the development of a laterally confined laboratory fan delta under sediment supply reduction abstract in previous fan delta experiments the effect of lateral confinement was generally ignored as these fans were usually unconfined with semiconical geometries however in gorge areas fan development is usually laterally confined by valley walls this study investigates autogenic processes of fan deltas in a laterally confined experimental tank the experiment is divided into three phases the sediment supply is held constant within each phase so the autogenic processes of the fan are separated from the allogenic forcings results indicate that laterally confined fan deltas have higher progradation and aggradation potential more regular channel braiding and more even transverse sedimentation than unconfined fans besides responses of fan deltas to sediment supply reduction are investigated in this research at the initiation of the second and third phases sediment feed rates are instantaneously reduced so that the allogenic forcings are predominant observations show that under sediment supply reduction channelization on fan deltas are more pronounced and durations of the fluvial cycles are longer the adjustment of fan morphology becomes slower as the self regulation capacity of the fan decreases with reduced sediment supply

improved spatial resolution of elemental maps through inversion of la icp ms data laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la icp ms provides the spatial distribution of elements within crystals and therefore can constrain the rates of geological processes spatial resolution of la icp ms is limited by the requirement to ablate sufficient material to surpass the detection limit of the instrument too little material and the concentration cannot be measured too much material from the same spatial location and the possibility of depth dependent variations in concentration increases because of this requirement and typical analytical setup this commonly places a lower bound on the diameter of an ablation spot size of approximately 20 m for elements with ppm concentration here we present a means to achieve sub spot size resolution using inverse methods we discretize the space sampled in an analysis into pixels and note that the average concentration of the pixels sampled by a spot equals the measured concentration as multiple overlapping spots sample some of the same pixels we can combine discrete expressions for each spot as a system of linear equations through linear inversion with smoothness constraints we can solve for unknown pixel concentrations we highlight this approach with two natural examples in which diffusive processes are important magmatic ascent speeds and u th he noble gas thermochronometry in these examples accurate results require that the true concentration gradients can be recovered from la icp ms data we show that the ability to infer rapid rates of magma ascent is improved from months to weeks and that we are able to interpret previously un interpretable thermochronometric data

tectonic evolution of the northeastern pamir constraints from the northern portion of the cenozoic kongur shan extensional system western china the late cenozoic kongur shan extensional system lies along the northeastern margin of the pamir at the western end of the himalayan tibetan orogen accommodating east west extension in the pamir at the northern end of the extensional system the kongur shan normal fault juxtaposes medium to high grade metamorphic rocks in both its hanging wall and footwall which record several mesozoic to cenozoic tectonic events schists within the hanging wall preserve a buchan metamorphic sequence dated as late triassic to early jurassic 230 200 ma from monazite inclusions in garnet metamorphic ages overlap with u pb zircon ages from local granite bodies and are interpreted to be the result of regional arc magmatism created by subduction of the paleo tethys ocean the northern portion of the footwall of the extensional system exposes an upper amphibolite facies unit 650 c 8 kbar which structurally overlies a lowgrade metagraywacke unit the high grade unit records late early cretaceous crustal thickening at ca 125 110 ma followed by emplacement over the low grade metagraywacke along a north northeast directed thrust prior to ca 100 ma together these results indicate signifi cant middle cretaceous crustal thickening and shortening in the northern pamir prior to the indo asian collision a third late miocene ca 9 ma amphibolite facies metamorphic event 650 700 c 8 kbar is recorded in footwall gneisses of the kongur shan massif north of the kongur shan massif rapid cooling in the footwall beginning at 7 8 ma is interpreted to date the initiation of exhumation along the kongur shan normal fault a minimum of 34 km of east west extension is inferred along the kongur shan massif based on the magnitude of exhumation since the late miocene 29 km and the present dip of the kongur shan normal fault 40 field observations and interpretation of satellite images along the southernmost segment of the kongur shan extensional system indicate that the magnitude of late cenozoic east west extension decreases signifi cantly toward the south this observation is inconsistent with models in which east west extension in the pamir is driven by northward propagation of the right slip karakoram fault suggesting instead that extension is driven by vertical extrusion due to topographic collapse radial thrusting along the main pamir thrust or oroclinal bending of the entire pamir region

