly the data for the extrema just before termination ii are consistent with occurrence of the same phasing as for termination i but with somewhat different progression of the two terminations once initiated perhaps because of differences in the forcing

early onset and origin of 100 kyr cycles in pleistocene tropical sst records abstract the large 100 kyr cycles evident in most late pleistocene 0 0 6 ma paleoclimatic records still lack a satisfactory explanation previous studies of the nature of the transition from the early pleistocene 1 2 1 8 ma 41 kyr dominated climate regime to the 100 kyr world have been based almost exclusively on benthic foraminiferal oxygen isotopic 18o data it is generally accepted that the late pleistocene 100 kyr cycles represent a newly evolved sensitivity to eccentricity precession superimposed on an earlier and largely constant response to obliquity and precession forcing however orbitally resolved pleistocene sea surface temperature sst records from a variety of oceanic regions paint a rather different picture of the global climate transition across the mid pleistocene transition mpt 0 6 1 2 ma reanalysis of these sst records shows that 1 an early onset of strong 100 kyr like cycles in two low frequency bands 120 145 kyr and 60 80 kyr derived from the bundling of two three obliquity cycles into grand cycles obliquity subharmonics occurred in tropical sst records during the early pleistocene 2 these two early pleistocene periods converge into the late pleistocene 100 kyr period in tropical sst records 3 the dominance of 100 kyr sst power in the late pleistocene coincides with a dramatic decline in the 41 kyr sst power and 4 the correlation of timing of glacial terminations with eccentricity precession variation could well extend back into the early pleistocene we demonstrate that most of these features also occur in 18o records but in a much more subtle manner these features could be explained in two plausible ways a shift in climate sensitivity from obliquity to eccentricity precession a modified version of the conventional view or an increasingly nonlinear response to orbital obliquity across the mpt however our examination of the development of 100 kyr cycles favors an obliquity bundling mechanism to form late pleistocene 100 kyr cycles we therefore suggest that the late pleistocene 100 kyr climatic cycles are likely a nonlinear response to orbital obliquity although the timing of late pleistocene 100 kyr climatic cycles and their early forms appears to be paced by eccentricity precession

water table rise in a semiconfined aquifer due to surface infiltration and canal recharge abstract a general solution to the fluctuation of water table for unsteady state flow in a semiconfined and finite aquifer with recharge from canals and surface infiltration is presented the flow is assumed to be one dimensional in a horizontal direction with the recharging canals at different elevations the laplace transformation method is employed in the solution a numerical example is given for a flow situation in a hypothetical finite aquifer bounded by two recharging canals under vertical infiltration giving water table changes with respect to time

cambrian stratigraphy and depositional history of the northern indian himalaya spiti valley north central india recent work on himalayan tectonics indicates that prior to the cenozoic collision of india and asia an enigmatic cambrian ordovician event may have strongly infl uenced the regional geology of the himalaya stratigraphic and sedimentological analyses of well preserved cambrian deposits are critical for understanding the nature of this early tectonic event and its infl uence on the later tectonic evolution of the himalaya the parahio formation defi ned herein of the parahio valley spiti region in the tethyan himalaya of india is the best biostratigraphically resolved section of cambrian strata in the entire himalaya this formation consists of 1350 m of dominantly siliciclastic deltaic deposits the formation ranges from uppermost lower cambrian lungwangmiaoan stage to middle middle cambrian hsuchuangian stage representing a time span of 5 10 m y it contains numerous mediumscale shoaling cycles that range from storminfl uenced offshore deposits to thick trough cross bedded fl uvial facies many thin carbonate beds with abundant trilobite fossils directly overlie the fl uvial facies and represent transgressive systems tract deposits the cycles are interpreted to have resulted from delta lobe switching based on a lack of systematic stratigraphic changes in cycle or facies thicknesses this paleoenvironmental reconstruction contradicts previous interpretations of this unit that range from deep sea fl ysch to shallow marine tidalites in addition our paleoenvironmental analysis and paleocurrent data suggest that the uppermost lower to middle cambrian deposits of the lesser and tethyan himalaya are parts of the same ancient northward prograding fl uvial deltaic depositional system of the paleo tethys margin of india an angular unconformity with overlying ordovician conglomeratic rocks has considerable local relief with meter scale scours and a valley fi ll 100 m thick the scours have northeast southwest orientations which parallel both the paleocurrents in the underlying parahio formation as well as published paleocurrent readings from the coarse red beds of the overlying ordovician strata the cambrian ordovician unconformity is of regional extent and our recent biostratigraphic database indicates that the minimum hiatus associated with the unconformity in spiti is 15 m y our sedimentological analysis and associated paleocurrent data from the parahio formation along with additional data from units both above and below the unconformity indicate that published models portraying foreland basin development at this time with southward directed thrusting are problematic an alternate possibility that uplift took place south of the tethyan himalaya is also problematic because no published stratigraphic or structural evidence exists for such an uplift to the south for either the greater or the lesser himalaya lithotectonic zones

