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Regional framework and geodynamic evolution of the Indus-Tsangpo suture zone in the Ladakh Himalayas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

V. C. Thakur
V. C. Thakur
Affiliation:
Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, 15, Municipal Road, Dehra Dun 248001, India.
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Abstract

The Indus-Tsangpo suture and its adjoining tectonic zones are well displayed in the Ladakh Himalayas where four tectonic zones have been distinguished, viz. the Zanskar, Indus suture, Shyok suture and Karakoram zones. The Zanskar zone is made up of Precambrian basement of the Zanskar crystalline complex and overlying Phanerozic sediments including Upper Palaeozoic volcanic rocks of the Zanskar Supergroup; they form the northern margin of the Indian plate. The Indus suture zone consists of a remnant of tectonised oceanic lithosphere represented by the Shergol melange and the Nidar complex with a former volcanic arc indicated by the volcanogenic Dras and Khardung formations and the Ladakh plutonic complex. The Shyok suture zone does not represent a tectonic repetition of the Indus suture; it is interpreted as a relic of a back-arc basin. The Karakoram plutonic complex appears to be genetically related to the Ladakh plutonic complex; both were generated from the subducting Indian oceanic plate. It is proposed that the boundary between the Indian and Eurasian plates does not lie along the Indus and Shyok sutures, but is located further N at the junction of Central Pamir (Alpine-Himalayan) and North Pamir (Hercynian).

Keywords

back-arcmagmatic arcmelangemolasseophioliteriftsubductionsuture.
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , 1981 , pp. 89 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1981

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