structures in southwest asia and evolution of the eastern tethys abstract southwest asia comprises the following 1 a two major orogenic belts a northern belt derived from the paleo tethys and a southern belt derived from the neo tethys 2 b minor orogenic belts derived from neo tethyan marginal basins 3 c continental blocks that originated from gondwana by splitting and stripping and subsequently drifted and collided with continental asia in its process of construction and 4 d residual oceanic basins which are assumed as being not yet closed neo tethyan marginal basins the entire region appears as the product of tethyan evolution

thrusting of the hindu kush over the southeastern tadjik basin afghanistan evidence from two large earthquakes we infer from the mechanisms and depths of two large earthquakes that the hindu kush is actively thrusting northwest over the tadjik basin and that the basin is closing rather than being displaced to the west teleseismic body waves were used to determine focal mechanisms and depths for the two largest shallow earthquakes on the southern edge of the basin the two earthquakes on june 24 1972 mb 6 0 and december 16 1982 mb 6 2 have seismic moments of 2 1018 n m and 6 1018 n m respectively focal mechanisms of both events indicate almost pure thrust faulting with nodal planes striking northeast southwest the inferred fault planes dip southeast at 20 for the first event and 50 for the second the p axes for both events are oblique to the direction of relative motion between india and asia suggesting that the pamir is overthrusting the basin to the west depths for both earthquakes are between 20 and 25 km and place them well below the tadjik basin sediments the depths and steep fault planes suggest that these earthquakes represent a downdip extension within the basement of shallow folding and thrusting seen in the sediments northwest of the events thus convergence in afghanistan between india and eurasia is taken up along southeast dipping thrust faults north of the hindu kush as well as by northward subduction under the southern part of the range

indian plate motion and shape constraints on the geometry of the himalayan orogen abstract sea floor palaeomagnetic data that reflect variations in rate and vector of indian plate movement and rotation suggest that initial collision between india and asia occurred at about 50 55 ma ago as the pre collisional indian plate was diamond shaped with the northern margin comprised of two oblique boundaries collision was earliest where these boundaries meet or in what is now the northwest himalaya oblique convergence along each of these two boundaries would generate rotation of thrust sheets as they climb on to the indian plate the oroclinal shape of the main himalayan chain to the east of the northwest himalayan syntaxes reflects a combination of the effects of oblique convergence post collisional anticlockwise rotation of the indian plate and the pinning of the main thrusts at their northwestern terminations by crust thickened during the earliest collisional stage the indian plate rotation enhances a strike slip component of movement along the western oblique margin with the transpressively sinistral chaman fault zone now acting as a continental escape structure

kinematics topography shortening and extrusion in the india eurasia collision we examine the problem of partitioning between shortening and extrusion in the india asia collision since 45 ma we compute the amount of shortening expected from the kinematics of india s motion with respect to eurasia using the reconstruction at collision time to put bounds on the possible amounts of surface loss within greater india and within eurasia we then compute the amounts of surface loss corresponding to the thickened crust of tibet and of the himalayas assuming conservation of continental crust the spatial distribution of the topography reveals a large systematic deficit of crustal thickening distributed rather uniformly west of the eastern syntaxis but an excess of shortening east of it this distribution indicates an important eastward crustal mass transfer however the excess mass east of the eastern syntaxis does not account for more than one third to one half of the deficit west of the eastern syntaxis the deficit may be accounted either by loss of lower crust into the mantle for example through massive eclogitization or by lateral extrusion of nonthickened crust a mass budget of the crust of the himalayas indicates that lower crust has not been conserved there but the deficit is so large that local loss in the mantle is unlikely to be the unique cause of the deficit alternatively following zhao and morgan 1985 lower crust may have been transferred below the tibetan crust we conclude that a combination of possible transfer of lower crust to the mantle by eclogitization and lateral extrusion has to account for a minimum of one third and a maximum of one half of the total amount of shortening between india and asia since 45 ma this conclusion leaves open the possibility that the partitioning between extrusion and loss of lower crust into the mantle on the one hand and shortening on the other hand has significantly changed during the 45 m y history of the collision

