Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
[1] Zircons and monazites from 6 samples of the North Ayilari dextral shear zone (NAsz), part of the Karakorum fault zone (KFZ), have been dated with the U-Th-Pb method, using both ID-TIMS and SIMS techniques. The ages reveal (1) inheritance from several events spanning a long period between the late Archean and the Jurassic; (2) an Eocene-Oligocene magmatic event (similar to 35-32 Ma); (3) an Oligo-Miocene magmatic event (similar to 25-22 Ma), at least partly synkinematic to the right-lateral deformation; and (4) a period of metamorphism metasomatism (similar to 22-14 Ma) interpreted as thermal and fluid advection in the shear zone. The Labhar Kangri granite located similar to 375 km farther Southeast along the KFZ is dated at 21.1 +/- 0.3 Ma. Such occurrence of several Oligo-Miocene granites along the KFZ, some of which show evidence for synkinematic emplacement, suggests that the fault zone played an important role in the genesis and /or collection of crustal melts. We discuss several scenarios for the onset and propagation of the KFZ, and offset estimates based on the main sutures zones. Our preferred scenario is an Oligo-Miocene initiation of the fault close to the NA range, and propagation along most of its length prior to similar to 19 Ma. In its southern half, the averaged long-term fault-rate of the KFZ is greater than 8 to 10 mm/a, in good agreement with some shorter-term estimates based on the Indus river course, or Quaternary moraines and geodesy. Our results show the KFZ cannot be considered as a small transient fault but played a major role in the collision history.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00412570
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00412570
DOI : 10.1029/2007TC002184

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
We investigate the timing of end of motion along the South Tibet Detachment System (STDS), a major normal fault system that runs parallel to the Himalayan range for more than 1500 km. Near Dinggye (similar to 28 degrees 10'N, 87 degrees 40'E), the STD dips similar to 10 +/- 5 degrees to the North and separates Paleozoic Tethyan series from Upper Himalayan Crystalline Series (UHCS). Immediately below the STD, the UHCS is highly deformed in the STD shear zone, lineations trend NNE and the shear senses are top to the NE. In micaschist, the P-T path constrained by pseudosection and garnet chemistry, shows successive metamorphic conditions of similar to 0.6 GPa and similar to 550 degrees C and 0.5 GPa and 625 degrees C. U/Pb dating of monazites and zircons in deformed and undeformed leucogranites suggests that ductile deformation lasted until at least similar to 16 Ma but ended prior to similar to 15 Ma in the STD shear zone similar to 100 m below the detachment. Ar/Ar micas ages in the footwall span between similar to 14.6 and 13.6 Ma, indicating rapid cooling down to similar to 320 degrees C, and suggesting persistence of normal faulting, at that time. The STDS is cut and offset by the N-S trending Dinggye active normal fault which initiated prior to 11 Ma thus providing a minimum bound for the end of STDS motion. These data are interpreted as reflecting 0.3 GPa (11 km) to 0.6 GPa (22 km) of exhumation along the STDS starting prior to similar to 16 Ma, ending between 13.6 and 11 Ma. The 1000 km long stretch of the STDS east of the Gurla Mandata probably stopped almost synchronously between 13 and 11 Ma ago, coevally with a sudden switch from NNE-SSW to E-W extension at the top of the accretionary prism, with a jump of the major thrust from the lower Main Central Thrust (MCTI) to the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), and with a change in the India and Asia convergence direction. This synchronism is probably better explained in the frame of a thrust wedge or thrust system model than a lower channel flow model. West of the Gurla Mandata the STDS appears to stop 5 to 3 Ma earlier, possibly related to local interactions with the Karakorum fault in a way that needs to be understood.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00475652
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00475652
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2009.12.035

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Field evidence for syn-deformation migmatization and crystallization along the Karakorum fault contradicts the study of Wang et al. (2012). The ages of such magmatic rocks provide minimum ages for the onset of deformation at similar to 23 Ma in North Ayilari and similar to 19 Ma in Tangtse. The onset of deformation at 12 Ma in the Ayilari range inferred by Wang et al. (2012) from a muscovite Ar/Ar age is a cooling age, thus only a minimum age. The similar to 60 Ma granodiorite bodies, the ophiolitic rocks and the south Kailash thrust that are correlated across the fault to provide a 52 +/- 2 km finite offset do not define reliable piercing points. Such observations as well as our previous work concur to show that the Karakorum fault initiated in the Oligo-Miocene, and has a long-term dextral slip-rate between 7.5 and 13 mm/yr, approximately twice that proposed by Wang et al. (2012).
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00829469
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00829469
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.12.012

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Field study, thermochronology and geochemistry of the east Lungmu Co (LMC) range highlight some of the geological events that shaped western Tibet. The LMC fault zone has long been interpreted as the boundary between the Tianshuihai terrane of Laurasian affinity and the Qiangtang block of Gondwanian affinity. In the LMC range, the Paleozoic series is intruded by the Mangtsa leucogranite whose zircon have a U/Pb age of 116.9 ± 1 Ma and by mafic rocks with U/Pb zircon ages ranging from 116.9 ± 1 to 95.1 ± 1.7 Ma. Geochemistry of the mafic rocks indicates that they have been emplaced in a supra-subduction zone setting, probably the north dipping Nujiang suture zone. 40Ar/39Ar micas ages of the granite indicate that cooling below ~ 350 °C occurred between 105 and 85 Ma. 40Ar/39Ar K-feldspar data suggest a fast cooling event at 60-55 Ma, which we relate to the reactivation of the LMC suture zone as a thrust at the onset of the India-Eurasia collision. The last, and still active, deformation event corresponds to left-lateral strike-slip faulting along the ENE-WSW LMC fault.
ISSN: 1342-937X

hal-00660491
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00660491
DOI : 10.1016/j.gr.2011.07.026

