Randy R. Parrish

The structural geometry, metamorphic and magmatic evolution of the Everest massif, High Himalaya of Nepal–South Tibet

This paper presents a new geological map together with cross-sections and lateral sections of the Everest massif. We combine field relations, structural geology, petrology, thermobarometry and geochronology to interpret the tectonic evolution of the Everest Himalaya. Lithospheric convergence of India and Asia since collision at c. 50 Ma. resulted in horizontal shortening, crustal thickening and regional metamorphism in the Himalaya and beneath southern Tibet. High temperatures (>620 °C) during sillimanite grade metamorphism were maintained for 15 million years from 32 to 16.9 ± 0.5 Ma along the top of the Greater Himalayan slab. This implies that crustal thickening must also have been active during this time, which in turn suggests high topography during the Oligocene–early Miocene. Two low-angle normal faults cut the Everest massif at the top of the Greater Himalayan slab. The earlier, lower Lhotse detachment bounds the upper limit of massive leucogranite sills and sillimanite–cordierite gneisses, and has been locally folded. Ductile motion along the top of the Greater Himalayan slab was active from 18 to 16.9 Ma. The upper Qomolangma detachment is exposed in the summit pyramid of Everest and dips north at angles of less than 15°. Brittle faulting along the Qomolangma detachment, which cuts all leucogranites in the footwall, was post-16 Ma. Footwall sillimanite gneisses and leucogranites are exposed along the Kharta valley up to 57 km north of the Qomolangma detachment exposure near the summit of Everest. The amount of extrusion of footwall gneisses and leucogranites must have been around 200 km southwards, from an origin at shallow levels (12–18 km depth) beneath Tibet, supporting models of ductile extrusion of the Greater Himalayan slab. The Everest–Lhotse–Nuptse massif contains a massive ballooning sill of garnet + muscovite + tourmaline leucogranite up to 3000 m thick, which reaches 7800 m on the Kangshung face of Everest and on the south face of Nuptse, and is mainly responsible for the extreme altitude of both mountains. The middle crust beneath southern Tibet is inferred to be a weak, ductile-deforming zone of high heat and low friction separating a brittle deforming upper crust above from a strong (?granulite facies) lower crust with a rheologically strong upper mantle. Field evidence, thermobarometry and U–Pb geochronological data from the Everest Himalaya support the general shear extrusive flow of a mid-crustal channel from beneath the Tibetan plateau. The ending of high temperature metamorphism in the Himalaya and of ductile shearing along both the Main Central Thrust and the South Tibetan Detachment normal faults roughly coincides with initiation of strike-slip faulting and east–west extension in south Tibet (<18 Ma).

Textural, chemical and isotopic insights into the nature and behaviour of metamorphic monazite

Monazite is a mineral of choice for dating metamorphism in amphibolite- and granulite-grade metapelites. However, there exist a number of difficulties that complicate the interpretation of monazite geochronological data and prevent its application to many geological problems. The two main obstacles addressed in this contribution are firstly, the minor but significant (e.g. 1–30 Ma) dispersal in duplicate isotope dilution thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) U–Pb age data commonly recorded from a single rock, and secondly, the difficulty of attaching monazite age data to pressure and temperature information. Through a multidisciplinary approach utilising TIMS and laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICPMS) isotope data, quantitative and qualitative EMP chemical analyses of monazite, and textural studies, we assess the significance of Pb loss, older components, and continuous and episodic monazite growth in the generation of dispersed age data. Three samples from the Canadian Cordillera and one sample from the Himalaya of Pakistan are examined. Each sample exhibits an age dispersion of between 1 and 12 Ma for single crystal and multi-grain TIMS U–Pb monazite age determinations. Consideration of the closure temperature for Pb diffusion in monazite and the metamorphic temperatures experienced by these samples suggests diffusive Pb loss did not play a significant part in generating this age dispersal. The LA-MC-ICPMS study indicates that an older component (<100 Ma older than the TIMS ages) contributed to the age dispersal in three of the four samples. In all the samples however, chemical analyses identified that the majority of monazites examined exhibited significant intra-crystalline zoning in Y content. The LA-MC-ICPMS analysis of one sample that was constrained to zones of distinct Y content indicates that these zones are of distinct age. We suggest that monazite grown before the appearance of garnet and during garnet breakdown is relatively rich in Y, whereas monazite grown after garnet is relatively poor in Y. A combination of these chemical data with textural observations suggests that once monazite had entered the mineral assemblage it grew or recrystallised episodically throughout the prograde and retrograde paths of the metamorphic event. This behaviour contributes to, and in one of the samples controls, the observed age dispersal. This recognition allows the generation of pressure–temperature–time points by combining textural and chemical information of monazite with in situ age determinations, and pressure–temperature information from garnet. Thus, the episodic growth of compositionally distinct monazite throughout a metamorphic event provides the geochronologist with a very valuable chronological tool.

