An Overview of The Stratigraphy and Tectonics of The Nepal Himalaya

An overview of the stratigraphy and tectonics of the Nepal
Himalaya
B.N. Upreti
Department of Geology, Tri-Chandra Campus, Tribhuvan University, Ghantaghar, Kathmandu, Nepal
Abstract
Nepal can be divided into the following ve eastwest trending major tectonic zones. (i) The Terai Tectonic Zone which
consists of over one km of Recent alluvium concealing the Churia Group (Siwalik equivalents) and underlying rocks of northern
Peninsular India. Recently active southward-propagating thrusts and folds beneath the Terai have aected both the underlying
Churia and the younger sediments. (ii) The Churia Zone, which consists of Neogene to Quaternary foreland basin deposits and
forms the Himalayan mountain front. The Churia Zone represents the most tectonically active part of the Himalaya. Recent
sedimentologic, geochronologic and paleomagnetic studies have yielded a much better understanding of the provenance,
paleoenvironment of deposition and the ages of these sediments. The Churia Group was deposited between 014 Ma and 01 Ma.
Sedimentary rocks of the Churia Group form an archive of the nal drama of Himalayan uplift. Involvement of the underlying
northern Peninsular Indian rocks in the active tectonics of the Churia Zone has also been recognised. Unmetamorphosed
Phanerozoic rocks of Peninsular India underlying the Churia Zone that are involved in the Himalayan orogeny may represent a
transitional environment between the Peninsula and the Tethyan margin of the continent. (iii) The Lesser Himalayan Zone, in
which mainly Precambrian rocks are involved, consists of sedimentary rocks that were deposited on the Indian continental
margin and represent the southernmost facies of the Tethyan sea. Panafrican diastrophism interrupted the sedimentation in the
Lesser Himalayan Zone during terminal Precambrian time causing a widespread unconformity. That unconformity separates
over 12 km of unfossiliferous sedimentary rocks in the Lesser Himalaya from overlying fossiliferous rocks which are >3 km
thick and range in age from Permo-Carboniferous to Lower to Middle Eocene. The deposition of the Upper OligoceneLower
Miocene uvial Dumri Formation records the emergence of the Himalayan mountains from under the sea. The Dumri
represents the earliest foreland basin deposit of the Himalayan orogen in Nepal. Lesser Himalayan rocks are less
metamorphosed than the rocks of the overlying Bhimphedis nappes and the crystalline rocks of the Higher Himalayan Zone. A
broad anticline in the north and a corresponding syncline in the south along the Mahabharat range, as well as a number of
thrusts and faults are the major structures of the Lesser Himalayan Zone which is thrust over the Churia Group along the Main
Boundary Thrust (MBT). (iv) The crystalline high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Higher Himalayan Zone form the backbone
of the Himalaya and give rise to its formidable high ranges. The Main Central Thrust (MCT) marks the base of this zone.
Understanding the origin, timing of movement and associated metamorphism along the MCT holds the key to many questions
about the evolution of the Himalaya. For example: the question of whether there is only one or whether there are two MCTs
has been a subject of prolonged discussion without any conclusion having been reached. The well-known inverted
metamorphism of the Himalaya and the late orogenic magmatism are generally attributed to movement along the MCT that
brought a hot slab of High Himalayan Zone rocks over the cold Lesser Himalayan sequence. Harrison and his co-workers, as
described in a paper in this volume, have lately proposed a detailed model of how this process operated. The rocks of the
Higher Himalayan Zone are generally considered to be Middle Cambrian to Late Proterozoic in age. (v) The Tibetan Tethys
Zone is represented by Cambrian to Cretaceous-Eocene fossiliferous sedimentary rocks overlying the crystalline rocks of the
Higher Himalaya along the Southern Tibetan Detachment Fault System (STDFS) which is a north dipping normal fault system.
The fault has dragged down to the north a huge pile of the Tethyan sedimentary rocks forming some of the largest folds on the
Earth. Those sediments are generally considered to have been deposited in a more distal part of the Tethys than were the Lesser
Himalayan sediments.
The present tectonic architecture of the Himalaya is dominated by three master thrusts: the Main Central Thrust (MCT), the
Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT). The age of initiation of these thrusts becomes younger
from north to south, with the MCT as the oldest and the MFT as the youngest. All these thrusts are considered to come
Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 17 (1999) 577606
1367-9120/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S1367- 9120( 99) 00047- 4
together at depth in a at-lying decollement called the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT). The Mahabharat Thrust (MT), an
intermediate thrust between the MCT and the MBT is interpreted as having brought the Bhimphedi Group out over the Lesser
Himalayan rocks giving rise to Lesser Himalayan nappes containing crystalline rocks. The position of roots of these nappes is
still debated. The Southern Tibetan Detachment Fault System (STDFS) has played an important role in unroong the higher
Himalayan crystalline rocks. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
It is generally agreed that the Himalaya were gener-
ated as a result of the collision of the northward mov-
ing Indian continent with the Asian landmass. That
orogenic process continues, and mountains are still
being formed. Continued activity is manifest in the
present day northward movement of India at a rate of
05 cm a year and in the occurrence of frequent seis-
mic events along the mountain range and in its sur-
roundings (Seeber and Armbruster, 1981; Jackson and
Bilham, 1994; Pandey et al., 1995; Bilham et al., 1997,
1998). Most of the convergence is accommodated
within the Himalaya by movement on various thrusts
and folds.