multicyclic history of the northern india continental margin northwestern himalaya 1 the geologic evolution of northern india is best recorded in the stratigraphic succession of the zanskar range northwestern himalaya which represents the most complete transect through this ancient continental margin sedimentary history began in the late proterozoic and recorded a late pan african orogenic event around the cambrian ordovician boundary when the gondwana supercontinent was eventually assembled the following long period of epicontinental deposition in shallow seas linked to palaeo tethys lasted until the early permian when a neo tethyan rift began to open between paleo india and the cimmerian microcontinents neo tethyan history can be subdivided into two sedimentary megasequences both recording a major tectonic and magmatic event in the lower part the first one began with breakup in the late permian and lasted until the end of the jurassic the second one started in the early cretaceous with the final detachment of india from gondwana and the opening of the indian ocean and ended with the india eurasia collision in the early eocene the two megasequences can be in turn subdivided into six transgressive regressive supersequences bounded by tectonically enhanced unconformities basal sandstone units of early permian late permian norian callovian early cretaceous and paleocene age are invariably associated with oolitic ironstones or reworked glauco phosphorites and mark the transgre sive part of each supersequence next condensed nodular carbonates or shales with pelagic fauna are typically overlain by thick shallowing upward marly units capped by regressive platformal carbonates the six tectono eustatic supercycles reflect successive rifting episodes which punctuated the progressive separation of india from the rest of gondwana and document the combination of plate microplate reorganizations and eustatic climatic and oceanographic changes in the tethyan domain after the onset of collision between india and asia close to the paleocene eocene boundary obduction of the remnants of the neo tethys ocean floor onto the indian margin began and the latter underwent multiphase deformation with fold thrust shortening followed by heating and extension after the main metamorphic event ophiolitic nappes were re thrusted and finally emplaced with their sedimentary sole on top of the passive margin succession

thermal model for the zanskar himalaya abstract crustal thickening along the northern margin of the indian plate following the 50 ma collision along the indus suture zone in ladakh caused widespread high temperature medium pressure barrovian facies series metamorphism and anatexis in the zanskar himalaya metamorphic isograds are inverted and structurally telescoped along the main central thrust mct zone at the base of the high himalayan slab along the zanskar valley at the top of the slab isograds are the right way up and are also telescoped along northeast dipping normal faults of the zanskar shear zone zsz which are related to culmination collapse behind the miocene himalayan thrust front between the mct and the zsz a metamorphic anatectic core within sillimanite grade rocks contains abundant leucogranite granite crustal melts of probable himalayan age a thermal model based on a crustal scale cross section across the zanskar himalaya suggests that m1 isograds developed during early himalayan barrovian metamorphism were overprinted during high grade mct related anatexis and folded around a large scale recumbent fold developed in the hanging wall of the mct

role of inversion tectonics in structural development of the himalaya abstract analysis of surface and subsurface structures variation of shortening amounts obtained by restoration of deformed cross sections and occurrence of younger hangingwall rocks over the older footwall rocks across the vaikrita thrust in the higher himalaya suggests reactivation of early normal faults as thrusts based on this an inversion tectonics model is proposed for structural development of the himalaya the model explains the geometrical shape of the himalaya as primary arcuation and helps in resolving superimposed deformation in the region

water table rise due to infiltration from canals abstract analytical solutions are presented for transient water table profiles in finite unconfined aquifers due to infiltration occurring from a single canal or more than one canal the aquifer boundaries are assumed to be parallel to the alignment of the canal s and the lower impervious bottom is horizontal further the aquifer is assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic losses such as evapotranspiration are ignored likewise replenishment from other sources for example rainfall is also neglected

microseismicity tectonics and seismic potential in the western himalayan segment nw himalaya india abstract the tectonics and seismic potential of the western himalayan segment 30 33 n 76 80 e of the nw himalayan india region have been determined in this study 423 earthquakes were located in the nw himalaya between 2004 and 2013 using more than 4495 p and 4453 s differential travel times to determine the moment tensors for 8 mw 4 0 of these earthquakes using their broadband regional waveforms the geometry of the main himalayan thrust mht plane which varies along the strike of the himalaya in flat and ramp segments with a dip ranging between 2 5 to 4 to 19 below the himalayan frontal thrust hft in the south to the south tibetan detachment std in the north has also been deduced in this study two crustal ramps were reported in this study with a depth variance below the main central thrust mct and to the south tibetan detachment std between 12 to 22 km and 28 to 40 km depth respectively the estimated earthquake potential prevailing in the western himalayan seismic gap lying between the epicentral zone of the 1905 kangra earthquake and the 1975 kinnaur earthquake reveals that the total amount of energy released since the last great event is only a fraction 3 5 of the accommodated energy i e 1 1e 28 dyne cm yr this suggests that if an earthquake hits this nw himalayan segment in the future its magnitude might be around mw 8 0