u pb dating of granites in the neoproterozoic sergipano belt ne brazil implications for the timing and duration of continental collision and extrusion tectonics in the borborema province abstract the sergipano belt is the outcome of collision between the pernambuco alagoas massif and the sao francisco craton during neoproterozoic assembly of west gondwana field relationships and u pb geochronology of granites intruded in garnet micaschists of the macurure domain are used to constrain the main collisional event d 2 in the belt the granites are divided into two groups the pre collisional granites pre to early d 2 and the syn collisional granites syn to tardi d 2 the latter were emplaced as sheets along the s 2 axial plane foliation or they were collected at the hinge zones of f 2 folds a u pb shrimp zircon age of 628 12 ma was obtained for the pre collisional camara tonalite two u pb tims titanite ages were obtained for the syn collisional granites 584 10 ma for the angico granite and 571 9 ma for the pedra furada granite and these ages are close to the garnet whole rock sm nd isochron of 570 ma found for the peak of metamorphism in the sergipano belt the ages of the camara tonalite 628 ma and the pedra furada granite 571 ma mark respectively the maximum age for beginning of the d 2 event and minimum age for the end in the macurure domain using these ages the main neoproterozoic d 2 collisional event has been in operation in the sergipano belt for at least 57 million years correlation with coeval granitoids farther north in the borborema province indicate that while in the sergipano belt the syn d 2 granites ca 590 570 ma were emplaced under compression in the borborema province they emplaced under extensional conditions related to regional strike slip shear zones these contrasting emplacement settings for contemporaneous neoproterozoic granitoids are explained by a combination of continent continent collision and extrusion tectonics

the margins of laurussia in central and southeast europe and southwest asia the continuation of the laurussian margin into central and southeast europe and southwest asia is defined by the rheic suture which becomes harder to trace to the southeast because of complex post variscan strike slip displacements and tectonic stacking linked to the cimmerian and alpine cycles the uncertain extent of the neoproterozoic baikalian orogeny fringing baltica ambiguous early paleozoic paleobiogeographic data and strike slip activity complicate the distinction of the tornquist suture from the transeuropean suture zone there is growing evidence for the incorporation of the brunovistulian malopolska and west moesian terranes into the late neoproterozoic cambrian baltican margin the istanbul zonguldak terrane along with the bitesh and east moesia terranes may have been part of the avalonian terrane assemblage although an arabian nubian shield or baltica provenance cannot be excluded the terranes of the armorica terrane assemblage bordering the rheic suture include the outer carpathian tatra getic and balkan terranes in southeast europe and sakarya and the anatolide tauride terrane in turkey further east the rheic suture may be present in the caucasus in all probability between the greater caucasus and the scythian platform or alternatively between the greater caucasus and transcaucasia alborz in northern iran is interpreted as a distal part of transcaucasia the location of the rheic suture in the southeast part of the turan domain of central asia is poorly constrained

afghanistan structure greater india concept and eastern tethys evolution abstract the large and complex area between central asia and the arabia india block includes from north to south the tien shan and hindu kush kun lun hercynian belts the turkman farah rud and tanghla shan neokimmerian belt the zagros makran baluch himalayan alpine belt and relics of corresponding oceanic spaces the angarian or gondwanian affinities of the different blocks separated by these successive peri indian belts are discussed an interpretation is proposed for the paleogeographic and structural evolution of this area from early paleozoic to present this interpretation is based on geologic and paleomagnetic data and on global tectonic considerations the hindu kush kun lun pre hercynian ocean probably separated laurasia from gondwanaland it was an early paleozoic tethys tethys 1 the tien shan ocean may have been a marginal basin for the hindu kush kun lun ocean the turkman farah rud tanghla shan pre neokimmerian ocean resulted from the break up of the gondwanaland margin its opening seems to have been related to the pre hercynian ocean closure resulting in the formation of a new tethys tethys 2 its subsequent closure may also have been related to the opening of the zagros baluch indus tsang po pre alpine ocean tethys 3 according to this interpretation eurasia appears to have increased from early paleozoic to cenozoic by successive accretion of cratonic blocks which came from the south through the tethys this evolution can be compared to the similar mediterranean evolution this interpretation is in agreement with the greater india concept however the northern border of greater india differs according to the stage of the gondwanaland evolution which is considered actually greatest india extended north to the caledonian belt and consequently has recorded the whole history of the eastern tethys