The wide acceptance of plate tectonic theory by the
early seventies paved the way for a fresh start in
intense research on most parts of the Himalaya.
Quickly, the Himalaya became a resource-full labora-
tory for international scientists in testing many of the
new ideas opened up by the theory of plate tectonics.
The past two decades in particular have been a very
productive period in Himalayan research. The
Himalaya is one of the few mountain ranges on our
Earth in which an over 40 km thick cross-section,
from the mountain roots to the mountain tops, can be
observed in a single traverse. Excellent exposures ran-
ging from deep-seated metamorphic rocks to unmeta-
morphosed fossiliferous rocks are fairly well accessible.
Nepal occupies the central sector of the southwardly
convex Himalayan mountain arc and 800 km of the
2800 km long Himalayan range lies within Nepal.
Following Hagen (1969) from south to north, Nepal
can be divided into eight EW trending physiographic
units (Fig. 1, Table 1).
2. Brief history of geological investigations in Nepal
Systematic geological investigations in Nepal started
very late in comparison with the start of studies in
other countries of the region. Hooker, who visited the
Tamur valley in eastern Nepal in 1848 (cf. Auden,
1935), provided the earliest note on the geology of
Nepal. Subsequently Medlicott (1875) took a traverse
through Kathmandu in central Nepal. This was fol-
lowed by brief visits by a number of other ocers of
the Geological Survey of India during the period of
British rule; viz. Jones (1889), Oldham (1899), Diener
(1912), Heron (1922) and Sutton (1933).
The rst account of the geology of Nepal that con-
tains any detail was the work of Auden (1935) who
visited eastern and central Nepal after the great
NepalBihar earthquake of 1934. Auden was one of
the earliest workers to attempt the correlation of the,
then very little known, Nepalese rocks with better
known formations in the Indian Himalaya. An early
account of the geology of north-western Nepal can be
found in the work of Heim and Gansser (1939) who
attempted to extend the established structural units of
Kumaon into the western part of Nepal.
Hagen conducted the rst comprehensive regional
study of the geology of Nepal during the fties of this
century. He worked for nearly a decade in Nepal
under the United Nations Programme of Technical
Assistance and covered most parts of the country.
Hagen summarized his work in two publications in
English (Hagen, 1968, 1969). Those works became the
foundation for further geological investigations in
Nepal. Hagen identied a number of nappe groups
each of them consisting of several nappes of similar
lithology and structures. Three of his higher nappes
viz. from top to bottom: the Kangchendozonga
Lumbasumba nappes, the Khumbu nappes and the
Kathmandu nappes consisted predominantly of crys-
talline rocks. The rest of the nappes were mainly com-
posed of metasediments. The value of Hagen's
pioneering work in Nepal proved limited because he
had an inadequate stratigraphic base which rendered
his tectonic interpretations rather complicated and not
always readily understandable.
Bordet with his colleagues also undertook pioneer-
ing work in Nepal. His early works (e.g. Bordet 1955,
1961) related to eastern Nepal. He broadly agreed with
Hagen's concepts but diered in detail. Later, he
extended his work into central Nepal (Bordet et al.,
1960). He also described the geology of the Phulchauki
area south of Kathmandu and conrmed the Silurian
age of the rocks at the base of Phulchauki hill based
on trilobite fossils. Bordet further extended his work in
central-western Nepal into the PokharaThakkhola
region (Bordet et al., 1964, 1972). The contribution of
his team to the understanding of the geology of that
region, and especially of the Tethys Himalaya in the
area is represented by a large number of publications.
Among the earlier workers in Nepal, Lombard
B.N. Upreti / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 17 (1999) 577606 578
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(1958) contributed to the understanding of the geology
of eastern Nepal in the Everest area. Gansser (1964),
mainly on the basis of the works of Hagen, Bordet,
Lombard and others, incorporated a discussion of the
geology of Nepal into his book on the Geology of the
Himalaya and attempted a unied tectonic map.
Bodenhausen (Bodenhausen et al., 1964) visited some
parts of central western Nepal and broadly described
the geology of that region. His main work consisted of
providing a provisional stratigraphic scheme for the
Tibetan Tethys Zone and correlation with other well-
known sections of the Himalaya. He observed that the
Tibetan zone in Nepal together with the crystalline
rocks at its base forms a huge overthrust unit, over-
lying the complex of the Lesser Himalaya to the south.
