Proceedings of the International Symposia on Geoscience Resources and Environments of Asian Terranes (GREAT 2008), 4th IGCP 516,and

5th APSEG;
November 24-26, 2008, Bangkok, Thailand

Petrology of Lesser Himalayan Schists of Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, India:

Implication of Inverted Metamorphic Sequence

Paramita Paul

Department of Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata – 700032, India.

E-mail: paramita.geo@gmail.com

Extended Abstract
The geology of Arunachal Pradesh is very significant as it shows juxtaposition of three different units, namely the
Himalayan block, the Mishmi terrain and the Central Burmese terrain and this area is sandwiched between two nearly
orthogonal suture zones; the Himalayan collision belt to the north and the Indo-Burman collision belt to the east. The
eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh forms the Eastern syntaxis region where a bend in regional strikes of the major
tectonic units from ENE–WSW to NW–SE is developed (Thakur and Jain, 1975).

The Lesser Himalayan unit in this region comprises of low grade metamorphic rocks. It rests on the Mishmi thrust
and thrusted over the recent sediments of Lohit River (Gururajan & Choudhury, 2003). The rocks of this unit are chlo-
rite–biotite schist, phyllite, quartzite and some metabasics and the overlying Mishmi crystalline rocks contain gar-
net–staurolite–kyanite bearing mica schists. The pelitic schist of biotite zone contains chlorite, biotite, muscovite and
quartz. Very small tiny crystals of Mn-rich garnets are also found in this grade. Detailed petrographic study shows a
compositional banding demarcated by Q and M domains is characteristic of this grade. Muscovite, chlorite, biotite
grains show strong alignment parallel to the band which gives rise to the regional foliation plane (S2) and this regional
foliation plane was folded and crenulated to give rise to locally crenulation cleavage. In garnet and staurolite grade
rocks, the porphyroblastic minerals are staurolite and/or garnet along with quartz, plagioclase feldspar, biotite, musco-
vite, graphite ± chlorite. In garnet zone the grain size of the rocks is much coarser than the previous zone. The garnet
porphyroblasts show multiple episodes of growth. Large garnet grains contain inclusions of quartz mainly aligned as
an internal foliation (Si) which is at places parallels with the external foliation (Se) and sometimes oblique with Se. In
some cases garnet grains contain numerous inclusions of quartz but the inclusions do not show any preferred orien-
tation. Garnet shows mainly three types of age relation with respect to the dominant schistosity, (1) pre-tectonic with
random inclusions at the core and swerving of S2 around the porphyroblasts, (2) early to syn tectonic where the Si is
oblique with Se and Se warps the garnet grains and (3) syn to late tectonic garnet where the Si is continuous with Se.
The amount of chlorite decreases in this zone

In Staurolite zone rocks, porphyroblastic minerals are highly fractured and contain inclusions of quartz. Some stauro-
lite grains also contain inclusion of muscovite. Chlorite is totally absent in this rock. The schistosity S2 wraps around
the garnet grains. Therefore these garnets are pre-tectonic with respect to S2. The inclusions of quartz within garnet
grains are random.

Petrographic study reveals following key reactions:

1. Chl + Ms → Grt + Bt + Qtz + H2O …….. (1)

And/or

Chl + Qtz → Grt + H2O …………………. (2)

2. Chl + Ms + Qtz → St + Bt + H2O ……. (3)

Both isopleth geothermobarometry and geothermobarometric study suggest a prograde evaluation of P ≥ 10 Kbar and
T ≈ 600ºC - 650ºC at garnet grade rock. Isopleth thermobarometry has been done by constructing pseudosections in

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Proceedings of the International Symposia on Geoscience Resources and Environments of Asian Terranes (GREAT 2008), 4th IGCP 516,and 5th APSEG;
November 24-26, 2008, Bangkok, Thailand

CaO-MnO-Na2O-K2O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O system using the software Perple_x 07. The pseudosections are
contoured to show variation of mode and compositional isopleths of key minerals. These contoured pseudosections are
used to determine the P–T condition of a particular rock. In geothermobarometric study the peak P–T conditions were
estimated from garnet–biotite (Grt–Bt) Fe–Mg exchange thermometer and garnet–aluminosilicate–plagioclase–quartz
(GASP) barometer simultaneously in GB – GASP program. An additional calculation has been done according to the
average P-T method of Holland & Powell (1994), using the Thermocalc program. The mineral compositions were de-
termined by spot analysis with an electron microprobe.

According to isopleth thermobarometry as well as geothermobarometric study the rocks of this region show
clock wise P-T path that means following an initial increase in P reaching Pmax the rocks suffer near isobaric heating,
further heating accompanying decompression reaching Tmax and then isothermal decompression & finally isobaric
cooling.

Keywords: Lesser Himalayan schists, Metamorphism, Arunachal Pradesh, India

References
Gururajan N. S. and Choudhury B.K., 2003. Geology and tectonic history of the Lohit Valley, Eastern Arunachal
Pradesh. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences., 21, 731-741.
Thakur, V.C. and jain, A.K., 1975. Some observation on deformation, metamorphism and tectonic significance of
the rocks of some parts of the Mishmi Hills (Lohit District) (NEFA). Arunachal Pradesh. Himalayan Geology,
5, 339-364.
Powell R. and Holland TJB. 1994. Optimal geothermometry and geobarometry. American Mineralogist, 79, 120-
133.

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