Metamorphism and exhumation of the NW Himalaya constrained by U–Th–Pb analyses of detrital monazite grains from early foreland basin sediments

Single detrital monazite grains from the Dharamsala and Lower Siwalik Formations (early to mid-Miocene continental foreland basin sediments in NW India) have been dated by two techniques; isotope dilution thermal ionization multicollector mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) and laser ablation plasma ionization multicollector mass spectrometry (LA-PIMMS). The results give U–Th–Pb isotopic ages of c. 400–1300 Ma and 28–37 Ma and suggest that the source of detritus shed from the uplifting Himalayan mountains and captured in the foreland basin included (1) the protolith to the High Himalayan Crystalline Series (HHCS), i.e. rocks unaffected by the Himalayan metamorphism, (2) Cambro-Ordovician granites and (3) HHCS affected by the M1 phase of Barrovian metamorphism (Eo-Himalayan) related to the Indo-Asian collision. Deposition of the Dharamsala Formation was coeval with M2 sillimanite grade Himalayan metamorphism and crustal melting. The youngest monazite (c. 28–37 Ma) ages imply that Indian plate rocks, having experienced the earliest Himalayan metamorphic event which occurred within 10–20 Ma of collision were exhumed, eroded and deposited within c. 10–20 Ma of metamorphism. This indicates a minimum cooling rate of between 60 and 40°C Ma−1 for the period 30–20 Ma. After 20 Ma our study suggests no change in source area and that this same sequence, comprising both metamorphosed and unmetamorphosed rocks, was supplying detritus and being progressively incised by erosion for at least a further 8 million years.

Subduction zone polarity in the Oman Mountains: implications for ophiolite emplacement

Abstract Two end-member models have been proposed to account for the structure and metamorphism of rocks beneath the Semail ophiolite in the Oman mountains. Model A involves a single, continuous NE-directed subduction away from the continental margin during the late Cretaceous. The ophiolite and underlying thrust sheets of distal to proximal oceanic sediments were emplaced a minimum of 250 km SW onto the continental margin. Subduction of Triassic-Jurassic oceanic basalts to c. 10 kbar (c. 39 km depth) led to the accretion of amphibolite-facies rocks to the base of the ophiolite. Thrusting propagated towards the continental margin and ended with subduction of the thinned continental crust to c. 20 kbar (c. 78 km depth), choking the subduction zone. Buoyancy forces caused the rapid exhumation of eclogites, blueschists and carpholite-grade HP rocks along the NE margin of the continental plate. During the later phase of foreland-propagating thin-skinned thrusting in the SW, NE-facing backfolding and backthrusting occurred in the hinterland, with the final exhumation of the HP rocks. Model B follows recent suggestions that a nascent SW-dipping subduction zone, dipping beneath the continental margin, existed between 130 and 95 Ma, prior to formation and emplacement of the ophiolite. A major NE-facing fold-nappe structure in the pre-Permian basement rocks of Saih Hatat is interpreted as reflecting subduction beneath the margin. Two high-pressure metamorphic events have been suggested, the first predating ophiolite emplacement, the second caused by ophiolite loading. This model is untenable, being based on a misinterpretation of the NE-facing structures in northern Saih Hatat, and on some dubious older 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages from the eclogite-facies rocks of As Sifah. We conclude that all structures in northern Oman and all the reliable geochronology point to a single emplacement-obduction event lasting from Cenomanian-Turonian time (c. 95 Ma) when amphibolites were accreted along the metamorphic sole of the ophiolite, to Campanian time, when the continental margin was subducted to the NE producing blueschists and eclogites, to the final thin-skinned emplacement of all thrust sheets, which ended before the Late Maastrichtian, at c. 68 Ma.