the thermal response of a metamorphic belt to extension constraints from laser ar data on metamorphic micas abstract metamorphic rocks may be exhumed to the surface either by isostatic rebound uplift and erosion or tectonically via thrusting or extension the latter mechanism is particularly important in the himalayas where a large extensional detachment system appears to be responsible for very fast unroofing at 20 ma here we present the results of a laser argon study of micas and quartz aimed at investigating the thermal response of an orogenic belt to such extension the data when combined with existing constraints on the prograde evolution lead to a uniquely complete thermal history for a metamorphic belt laser argon data are reported for quartz and micas from semi pelitic metamorphic rocks from the zanskar himalayas nw india the samples derive from three traverses extending from low grade rocks near the detachment to high grade rocks in the core of the belt most samples demonstrably contain no excess component and the ages of muscovite and biotite show a correlation with distance from the extensional detachment the ages themselves as well as the difference between the muscovite and biotite ages both increase as the detachment is approached muscovite and biotite ages from within the shear zone date deformation associated with extension at 20 25 ma the remaining data are most readily interpreted in terms of early slow cooling of the lower grade rocks near the detachment in response to erosional denudation before the detachment became active rocks in the core of the orogen were still heating at this time later fast cooling of the high grade rocks in the core of the belt ensued when the extensional regime became active simple heat transfer calculations based on the distance of the high grade rocks from the fault and the argon ages of their micas provide further constraints on the timing of extension and suggest that the fault first moved 23 25 ma ago and that it abruptly terminated metamorphism in the core of the metamorphic belt our analysis of the thermal history suggests that cooling and exhumation rates determined from metamorphic belts beneath extensional detachments will often be minima

transient water table rise with canal seepage and recharge abstract an analytical solution to the problem of water table rise in a finite length phreatic aquifer based on appropriate transformations is obtained the proposed solution is simpler than the available solution and for the selected illustrative numerical example gives fairly close results

a mechanism for syn collisional rock exhumation and associated normal faulting results from physical modelling abstract properly scaled physical modelling of the subduction of continental lithosphere is performed with a three layer lithospheric model the model includes a strong upper crust a weak ductile lower crust and a strong mantle part the lithosphere is underlain by a low viscosity asthenosphere subduction is produced by a piston push force and the pull force from the mantle lithospheric layer which is slightly denser than the asthenosphere the results of the modelling are tested on the example of the himalayas in the experiments all lithospheric layers subduct into the mantle to a depth corresponding to 200 300 km in nature until the upper crustal layer fails in front of the subduction zone forming a first major thrust fault the mct in our interpretation of the himalayas underthrusting along this fault increases relief which upon reaching a height corresponding to several kilometres in nature is removed mechanically by a blade the blade is moved horizontally back and forth throughout the experiment this erosional unloading mechanism causes the previously subducted segment of the buoyant upper crust to slide upward over the weak lower crust at a rate comparable to the subduction rate the rise of the crustal slice accelerates displacement along the crustal thrust while producing a normal sense motion and exhumation of the material from great depth up to 40 50 km depending on the model parameters along the upper surface of the slice the rapid uplift of the crust then ceases and the orogenesis occurs further due to continuing underthrusting along the first major thrust at a certain stage the crust fails again producing a new major crustal thrust the mbt in the himalayas

leucogranites of the himalaya karakoram implications for magmatic evolution within collisional belts and the study of collision related leucogranite petrogenesis abstract two types of leucogranite have been identified in a collisional setting in the himalaya type a e g manaslu high himalaya are syn tectonic crustal melts related to hot over cold thrusting and subsequent fluid fluxing type b e g baltoro karakoram is related to lower crustal melting during following crustal thickening and thermal re equilibration followed by crystal fractionation for type b melting is triggered promoted in the lower crust by input of heat and material from the sub continental lithospheric mantle which is contemporaneously melting due to removal of the slab input and downward displacement both these granite types can be explained in terms of recent thermal models for continental collision and so might be expected to be found in other orogenic terranes these models also show that extension and thinning will occur as a result of the crust becoming gravitationally unstable due to thickening some time after collision thinning will lead to upwelling and melting of asthenosphere which could then intrude the base of the crust and promote further melting this could explain the common occurrence of a type granitoids as final plutonic events in orogenic terranes following intrusion of the collision related type a and type b granites existing genetic classification schemes only classify granites in terms of source type or broad environmental affinity e g collisional to further subdivide such broad environmental fields it is considered that processes and a general evolutionary model must be used source type is not suitable due to the number of source components that are often involved and the overlap of these components from one environment to another one or two selected features of a granite are not however sufficiently exclusive to identify different petrogenetic histories we propose that an evaluation of field style mineralogy isotope and elemental geochemistry should be used to subdivide the collisional granite field into type a and type b or manaslu and baltoro types respectively