hercynian and eocimmerian events in afghanistan and adjoining regions abstract the area centered around afghanistan is a collage of continental blocks derived from gondwanaland this collage comprises among others 1 1 a hercynian orogenic belt widely represented in afghanistan and also by some sparse outcrops in the northern iran it is a subduction type orogen constructed at the margin between the paleotethys and the turan turkestan tarim block 2 2 a northern eocimmerian orogenic belt widely represented in afghanistan and the north of iran it is a collision type orogen constructed in the same place as the hercynian orogenic belt and resulted from the closure of the paleotethys and the collision of the central iran and central afghanistan blocks with the turan turkestan tarim block 3 3 a southern eocimmerian orogenic belt of which outcrops are now confined to southern iran but which may project beneath the neogene and quaternary formations of southern afghanistan it is a subduction type orogen constructed at the margin between the neotethys and the central iran central afghanistan block which itself was at that time subjected to regional extension this belt is now incorporated in the alpine himalayan orogen the geology of these belts suggests that the opening of the neotethys became effective only from the permian or triassic and was in a red sea type phase during the upper devonian its initial rifting possibly occurred during the lower paleozoic much like the paleotethys in which initial rifting also occurred in lower paleozoic time and whose opening became effective from the ordovician thus each of the oceanic realms in this region appears to have possibly resulted from the same extension of gondwanaland during the lower paleozoic after which they followed more or less different paths of evolution moreover the proposed geodynamic interpretation implies that during the permian and triassic there was in this region a certain coexistence of the vanishing paleotethys with the relatively young neotethys which was beginning to subduct

paleogene volcanism in central afghanistan possible far field effect of the india eurasia collision abstract a volcanic sedimentary succession of paleogene age is exposed in isolated patches at the southern margin of the tajik block in the ghor province of central afghanistan the volcanic rocks range from basalts and andesites to dacites including adakites they are intercalated with sedimentary rocks deposited in shallow marine environments dated biostratigraphically as paleocene eocene this age corresponds to the age of the asy b d andesites located in the western ghor province estimated by the 40ar 39ar method as 54 ma the magmatism post dates the cimmerian collision between the tajik block including the band e bayan block and the farah rod block located to the south while the investigated volcanic rocks apparently bear geochemical signatures typical to an active continental margin environment it is presumed that the magmatism was related to rifting processes most likely initiated by far field tectonics caused by the terminal collision of the indian plate with eurasia najman et al 2017 this event led to the dextral movement of the farah rod block particularly along hari rod herat fault system resulting in the development of a transtensional regime in the proximal southern margin of the tajik block and giving rise to a rift basin where marine sediments were interbedded with pillow lavas intruded by sheeted dyke series

extension of structural and tectonic trends from the indian subcontinent into the eastern arabian sea abstract trends of basement highs faults and structural patterns on the india pakistan indus continental shelf and slope and in the deep waters extending to the lakshmi laxmi chagos laccadive ridge complex in the eastern arabian sea are parallel to the ancient precambrian structural and tectonic grain of the indian subcontinent these trends the occurrence of horst graben style features of the basement of the lakshmi ridge and of the region north and east of it both in deep waters and shelf areas and the oceanic nature of the basement west of the ridge suggest that the rifted transitional crust extends as far as the lakshmi chagos laccadive ridge complex the extension of rifted crust with horst graben style tectonic features into deep offshore areas of the arabian sea has implications for future hydrocarbon exploration in the region