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The timing of E–W extension of the Tibetan plateau provides a test of mechanical models of the geodynamic evolution of the India–Asia convergence zone. In this work we focus on the Kung Co half graben (Southern Tibet, China), bounded by an active N–S normal fault with a minimum vertical offset of 1600 m. To estimate the onset of normal faulting we combined high and medium temperature (U–Pb, Ar/Ar) and low temperature ((U–Th)/He) thermochronometry of the Kung Co pluton, a two-mica granite of the northern Himalayan granitic belt that outcrop in the footwall of the fault. Biotite and muscovite Ar/Ar ages , are close from each other [not, vert, similar 16 Ma ± 0.2 (Ms) and not, vert, similar 15 ± 0.4 Ma (Bt)], which is typical of fast cooling. The zircon and apatite (U–Th)/He ages range from 11.3 to 9.6 Ma and 9.9 to 3.7 Ma respectively. These He ages are indicative of (1) fast initial cooling, from 11.3 to not, vert, similar 9 Ma, gradually decreasing with time and (2) a high geothermal gradient (not, vert, similar 400 °C/km), close to the surface at not, vert, similar 10 Ma. The Kung Co pluton was emplaced at about 22 Ma (U–Pb on zircon) at less than 10 km depth and 520–545 °C. Subsequent to its shallow emplacement, the pluton underwent fast thermal re-equilibration ending around 7.5 Ma, followed by a period of slow cooling caused either by the end of the thermal re-equilibration or by very slow exhumation (0.02–0.03 mm/yr) from not, vert, similar 7.5 Ma to at least 4 Ma. In either case the data suggest that the exhumation rate increased after 4 Ma. We infer this increase to be related to the initiation of the Kung Co normal fault. A critical examination of previously published data show that most not, vert, similar N–S Tibetan normal faults may have formed less than 5 Ma ago rather than in the Miocene as assumed by several authors. Such a young age implies that E–W extension is not related to the Neogene South Tibetan magmatism (25 to 8 Ma). Consequently, models relating E–W extension to magmatism, such as convective removal of the lower lithosphere, may be inappropriate. We rather think that this extension is related with local accommodation of boundary forces and displacements.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00311791
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00311791
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2007.01.029

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
New structural observations coupled with 15 U/Pb and 24 Ar/Ar new ages from the Karakorum shear zone (KSZ) constrain the timing and slip rate of the right-lateral Karakorum fault zone (KFZ), one of the great continental Asian strike-slip faults. In the Tangtse-Darbuk area, the Tangtse (SW) and Muglib (NE) mylonitic strands of the KSZ frame the less deformed Pangong Range. Inherited U/Pb ages show that granitic protoliths are mostly from the Karakorum and Ladakh batoliths, with a major Miocene melting event lasting from ≥21.5 to 13.5 Ma. Some of the Miocene granitic bodies show structural evidence for intrusion synkinematic to the KSZ. The oldest of these granitoids is 18.8 ± 0.4 Ma old, implying that deformation started prior to ∼19 Ma. Microstructural data show that right-lateral deformation pursued during cooling. Ar/Ar data show that ductile deformation stopped earlier in the Tangtse (∼11 Ma) than in the Muglib strand (∼7 Ma). Deformation ended at ∼11 Ma in the Tangtse strand while it is still active in the Muglib strand, suggesting a progressive localization of deformation. When merged with published observations along the KFZ, these data suggest that the KFZ nucleated in the North Ayilari range at least ∼22 Ma ago. The long-term fault rate is 0.84 to 1.3 cm/yr, considering a total offset of 200 to 240 km. The KSZ collected magma produced within the shear zone and/or deeper in crust for which the producing mechanism stays unclear but was not the lower crustal channel flow.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00745066
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00745066
DOI : 10.1029/2011TC003049

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
The Ama Drime range located at the transition between the high Himalayan range and south Tibet is a N-S active horst that offsets the South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS). Within the horst, a paragneissic unit, possibly attributed to the upper Himalayan crystalline series, overly the lower Himalayan crystalline series Ama Drime orthogneissic unit containing large metabasite layers and pods that have experienced pressure >= 1.4 GPa. Combining structural analysis with new and published pressure-temperature (P-T) estimates as well as U-Th/Pb, Ar-39/Ar-40 and (U-Th)/He ages, the P-T-deformation-time (P-T-D-t) paths of the main units within and on both sides of the horst are reconstructed. They imply that N-S normal faults initiated prior to 11 Ma and have accounted for a total exhumation <= 0.6 GPa (22 km) that probably occurred in two phases: the first one until similar to 9 Ma and the second one since 6 to 4 Ma at a rate of similar to 1 mm/yr. In the Ama Drime unit, 1 to 1.3 GPa (37 to 48 km) of exhumation occurred after partial melting since similar to 30 Ma until similar to 13 Ma, above the Main Central Trust (MCT) and below the STDS when these two fault systems were active together. The switch from E-W (STDS) to N-S (Ama Drime horst) normal faulting between 13 and 12 Ma occurs at the time of propagation of thrusting from the MCT to the Main Boundary Thrust. These data are in favor of a wedge extrusion or thrust system rather than a crustal flow model for the building of the Himalaya. We propose that the kinematics of south Tibet Cenozoic extension phases is fundamentally driven by the direction and rate of India underthrusting.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00486405
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00486405
DOI : 10.1029/2009TC002551