temperature and precipitation history of the arctic as the planet cooled from peak warmth in the early cenozoic extensive northern hemisphere ice sheets developed by 2 6 ma ago leading to changes in the circulation of both the atmosphere and oceans from not vert similar2 6 to not vert similar1 0 ma ago ice sheets came and went about every 41 ka in pace with cycles in the tilt of earth s axis but for the past 700 ka glacial cycles have been longer lasting not vert similar100 ka separated by brief warm interglaciations when sea level and ice volumes were close to present the cause of the shift from 41 ka to 100 ka glacial cycles is still debated during the penultimate interglaciation not vert similar130 to not vert similar120 ka ago solar energy in summer in the arctic was greater than at any time subsequently as a consequence arctic summers were not vert similar5 c warmer than at present and almost all glaciers melted completely except for the greenland ice sheet and even it was reduced in size substantially from its present extent with the loss of land ice sea level was about 5 m higher than present with the extra melt coming from both greenland and antarctica as well as small glaciers the last glacial maximum lgm peaked not vert similar21 ka ago when mean annual temperatures over parts of the arctic were as much as 20 c lower than at present ice recession was well underway 16 ka ago and most of the northern hemisphere ice sheets had melted by 6 ka ago solar energy reached a summer maximum 9 higher than at present not vert similar11 ka ago and has been decreasing since then primarily in response to the precession of the equinoxes the extra energy elevated early holocene summer temperatures throughout the arctic 1 3 c above 20th century averages enough to completely melt many small glaciers throughout the arctic although the greenland ice sheet was only slightly smaller than at present early holocene summer sea ice limits were substantially smaller than their 20th century average and the flow of atlantic water into the arctic ocean was substantially greater as summer solar energy decreased in the second half of the holocene glaciers re established or advanced sea ice expanded and the flow of warm atlantic water into the arctic ocean diminished late holocene cooling reached its nadir during the little ice age about 1250 1850 ad when sun blocking volcanic eruptions and perhaps other causes added to the orbital cooling allowing most arctic glaciers to reach their maximum holocene extent during the warming of the past century glaciers have receded throughout the arctic terrestrial ecosystems have advanced northward and perennial arctic ocean sea ice has diminished here we review the proxies that allow reconstruction of quaternary climates and the feedbacks that amplify climate change across the arctic we provide an overview of the evolution of climate from the hot house of the early cenozoic through its transition to the ice house of the quaternary with special emphasis on the anomalous warmth of the middle pliocene early quaternary warm times the mid pleistocene transition warm interglaciations of marine isotope stages 11 5e and 1 the stage 3 interstadial and the peak cold of the last glacial maximum

water table fluctuation in a sloping aquifer with transient recharge abstract an analytical solution of the linearized boussinesq equation with a complex transient recharge function is presented to describe the water table fluctuation in a sloping aquifer of finite width the solution is obtained by using an eigenvalue eigenfunction expansion method some previously known solutions for different recharge functions have been shown to be special cases of the present general solution applications of the solutions in prediction of the spatio temporal distribution of the water table in a ditch drainage system are illustrated with the help of synthetic examples

on the structure and origin of major glaciation cycles 2 the 100 000 year cycle climate over the past million years has been dominated by glaciation cycles with periods near 23 000 41 000 and 100 000 years in a linear version of the milankovitch theory the two shorter cycles can be explained as responses to insolation cycles driven by precession and obliquity but the 100 000 year radiation cycle arising from eccentricity variation is much too small in amplitude and too late in phase to produce the corresponding climate cycle by direct forcing we present phase observations showing that the geographic progression of local responses over the 100 000 year cycle is similar to the progression in the other two cycles implying that a similar set of internal climatic mechanisms operates in all three but the phase sequence in the 100 000 year cycle requires a source of climatic inertia having a time constant similar to 15 000 years much larger than the other cycles similar to 5 000 years our conceptual model identifies massive northern hemisphere ice sheets as this larger inertial source when these ice sheets forced by precession and obliquity exceed a critical size they cease responding as linear milankovitch slaves and drive atmospheric and oceanic responses that mimic the externally forced responses in our model the coupled system acts as a nonlinear amplifier that is particularly sensitive to eccentricity driven modulations in the 23 000 year sea level cycle during an interval when sea level is forced upward from a major low stand by a milankovitch response acting either alone or in combination with an internally driven higher frequency process ice sheets grounded on continental shelves become unstable mass wasting accelerates and the resulting deglaciation sets the phase of one wave in the train of 100 000 year oscillations whether a glacier or ice sheet influences the climate depends very much on the scale the interesting aspect is that an effect on the local climate can still make an ice mass grow larger and larger thereby gradually increasing its radius of influence