origin and assembly of the tethyside orogenic collage at the expense of gondwana land abstract the tethysides are a superorogenic complex flanking the eurasian continent to the south and consisting of the cimmerides and alpides products of palaeo and neo tethys respectively we here review their evolution mainly on the basis of new maps showing the distribution of sutures magmatic rocks certain palaeobiogeographically and palaeoclimatologically significant taxa and facies and fragments of pan african 900 450 ma orogenic system forming the basement of many tethyside blocks these are supplemented by palaeomagnetic data reported in the literature a fundamental tenet of this paper is that major sutures which contain ophiolite fragments represent tectonic sections between continental blocks where oceanic crust has been subducted palaeo tethys came into existence largely in late carboniferous time coevally it began to be consumed by both internal and peripheral subduction zones which continued into the permian some of these had been inherited from pre tethyan times in the later permian rifting subparallel with the northern margin of gondwana land began between the zagros and malaysia separating a cimmerian continent from n gondwana land and thus heralding the opening of neo tethys and other smaller oceans that were back arc basins of palaeo tethys this rifting possibly also extended farther west into crete and mainland greece however the north china block yangtze block huanan block the eastern moity of the qangtang block north tibet and annamia all originally pieces of the end proterozoic early palaeozoic gondwana land had already separated from it in pre late carboniferous times possibly during the devonian all of these blocks and the cimmerian continent were characterized by cathaysian floral elements in late palaeozoic time palaeomagnetic and palaeontological data showing the original gondwana land affinity of these continental blocks are supplemented by correlating late proterozoic early palaeozoic pan african sutures orogenic belts and sedimentary basin fragments across tethyside sutures late permian foraminiferal provinces are related to this palaeogeographical interpretation by triassic times most cimmeride subduction zones were already in existence the cimmerian continent accelerated its separation from gondwana land and locally in the late permian began disintegrating internally along the waser rushan pshart banggong co nu jiang mandalay ocean by late triassic time all of the chinese blocks except lhasa and annamia had collided with each other and with laurasia the resulting enormous orogenic collage had a soft cushion between itself and laurasia in the form of the enormous accretionary complex of the songpan ganzi this connection enabled laurasian land vertebrates to reach south east asia by late triassic time in late triassic to middle jurassic times most major cimmeride collisions were completed widespread aridity in central asia occurred in late jurassic time probably in the rain shadow of the newly formed cimmeride mountain wall neo tethyan subduction systems formed along the s margin of the cimmerides or within neo tethyan oceanic lithosphere during the jurassic most if not all were north or east dipping they continued the northerly migration of the tethyside blocks evolution of the tethysides influenced the distribution of marine and terrestrial organisms and affected sea level changes and patterns of atmospheric circulation during much of the mesozoic and cainozoic it is likely to have reflected the surface expression of a persistent trend in the large scale convective circulation in the mantle that continuously transported material northward into the tethyan domain

the role of outcrop geology in predicting reservoir presence in the cretaceous and paleocene successions of the sulaiman range pakistan hydrocarbon exploration in remote mountainous regions commonly creates a logistical challenge remote sensing methods are used to gain an understanding of the geologic evolution of an area however over reliance on these techniques has commonly precluded finer scale observations made in the field which can significantly reduce exploration risk the sulaiman concession lies in the sulaiman range which forms part of the himalayan fold and thrust belt in the baluchistan province of northwest pakistan rugged exposures developed in this semiarid area provide excellent outcrops of the principal stratigraphy of interest in the concession to reduce uncertainty associated with reservoir presence the upper cretaceous to lower paleocene mughal kot pab and ranikot formations were studied detailed centimeter scale sedimentological observations enabled the depositional context of these units to be resolved by recognizing abrupt dislocations in facies tracts and changes in depositional architecture a low order stratigraphic framework was established furthermore local candidate high frequency surfaces were recognized which gave an insight into the processes active in the individual facies tracts during periods of relative base level change these observations resulted in an integrated model that was used to predict reservoir presence in the mirawah structure

