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Project Summary
Personnel:
Cam Wobus (Ph.D.) Kip
Hodges (Ph.D.)
Despite many recent advances in our
understanding of the tectonic evolution of the Himalaya, perhaps the
quintessential collisional orogen, some important controversies remain.
One of these centers on the relationship between the dramatic
topographic transition separating the high Himalayan peaks from their
foothills and the major deformational structures that underlie it. This
controversy is fueled in part by the geographic near-coincidence of the
trace of the Main Central Thrust (MCT) system with the topographic
front. Although the MCT has long been considered dormant by most
Himalayan geologists, a number of observations require continued
differential uplift and exhumation of the Higher Himalaya and suggest
to some an active role of the MCT: (1) crystalline rocks in the hanging
wall of the MCT have been the dominant source of sediment delivered to
Bengal fan since at least 17Ma (France-Lanord et al., 1993); (2)
microseismicity clusters on a linear trend that coincides with both the
topographic transition (Pandey et al., 1995) and the mapped trace of
the MCT (Colchen et al., 1986); (3) recent geodetic studies indicate
rapid differential uplift of the Higher Himalaya (Jackson and Bilham,
1994; Bilham et al., 1997); and (4) late Miocene-Pliocene 40Ar/39Ar
cooling ages and Th-Pb monazite ages indicate recent deep exhumation
and synkinematic metamorphism in MCT zone, respectively (McFarlane et
al., 1992; Harrison et al., 1997). Three alternative models with
fundamentally different tectonic implications have been advanced to
explain the topographic transition: (1) erosional retreat following
Miocene activity on the MCT (Masek et al., 1994); (2) fault-bend fold
deformation above a crustal-scale ramp in the Himalayan Sole Thrust
(HST) (e.g., Lyon-Caen and Molnar, 1983; Bilham et al, 1997); and (3)
recent (Pliocene) (Harrison et al., 1997) or active thrusting on the
MCT (Seeber and Gornitz, 1983). Determining whether the
foothills-Higher Himalaya transition is a transient erosional front,
the topographic signature of a subsurface ramp, or the trace of an
active fault system is critical if we are to understand how the
Himalayan orogenic wedge has evolved over the Miocene-Recent interval.
Each model predicts distinctive spatial patterns and timing of uplift
and exhumation that can be exploited to evaluate their relative merits.
We propose to test among these models through a multi-disciplinary
study, combining structural mapping, tectonic geomorphology, and
topical 40Ar/39Ar and (U-Th)/He geochronology to explore the structural
and thermal evolution of the foothills-Higher Himalaya transition in
two readily accessible areas: the Burhi Gandaki and Trisuli drainages
of central Nepal. The proposed combination of geomorphic and
geochronologic approaches will provide several independent measures of
late Miocene to recent uplift and exhumation patterns -- independent of
available geodetic and microseismic data currently used to constrain
crustal architecture - and thus help inform the next generation of
evolutionary models for the Himalayan orogenic wedge.
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