slope failure and denudation in the western himalaya slope failures glaciers and rivers constitute the three main agents of denudation in the himalaya failure of slopes is strongly controlled by bedrock geology especially at plate terrane boundaries although climatic and seismic controls of failure also occur slope failure complexes in the western himalaya studied for this report include the pakhar kaghan nanga parbat and atabad hunza areas with 23 different slope failures reported within all the complexes quantification of denudation by mass movement requires measurement of volumes and determination of timing of sediment emplacement and removal where possible to obtain better data on recurrence intervals and total geomorphic work performed in formation of the landscape the relation of mass movement to overall denudation by glaciers and rivers and its role in catastrophic floods and debris entrainment is assessed

structural insights into the early stages of exhumation along an orogen scale detachment the south tibetan detachment system dzakaa chu section eastern himalaya abstract structural transects through the south tibetan detachment system stds in the dzakaa chu valley tibet reveal a 1000 m thick low angle

structural and geochronological evidence for the leading edge of the greater himalayan crystalline complex in the central nepal himalaya abstract the himalaya is commonly described as a three layer two fault stack namely a high grade crystalline core featuring an inverted metamorphic field gradient the greater himalayan crystalline complex ghc is separated from units above and below by shear zones the lesser himalayan sequence lhs underlies the ghc below the main central thrust and the tethyan himalayan sequence ths overlies it along the south tibet detachment however the southern main central thrust hanging wall consists of a lower unit dominated by a right way up metamorphic sequence of biotite garnet schists bhimphedi group and an upper unit with only anchizone metamorphism pulchauki group the bhimphedi group is commonly equated to the ghc while the pulchauki group is well correlated to the ths however no shear zone separates these units we present new structural and geochronological data along the boundary between the ghc and the bhimphedi group in the kathmandu region these data reveal an 200 m thick early middle miocene top north northeast shear zone that we term the galchi shear zone we correlate this shear zone to the south tibet detachment on the basis of lithological metamorphic structural and chronological criteria the galchi shear zone merges with the main central thrust to the south bounding the leading edge of the ghc this result combined with recent work in the western himalaya suggests that the locally preserved leading edge of the ghc is sub parallel to the arc of the orogen and the southern main central thrust hanging wall is dominated by ths rocks this orogenic architecture rules out wedge extrusion and channel flow focused denudation kinematic models for the himalayan orogen but is accommodated by tectonic wedging kinematic models including channel tunneling models with modified timing

glacial cycles and astronomical forcing narrow spectral features in ocean sediment records offer strong evidence that the cycles of glaciation were driven by astronomical forces two million years ago the cycles match the 41 000 year period of earth s obliquity this supports the croll milankovitch theory which attributes the cycles to variations in insolation but for the past million years the spectrum is dominated by a single 100 000 year feature and is a poor match to the predictions of insolation models the spectrum can be accounted for by a theory that derives the cycles of glaciation from variations in the inclination of earth s orbital plane

a comparison of competing explanations for the 100 000 yr ice age cycle there currently exists no consensus as to the cause of the ice ages of the late pleistocene many of the competing hypotheses have been formulated into mathematical models which enables a rigorous comparison to be made spectral analysis fails to distinguish rival models using regression analysis we examine the relative performance of several models each representative of a different type of modeling approach as explanations of both the global ice volume and also the time rate of change of the global ice volume we find there is no objective evidence in the record in favor of any particular model the respective merits of the different theories must therefore be judged on physical grounds

linked fluid and tectonic evolution in the high himalaya mountains nepal fluid inclusions were studied in a quartz lens from the structurally highest unit of the himalaya mountains in nepal from a textural geometrical chemical and isotopic point of view six types of fluid inclusions were distinguished one of these types consists of annular inclusions this shape is attributed to a confining pressure increase in a non isotropic stress field two successive stress fields were deduced from the orientation of the inclusion planes relative to the schistosity the bulk composition of the fluid was dominated by co2 84 mol and h2o the composition remained constant during the whole history of the sample indicating that it was buffered by the carbonaceous host rock and or that one single fluid was reworked in situ by decrepitation stable isotope of fluids and minerals indicate 1 that fluids were buffered by surrounding rocks for o and c and 2 that at least two types of water metamorphic and meteoric were involved finally a p t t e path is proposed for the sample taking into account the southward thrusting along the main central thrust the northward tectonic denudation of the himalaya mountains inducing tectonic burying below the annapurna range and lastly rapid uplift