oroclinal bending distributed thrust and strike slip faulting and the accommodation of arabia eurasia convergence in ne iran since the oligocene regional shortening is accommodated across ne iran in response to the collision of arabia with eurasia we examine how n s shortening is achieved on major thrust systems bounding the eastern branch of the alborz east of 57 e sabzevar and kuh e sorkh mountain ranges which lie south of the kopeh dagh mountains in ne iran although these ranges have experienced relatively few large earthquakes over the last 50 yr they have been subject to a number of devastating historical events at neyshabur esfarayen and sabzevar a significant change in the tectonics of the eastern alborz occurs directly south of the central kopeh dagh near 57 e to the east shortening occurs on major thrust faults which bound the southern margin of the range resulting in significant crustal thickening and forming peaks up to 3000 m high active shortening dies out eastward into afghanistan which is thought to belong to stable eurasia the rate of shortening across thrust faults bounding the south side of the eastern alborz north of neyshabur is determined using optically stimulated luminescence dating of displaced river deposits and is likely to be 0 4 1 7 mm yr 1 shortening across the sabzevar range 150 km west of neyshabur has previously been determined at 0 4 0 6 mm yr 1 although reassessment of the rate here suggests it may be as high as 1 mm yr 1 migration of thrust faulting into foreland basins is common across ne iran especially in the esfarayen region near 57 e where the northward deflection of the east alborz range reaches a maximum of 200 20 km from its presumed linear e w strike at the beginning of the oligocene west of 57 e the tectonics of the alborz are affected by the westward motion of the south caspian region which results in the partitioning of shortening onto separate thrust and left lateral strike slip faults north and south of the range at the longitude of 59 e published gps velocities indicate that 50 per cent of the overall shortening across ne iran is accommodated in the kopeh dagh the remaining 50 per cent regional shortening must therefore be accommodated south of the kopeh dagh in the eastern alborz and kuh e sorkh ranges assuming present day rates of slip and the fault kinematics are representative of the late cenozoic deformation in ne iran the total 200 20 km n s shortening across the eastern alborz and kopeh dagh mountains since the beginning of uplift of the kopeh dagh basin would be accommodated in 30 8 ma although this extrapolation may be inappropriate over such a long timescale the age is nevertheless consistent with geological estimates of post early to middle oligocene 30 ma for the onset of kopeh dagh uplift

major intrusive stages in afghanistan typology age and geodynamic setting afghanistan straddles the gondwana eurasia boundary most of its major structural areas comprise large plutonic belts based on some 700 major element analyses the typology of the eleven main plutonic belts has been determined these belts differ from each other on the whole they display a very broad range of petrographic types from nepheline syenites and gabbros to leucocratic muscovite tourmaline granites and a wide diversity of magmatic associations from cafemic or alumino cafemic associations of various types tholeiitic calc alkaline subalkaline i e monzonitic alkaline peralkaline to various aluminous ones taking into account the typology of the belts and chronological data four major intrusive stages have been recognized and related to the geodynamic evolution of afghanistan and central asia 1 aluminous lower palaeozoic ca 500 ma stage related to linear crustal thinning at the gondwana scale 2 cafemic and alumino cafemic triassic ca 230 ma stage related to southward dipping subduction of oceanic crust beneath an island arc involving a large continental strip detached from the southern asia margin 3 cafemic and alumino cafemic cretaceous ca 100 ma stage dominantly related to subduction of oceanic crust under marginal gondwana fragments 4 eocene oligocene stage ca 35 ma induced by the india eurasia collision including two quite different groups of intrusives a a cafemic and alumino cafemic group related to extensional phenomena dominantly associated with the westward extrusion of central afghanistan along the herat fault these phenomena occurred on both sides of the gondwana palaeozoic asia boundary b an aluminous group resulting from crustal thickening in marginal gondwana fragments

k ar and ar ar geochronology of the himalayan collision in nw pakistan constraints on the timing of suturing deformation metamorphism and uplift mica and hornblende k ar and ar ar data are presented from each of the three crustal components of the himalayan collision zone in north pakistan the asian plate the kohistan island arc and the indian plate together with u pb and rb sr data published elsewhere these new data 1 date the age of suturing along the northern suture which separates kohistan from asia at 102 85 ma 2 establish that the basic magmatism in kohistan which postdates collision along the northern suture predates 60 ma and that the later granite magmatism spanned a range of 60 25 ma 3 show that uplift amounts within kohistan are greater toward the nanga parbat syntaxis than away from it and that rate of uplift near the syntaxis increased over the last 20 ma to a current figure of about 5 5 mm a year 4 show that much of southern kohistan had cooled to below 500 c by 80 ma and that the major deformation which imbricated kohistan probably predated 80 ma and certainly predated 60 ma and was related to the kohistan asia collision rather than the kohistan india one 5 imply that uplift along the hunza shear in the asian plate together with imbrication of the metamorphics in its hanging wall took place at about 10 ma and was associated with breakback thrusting in the hanging wall of the main mantle thrust 6 suggest that the indian plate has a lengthy pre himalayan history with an early metamorphism at about 1900 ma major magmatism at 500 550 ma and early jurassic lithospheric extension or inversion and 7 show that the indian plate rocks were metamorphosed shortly after the collision within kohistan which occurred at circa 50 ma and subsequently cooled back through 500 c at circa 38 ma and 300 c at 30 35 ma with ages of cooling through 200 and 100 c as determined by fission track data locally controlled by nanga parbat related uplift tectonics