Fuchs (Fuchs, 1967; Frank and Fuchs, 1970; Fuchs
and Frank, 1970) has contributed substantially to geo-
logical studies in western Nepal. He attempted to cor-
relate the Nepalese rocks of that region with the
Kumaon and Garhwal Himalaya in India. He has
tried to show that the stratigraphy established by
Auden (1935) for the western Himalaya is applicable
very well to Nepal, and that the tectonics described by
Pilgrim and West (1928), and by West (1939) have
similarity to those observed in Nepal. Fuchs con-
sidered that some Lesser Himalayan nappes (making
up his Chail Nappe) are represented throughout the
Himalaya (Fuchs, 1977).
A team of Japanese geologists led by Hashimoto
started geological investigations in Nepal in the late f-
ties and continued their work for well over a decade.
They summarized their ndings in a book (Hashimoto
et al., 1973) which embodied the idea that the Alpine
nappe concept made use of by Hagen could not be
applied to Nepal. They suggested that the essential
structures of the Nepalese mountain range resulted
from longitudinal block movements with vertical dis-
placement and not from Alpine folding. Following the
work of Sharma (1973), they also subdivided the thick
sequence of Midland metasedimentary rocks (consti-
tuting the Lesser Himalayan unit) into four divisions
based on lithologic characters. Talalov (1977) after his
two years of studies in Nepal also tried to interpret the
geology in a way that did not consider thrusts
suggesting that the Himalaya formed as a result of
block faulting. Besides these major early works a large
number of published and unpublished studies by both
Nepalese and foreign scientists were completed es-
pecially during the mid-sixties to late-seventies.
When Nepal opened its borders in 1950 after seclu-
sion from the rest of the world for over 100 years it
attracted, in the following decades, a great number of
mountaineering and scientic expeditions from western
countries. Because of the unrestricted access of these
expeditions and the involvement of foreign scientists
Nepal became the focus of intensive geological study.
As a result most knowledge that has been acquired to
this day on the tectonics and the magmatic and meta-
morphic evolution of the Himalaya has essentially
come from the study of the Nepal Himalaya.
Table 1
Geomorphic units of Nepal
Geomorphic unit Width
(km)
Altitudes
(m)
Main rock types Age
1. Terai (Northern
edge of the
Gangetic Plain)
2050 100200 Alluvium: coarse gravels in the north near the foot
of the mountains, gradually becoming ner
southward. Forelan basin deposits
Recent
2. Churia Hills
(Siwalik
equivalent rocks)
1050 2001000 Sandstone, mudstone, shale and conglomerate.
Mollase deposites of the Himalaya
Mid-Miocene to
Pleistocene
3. Dun Valleys 530 200300 Valleys within the Churia Hills lle up by coarse to
ne alluvial sediments
Recent
4. Mahabharat
Range
1035 10002500 Schist, phyllite, gneiss, quartzite, granite and
limestone belonging to the Lesser Himalayan Zone
Precambrian and
Paleozoic,
occasionally also
Cenozoic
5. Midland 4060 2002000 Schist, phyllite, gneiss, quartzite, granite, limestone
geologically belonging to the Lesser Himalayan
Zone
Precambrian and
Paleozoic to
Mesozoic
6. Fore Himalaya 2070 20005000 Gneisses, schists and marbles mostly belonging to
the northern edge of the Lesser Himalayan Zone
Precambrian
7. Higher Himalaya 1060 > 5000 Gneisses schists and marbles belonging to the
Higher Himalayan Zone
Precambrian
8. Inner and Trans
Himalayan
Valleys
25004000 Gneisses schists and marbles of the Higher
Himalayan Zone and Tethyan sediments
(limestones, shale, sandstone etc.) belonging to the
Tibetan-Tethys Zone
Precambrian and
Cambrian to
Cretaceous
3. Major tectonic zones of Nepal
Nepal can be divided, from south to north, as can
other regions of the Himalaya, into the following ve
major tectonic zones:
1. Terai Zone
2. Churia (Siwalik equivalent) Zone
3. Lesser Himalayan Zone
4. Higher Himalayan Zone
5. Tibetan-Tethys Zone
Each of the zones is characterized by its own lithology,
tectonics, structure and geologic history. A generalised
geological map showing these features is presented as
Fig. 2.
4. Terai Zone
This zone represents the northern edge of the vast
alluvial Indo-Gangetic foreland basin and belongs to
the southernmost tectonic division of Nepal. In the
north it is bounded by the Main Frontal Thrust
(MFT) whose outcrops are exposed at many places
along the southern front of the Churia Range. Within
Nepal, the Terai plain gradually rises from about
100 m in the south to 200 m in the north.