a depth derived pleistocene age model uncertainty estimates sedimentation variability and nonlinear climate change 1 a new chronology of glaciation spanning the last 780 000 years is estimated from 21 marine sediment cores using depth as a proxy for time to avoid biasing this depth derived age estimate the depth scale is first corrected for the effects of sediment compaction to provide age uncertainty estimates the spatial and temporal variability of marine sediment accumulation rates are estimated and modeled as an autocorrelated stochastic process depth derived ages are estimated to be accurate to within 9000 years and within this uncertainty are consistent with the orbitally tuned age estimates nonetheless the remaining differences between the depth and orbitally tuned chronologies produce important differences in the spectral domain from the 18o record using the depth derived ages we infer that there are weak nonlinearities involving the 100 kyr and obliquity frequency bands which generate interaction bands at sum and difference frequencies if an orbitally tuned age model is instead applied these interactions are suppressed with the system appearing more nearly linear

water table fluctuations in an aquifer system owing to time varying surface infiltration and canal recharge a solution of the linearized boussinesq equation for predicting the transient position of the water table in an unconfined aquifer system which lies between two recharging canals at different elevations above the aquifer s base and receives time varying recharge from the overlying soils is presented the solution for the constant rate of recharge is shown as a special case of the present solution the effect of variation in the rate of recharge on the water table fluctuation is investigated with the help of an example

metamorphic evolution of the high himalayan crystallines in se zanskar india the high himalayan crystallines hhc of se zanskar consist of biotite paragneisses of orthogneisses that derive from early palaeozoic granitoids of minor metabasics and of post metamorphic leucogranites of miocene age two main metamorphic events have been documented in the hhc the first event occurred at p 12 0 0 5 kbar and t 750 50 c in rare metabasics intruded by early palaeozoic granitoids in the biotite paragneisses thermobarometric estimates of the first event point to comparable t at p 4 5 kbar lower the first event is followed by a pervasive syn tectonic crystallization characterized by lower p and t on the basis of the cooling ages of the metamorphic minerals and on the geological evidence the second event is referred to the tertiary himalayan crystallization further petrological and geochronological studies are necessary to prove whether a few mineral relics ascribed to the first event define a polyphase himalayan evolution or if they record the incomplete obliteration of an older history during the himalayan event the hhc of se zanskar show a decrease in metamorphic grade from the middle structural levels upward close to the kade unit and downward close to the lesser himalaya from sillimanite k feldspar biotite bearing assemblages to kyanite staurolite muscovite bearing assemblages this metamorphic zonation is probably a consequence of the polyphase history of intracontinental thrusts and of the tectonic emplacement of hot crustal slabs within shallower and colder thrust sheets at relatively late stages of the continental collision between india and eurasia

water table fluctuations due to canal seepage and time varying recharge transient water table variation in an unconfined horizontal aquifer lying between two canals located at different elevations above the impermeable barrier and receiving time varying recharge is predicted by obtaining an analytical solution to the linearized boussinesq equation the proposed solution is for the generalized form of time varying recharge and has been obtained by applying an indigenously devised transformation to the flow governing equation the solution for constant rate of recharge a special case of the proposed solution is compared with the existing analytical solution and almost identical values of water table rise are obtained the effect of constant recharge exponentially decreasing recharge and a combination of constant and exponentially decreasing recharge on the water table rise is analyzed with the help of a numerical example

the origin and significance of the delaney dome formation connemara ireland dalradian meta sediments of the laurentian margin and mafic intrusions thereof in sw connemara ireland tectonically overlie meta rhyolites of the delaney dome formation the two units are separated by the mannin thrust a new u pb age of 474 6 5 5 ma shows that the delaney dome formation is a temporal equivalent of arc volcanic rocks preserved in the adjacent south mayo trough the tourmakeady volcanic group erupted during the collision of an oceanic island arc with the laurentian margin in the grampian orogeny new rare earth and high field strength element data show that the delaney dome formation and tourmakeady volcanic group are chemically similar and arc like in character this suggests that the delaney dome formation is an along strike equivalent of the tourmakeady group strike slip faulted south of the south mayo trough during or after the grampian orogeny further correlation of these units with northern appalachian rhyolites is also possible the delaney dome formation is an extrusive temporal equivalent of intrusions that penetrate the connemara dalradian thus movement along the mannin thrust brought mid crustal plutons and dalradian country rocks tectonically above the extrusive volcanic sequence the mannin thrust is identified as a major imbricating structure within a continental arc but not a terrane boundary