cooling and uplift histories of the crystalline thrust stack of the indian plate internal zones west of nanga parbat pakistan himalaya abstract amphibole and mica k ar ar ar and rb sr geochronology for the crystalline internal zones of the indian plate define both an extensive pre himalayan thermal history and a post himalayan metamorphism cooling history south of the main mantle thrust near besham hornblende ar ar ages from basement gneisses record an ca 1850 ma mid proterozoic thermal event hornblende muscovite and biotite cooling ages from cover sequences metamorphosed during the himalayan orogeny are 35 4 30 to 24 and 29 to 22 ma respectively the mica ages together with those derived from zircon and apatite fission track data zeitler 1985 demonstrate a rate of cooling of about 30 c ma during the late oligocene to early miocene that was greater than that either before or since this rapid cooling was initiated during the post metamorphic evolution of the indian plate south verging crustal scale thrust stack during which cover sequences metamorphosed during the himalayan orogeny were imbricated with basement rocks thermally unaffected during that event most of the cooling which happened during the stripping of some 10 2 km of overburden reflects exhumation due to a combination of erosion recorded in the miocene molasse sediments of the foreland basin and major crustal extension within the mmt zone both erosion and extension were the direct consequence of the evolution of the thrust stack

mesozoic ophiolites sutures and arge scale tectonic movements in afghanistan abstract the tectonic history of afghanistan appears to be the result of successive accretion of fragments of gondwana to the active margin of laurasia since the end of the paleozoic the margin in afghanistan lies along the present herat and panjshir faults south of hindu kush swings around the central pamirs and can presumably be traced along the present western altyn tagh and kunlun faults in tibet north of this boundary paleozoic rocks have been deformed in the upper paleozoic whereas south of it there is no trace of the hercynian orogeny the first collision of gondwanian fragments with laurasia probably occurred in the early mesozoic along the hindu kush and kunlun to the south ophiolites along the panjao and pangong nu chiang sutures respectively in central afghanistan and central tibet testify for another suturing event in the upper jurassic or lower cretaceous the indus tsangpo suture between india and tibet corresponds in eastern afghanistan to two ophiolite subbelts near kabul and khost both ophiolite complexes have been emplaced between maestrichtian and lower eocene by choking of two northward dipping subduction zones after complete contact between the indian and asian continents was achieved presumably in the end of eocene the penetration of india into asia caused large scale intra continental shortening a large part of the shortening was accommodated by strike slip faulting along mesozoic and more ancient sutures central afghanistan in particular was extruded to the west along the herat suture by the protrusion of the pamir wedge it subsequently collided with the lut block

constraints on the tectonic evolution of the northwestern himalaya from geochronologic and petrologic studies of babusar pass pakistan petrologic geochronologic and structural studies of indian plate rocks in the footwall of the main mantle thrust indicate that peak metamorphism occurred in thrust imbricates well before the final assembly of the kohistan island arc with the indian plate as the northern margin of the indian plate was thickened by this early thrusting the metamorphic rocks evolved along increasing pressure temperature paths and in some regions reached temperatures sufficient for partial melting it is difficult to constrain the timing of this early deformation and metamorphism but 40 ar 39 ar hornblende ages and u pb ages of crosscutting leucogranite dikes suggest that in most areas peak metamorphism was earlier than 40 ma and in some areas earlier than 50 ma after peak metamorphism in the interval from 40 to 25 ma rocks of the indian plate continued to be thrust southward creating sharp metamorphic discontinuities at thrust boundaries from 25 to 20 ma rocks of the indian plate underwent rapid cooling

