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Unravelling the tectonic processes responsible for the uplift of the Himalaya requires in-depth investigation of individual terranes caught up along the Indus Suture Zone that separates the continents of India and Eurasia. The Himalayan Orogen represent the complex amalgamation of, not only the two colliding continents with one plate subducting underneath the other, but also fragments of oceanic crust (ophiolites) and intraoceanic arcs that developed within the vast expanse of the now extinct Neotethyan Ocean. The aim of this thesis was to resolve the tectonic evolution of the Dras-Nindam terrane in the Ladakh Himalaya using standard geological mapping, geochemistry and sophisticated zircon U-Pb geochronology. The Dras-Nindam terrane is sandwiched between Indian and Eurasian continental crust along the Indus Suture Zone in the Ladakh Himalaya, NW India. This tectonostratigraphic unit includes basaltic to andesitic rocks of the Dras Volcanics and associated deep marine, volcaniclastic r ....
Abstract The Ladakh Arc was formed by subduction of Neotethyan oceanic lithosphere along the southern Eurasian margin before magmatic activity ceased upon the continental collision between India and Eurasia. The onset of arc magmatism is critical in terms of understanding when this subduction began. Termination of arc activity is associated with continental collision; thus, the youngest arc magmatism provides a maximum age for this collision. Intra-arc volcaniclastic sequences provide a stratigraphic record of arc magmatism, but also information on input from older basement rocks. We provide detailed U–Pb detrital zircon chronostratigraphy for the Khardung Formation, which represents the volcanic equivalent of the Ladakh Batholith. The lower section of the Khardung Formation is mafic to andesitic and has a maximum depositional age of c. 60 Ma and the oldest inherited zircon age population from this lowermost section is c. 69 Ma. A switch to felsic volcanism occurred soon aft ....