structure of the main central thrust zone and extrusion of the high himalayan deep crustal wedge kishtwar zanskar himalaya the main central thrust is a crustal scale ductile shear zone between 1 5 and 3 km wide which places the oligocene miocene metamorphic rocks of the high himalayan zone south or sw over the unmetamorphosed or weakly metamorphosed rocks of the lesser himalaya the high strain zone of the main central thrust is coincident with an inverted metamorphic field gradient from biotite to kyanite grade over a structural thickness of 1500 m kyanite grade rocks metamorphosed at 9 5 10 kbar were exhumed from depths of 33 37 km along the main central thrust hanging wall and emplaced over lesser himalayan rocks never buried deeper than 10 12 km exhumation of the deepest buried kyanite grade rocks occurred along the zone above the main central thrust zone approximately 45 km width 28 km structural thickness of the high himalaya exposes sillimanite grade gneisses migmatites and 19 5 21 5 ma old leucogranites formed at pressures between 4 5 and 7 kbar and depths of 16 25 km a ne dipping normal fault ductile shear zone at the top of the slab zanskar shear zone shows condensed but right way up isograds from sillimanite to chlorite grade over 2 400 metres structural thickness 40 ar 39 ar geochronology shows that most of the high himalayan slab had cooled below 350 c by 16 ma supporting models linking the two bounding faults of the high himalaya both kinematically and temporally there is no evidence of melting along the main central thrust zone and the himalayan leucogranites were generated 10 30 km structurally above the main central thrust frictional heating along the main central thrust could not therefore have played any role in generating the leucogranites thus far there is little evidence for late miocene reactivation along the main central thrust as seen elsewhere along the main central thrust in nepal

tectonostratigraphic subdivisions of the himalaya a view from the west 1 indian plate rocks in the central himalaya have traditionally been divided into orogen parallel fault bound tectonostratigraphic zones a straightforward westward extrapolation of these zones has proved problematic in part because of a lack of consensus on the existence or significance of major faults within the metamorphic zone of the indian plate in pakistan where more than 10 locations for the main central thrust mct have been proposed we address this ambiguity by systematically tracing established central himalayan tectonostratigraphy around the western himalayan syntaxis and across pakistan this exercise reveals the following stratigraphic and structural relationships 1 there is a westward decrease in neogene shortening across the himalayan fold and thrust belt such that there is no age equivalent thrust in pakistan with displacement and metamorphic juxtaposition equivalent to the central himalayan mct 2 shortening across the fold and thrust belt in western pakistan is concentrated in the unmetamorphosed foreland as opposed to the metamorphic zone in the central himalaya 3 lesser himalayan higher himalayan and tethyan rocks are in stratigraphic order within the metamorphic zone of pakistan which appears to be the metamorphic equivalent of kashmir tethyan stratigraphy 4 the combination of early paleozoic and late paleozoic tectonism in pakistan has locally eliminated upper proterozoic higher himalayan rock and lower to middle paleozoic tethyan rock from the metamorphic zone of pakistan 5 late cretaceous and or early paleocene proto himalayan deformation in the pakistan foreland telescoped and eroded stratigraphy prior to the main phase of himalayan orogeny 6 tectonostratigraphic zones are offset in eastern pakistan by the transverse jhelum balakot fault 7 there is no evidence within the indian plate of pakistan for a large scale normal fault system comparable to the south tibetan detachment system 8 stratigraphy as well as the age and tectonic setting of deformation and metamorphism must be taken into account when drawing tectonostratigraphic zones

combined obliquity and precession pacing of late pleistocene deglaciations a new statistical test shows that precession as well as obliquity contributes to the pacing of deglaciations in the late pleistocene the glacial cycles that characterize earth s climate history are paced by variations in earth s orbital orientation relative to the sun into the middle pleistocene about a million years ago glacial cycles were paced by 40 000 year cycles in earth s tilt or obliquity since then 100 000 year variations in orbital eccentricity seem to have dominated although it has been speculated that a combination of obliquity and precession orbital axis orientation might conspire to pace deglaciations firm quantitative evidence has not emerged peter huybers now uses advances in timing and statistics to show that indeed obliquity and precession simultaneously pace deglaciations milankovitch1 proposed that earth resides in an interglacial state when its spin axis both tilts to a high obliquity and precesses to align the northern hemisphere summer with earth s nearest approach to the sun this general concept has been elaborated into hypotheses that precession2 obliquity3 4 or combinations of both5 6 7 8 could pace deglaciations during the late pleistocene9 10 earlier tests have shown that obliquity paces the late pleistocene glacial cycles4 11 but have been inconclusive with regard to precession whose shorter period of about 20 000 years makes phasing more sensitive to timing errors4 11 12 no quantitative test has provided firm evidence for a dual effect here i show that both obliquity and precession pace late pleistocene glacial cycles deficiencies in time control that have long stymied efforts to establish orbital effects on deglaciation are overcome using a new statistical test that focuses on maxima in orbital forcing the results are fully consistent with milankovitch s proposal but also admit the possibility that long southern hemisphere summers contribute to deglaciation