thermal controls on early tertiary short lived rapid regional metamorphism in the nw himalaya pakistan abstract during tertiary collision in the nw himalaya the leading edge of the indian plate was subducted beneath the kohistan island arc along the main mantle thrust mmt metamorphism within indian plate cover sediments was synchronous with ductile shearing and took place along a path of increasing pressure during subduction beneath the island arc initial collision cannot have pre dated 65 ma and probably shortly pre dated 50 ma radiometric data constrain the metamorphic peak as shortly post dating 50 ma as firstly initially subducted units are now probably located beneath tibet secondly the subduction thrust separating the kohistan arc terrane from the indian plate was probably cooled by continued underthrusting and thirdly the heat producing indian plate cover sediments were delaminated from the basement during collision metamorphism was more rapid than can be predicted by purely conductive models of thermal relaxation although dissipative shear heating along the mmt doubtless contributed to early stages of heating of the footwall rocks the temperatures attained in the footwall are too high to support the shear stresses required to generate them solely through shear heating a model is derived to account for both the rapid regional metamorphism and the equally rapid post metamorphic cooling dissipative shear heating along the mmt generated an early inverted thermal profile in the upper units of the indian plate as the hanging wall mafic rocks have a low thermal conductivity they would have acted as a thermal reflector and the heat would have been conducted away only slowly as footwall temperatures increased through the brittle ductile transition the role of dissipative shear heating decreased and continued heating became a function of internal heat generation within the footwall rocks together with hanging wall thermal reflectivity the metamorphic inversion was reinforced by imbrication of the metamorphic stack as it accreted onto the mmt footwall during early stages of uplift and exhumation dissipative shear heating within thrust systems provides a potentially important mechanism by which areas of large regional extent can undergo regional metamorphism over short timescales in the absence of magmatic heating

nature s diffusion experiment the cooling rate cooling age correlation correlation between the age of orogeny and the cooling rate of metamorphic rocks through 500 180 c as determined through various radioisotopic dating methods suggests that ancient orogens cooled at rates as much as two orders of magnitude slower than those of active orogens i propose that the correlation has arisen because ancient orogens have undergone long postorogenic periods as long as hundreds of millions of years during which the rocks remained effectively isothermal laboratory experiments suggest that argon diffusion in biotite may be sufficiently rapid at temperatures of 220 c to produce the correlation by slow loss of argon during extended isothermal periods one interesting realization is that nature has provided a long term argon diffusion experiment the results of which have been inverted in this paper to give an independent estimate of the diffusivity of argon in biotite under natural conditions this estimate compares favorably with a projection of the results of laboratory hydrothermal experiments down 10 orders of magnitude the analysis confirms the theory that there is a critical thermal window below accepted closure temperatures in which long residence will result in significant partial resetting of thermochronometers

field relationships and geochemistry of pre collisional india asia granitoid magmatism in the central karakoram northern pakistan in the central karakoram range northern pakistan seven major granitic units which were emplaced prior to the eocene ca 50 ma india asia collision have been mapped and analysed geochemically the mid cretaceous hunza plutonic complex dominates the karakoram batholith in the west and is composed of quartz diorite granodiorite plutons which have been deformed in the south by later collision related thrusting the sost and khunjerab plutons intrude the palaeozoic early mesozoic sediments north of the batholith in the east pre collision magmatic units occur both north of k2 gneiss broad peak quartz diorite muztagh tower unit and south of hushe gneiss the batholith which is dominated by a miocene monzogranite leucogranite pluton baltoro unit the plutonic units to the north of the batholith are mid to late cretaceous with an age range of ca 115 80 ma whereas the hushe gneiss to the south is dominantly jurassic spanning the age range 200 145 ma all the pre collision magmatic units display similar chemical and isotopic characteristics major trace and ree variations in the hunza plutonic complex are controlled by high level fractionation of clinopyroxene hornblende plagioclase biotite ilmenite and allanite high lile hfse and lree hree ratios together with negative nb p and ti anomalies suggest an ultimate source in the mantle wedge above the subducting slab 87sr 86sr initial ratios 0 7055 0 7157 in the hunza plutonic complex can best be explained by contamination of a mantle derived magma by a crustal component with highly radiogenic sr all the units except the hushe gneiss are probably related to subduction during closure of a back arc basin between the karakoram to the north and the kohistan dras arc to the south during the mid to late cretaceous and correlate with widespread plutonism from the same period in kohistan ladakh and southern tibet along the southern margin of asia the hushe gneiss is probably related to an earlier northward directed subduction phase during the jurassic