yadong cross structure and south tibetan detachment in the east central himalaya 89 90 e the yadong cross structure ycs occurring at 89 30 east longitude in the himalaya is the largest across strike discontinuity in the geologic structure and topography of the high himalaya between the himalayan syntaxes it is manifest by a plan view left offset of the topographic crest of the range and a coincident apparent left strike offset of the south tibetan detachment system stds of about 70 km new field mapping indicates that the stds intersects the west side of the ycs at zherger la and further suggests that the ycs is the surface expression of a large north northeast striking west facing lateral ramp in the himalayan thrust system the greater himalayan allochthon is apparently draped across this lateral ramp resulting in a north northeast striking monoclinal flexure of the allochthon manifest in the chomolhari range superimposed steep west northwest directed normal shear appears to have obliterated earlier northerly directed stds shear fabric along along the ycs segment of the tethyan belt greater himalayan belt contact recent seismicity suggests that the greater himalayan allochthon is still moving southward along the lateral ramp u pb monazite dates on leucogranites in the footwall of the stds on opposite sides of the ycs are suggestive of a south to north decrease in the crystallization age of these granites the age pattern is consistent with southward extrusion of the greater himalayan allochthon and suggests the possibility of determining an average slip rate for the stds by dating granites in the immediate footwall of the stds that are substantially separated in north south section an average slip rate of about 7 mm yr between 23 and 12 ma is suggested by the data presented here

resolving milankovitch consideration of signal and noise milankovitch climate theory provides a fundamental framework for the study of ancient climates although the identification and quantification of orbital rhythms are commonplace in paleoclimate research criticisms have been advanced that dispute the importance of an astronomical climate driver if these criticisms are valid major revisions in our understanding of the climate system and past climates are required resolution of this issue is hindered by numerous factors that challenge accurate quantification of orbital cyclicity in paleoclimate archives in this study we delineate sources of noise that distort the primary orbital signal in proxy climate records and utilize this template in tandem with advanced spectral methods to quantify milankovitch forced paced climate variability in a temperature proxy record from the vostok ice core vimeux and others 2002 our analysis indicates that vostok temperature variance is almost equally apportioned between three components the precession and obliquity periods 28 a periodic 100 000 year cycle 41 and the background continuum 31 a range of analyses accounting for various frequency bands of interest and potential bias introduced by the saw tooth shape of the glacial interglacial cycle establish that precession and obliquity periods account for between 25 percent to 41 percent of the variance in the 1 10 kyr 1 100 kyr band and between 39 percent to 66 percent of the variance in the 1 10 kyr 1 64 kyr band these results are approximately two to four times greater than those published by wunsch 2004 for the same vostok time series in all cases most of the remaining variance is accounted for by the 100 000 year cycle which is distinct from a background continuum that resembles autoregressive red noise our analysis high lights the importance of a comprehensive assessment of the climate signals in geologic records and underscores the significance of orbital forcing pacing as a primary agent of pleistocene climate change

simultaneous development of noncylindrical folds frontal ramps and transfer faults in a compressional regime experimental investigations of himalayan examples experiments were performed with modeling clay models to understand the simultaneous development of folds frontal ramps and transfer faults oblique ramps in layered sequences the models were deformed by layer parallel contraction at a late stage of deformation the models were subjected to a maximum contraction parallel to the layering and perpendicular to the early axis of maximum contraction to study the effect of the superposed deformation the experimental results reveal that a transfer fault joining two frontal thrust ramps acts as a shear zone and controls the orientation of fold hinge lines in the adjacent region hence two orientations of fold hinge lines may be observed 1 oblique to the axis of maximum compression in the vicinity of the transfer fault and 2 normal to the axis and parallel to the frontal ramps away from the transfer fault during the longitudinal fold propagation the two hinge lines may coalesce to form a fold curvature opposite to the tectonic transport direction the curvature varies along the transfer fault depending on the shear zone geometry additional fold hinge line curvatures may result during the superposed deformation both in the early and the superposed fold hinge lines all these curvatures produce a systematic pattern which can be analyzed with the help of the experimental results the fold hinge line orientation may also be used to establish an oblique ramp in field as demonstrated by examples from the lesser himalayas india

leucogranite geochronological constraints on the termination of the south tibetan detachment in eastern himalaya abstract the south tibetan detachment system stds developed between the very low grade tethyan himalayan sequence ths and the high grade metamorphic greater himalayan sequence ghs over an along strike distance exceeding 2000 km within the himalayan orogen motion along the stds has been associated with the exhumation of the ghs and the uplift of the himalayan mountains geological field mapping and u th pb geochronological analyses were performed to trace and date the stds in the yadong region of southern tibet where it is a top to the north shear zone juxtaposing the yadong klippe of the ths with the high grade ghs this shear zone is intruded by multiple generations of leucogranites emplaced mainly at ca 23 ma ca 20 18 ma and ca 17 16 ma the undeformed textures of the leucogranites and their cross cutting relationships with the shear zone indicate that ductile motion along the stds terminated by ca 20 ma this is largely consistent with the deformation history of the stds in central and western himalaya the termination of shearing along the stds during the early miocene occurred well before the rapid cooling of the ghs during the middle miocene suggesting that exhumation and decompression of the ghs was still ongoing after the cessation of motion along the stds