The Terai plain is made up of Pleistocene to Recent
alluvium with an average thickness of 01500 m. The
topography of the Ganges basin below the alluvium is
not uniform and the depth to the basement beneath
alluvial sediments also varies greatly (Valdiya, 1988).
The sediments of the Terai (PleistoceneRecent) in
Nepal rest on the Churia Group (Middle Miocene
Pliocene) which in turn rests on rocks belonging to the
Gondwanas (rocks of Peninsular India that are of
Permo-Carboniferous age) or younger rocks (Eocene
Oligocene). Coarser Terai sediments lie close to the
mountain front, which is known as the Bhabhar zone
in Nepal, where they form large alluvial fans. Finer
sediments are found farther to the south. Rocks under
the alluvium far south of the mountain front are
experiencing tectonic activity and a number of thrusts
and thrust propagated folds have been recognised
(Bashyal, 1998; Mugnier et al., 1999).
The Recent Terai sediments represent the latest fore-
land basin deposit of the Himalaya, its precursors
being the Neogene to Quaternary Churia (Siwalik
Fig. 2. Geological map of Nepal (after Upreti and Le Fort, 1999). LH: Lesser Himalaya, HH: Higher Himalaya, TTS: Tibetan-Tethys sediments,
MBT: Main Boundary Thrust, MCT: Main Central Thrust, MT: Mahabharat Thrust, STDS: South Tibetan Detachment System. AA': Cross-
section lines (see Fig. 9).
equivalent) and the still older Late OligoceneEarly
Miocene Dumri Formation which has been tectonically
incorporated into the Lesser Himalaya. The Terai
Zone is already sharing a signicant proportion of cur-
rent Himalayan stress accumulation as is manifest in
the development of thrusts and thrust-propagated
folds beneath the sediments. The northern part of the
Terai Zone represents a mountain in the making. The
Himalayan mountain front is propagating to the south
through the zone.
5. Churia (Siwalik equivalent) Zone
The Churia (Siwalik equivalent) tectonic Zone is
occupied by Himalayan foreland basin deposits. The
zone, which forms one of the largest foreland basin ac-
cumulations on the Earth, consists of Neogene to
Quaternary uvial sediments that form the southern-
most hill range of Nepal, the Churia hills. The Churia
Zone is bounded to the north by the Main Boundary
Thrust (MBT) and to the south by the Main Frontal
Thrust (MFT). Lesser Himalayan metasedimentary
rocks have been thrust southward over the Churia
rocks along the MBT and a large part of the Churia
Zone rocks must be buried beneath the cover of the
overthrust Lesser Himalayan rocks to the north. The
Churia Group, itself, is thrust over the Recent allu-
vium of the Terai Zone along the MFT. The sedimen-
tary rocks of the Churia Group, outcropping between
the two thrusts, form an archive of the nal drama of
the Himalayan uplift.
Until recently systematic study of the Churia Zone
in Nepal received very low priority. The only early
work that covered the greater part of the Churia Zone
was that of Hagen (1969). Recently, however, because
of petroleum exploration in the Terai plains and the
adjacent Churia hills by the Department of Mines and
Geology (DMG) of the Government of Nepal, sys-
tematic mapping of this region has attained a high pri-
ority. A great deal of detailed subsurface and surface
data have been accumulated, though most is unpub-
lished and restricted (packages of data are on sale).
Renewed interest shown by researchers in these fore-
land basin deposits, especially involving tools such as
paleomagnetic dating and isotope geochemistry, has
helped to generate a good database. Recent work has
advanced understanding of the biostratigraphy, corre-
lation and environments of deposition of the Churia
rocks (Munthe et al., 1983; West et al., 1975, 1978;
Tokuoka et al., 1986; Appel et al., 1991; Corvinus,
1993; Corvinus and Nanda, 1994; Harrison et al.,
1993; Ro sler et al., 1997; DeCelles et al., 1998; Ojha et
al., 1999; Gautam and Ro sler, 1999; Appel et al.,
1991). The foreland basin deposits of the Churia Zone
record the most recent phases in the history of
Himalayan evolution spanning the past 014 My.
5.1. Stratigraphy and age
The well-established three-fold classication of the
Siwaliks into lower, middle and upper units that had
been developed in the Potwar region of Pakistan and
in the western Indian Himalaya was freely applied to
the Churia Group from the beginning of the geological
studies in Nepal (Auden, 1935; Bordet, 1961; Hagen,
1969; Itihara et al., 1972; Sharma, 1973; He rail and
Mascle, 1980; Mascle and He rail, 1982; Yoshida and
Arita, 1982; He rail et al., 1986). Those early attempts
at subdivision and correlation of the Churia Group
were mainly based on lithofacies. Unfortunately the
Neogene to Quaternary rocks of Nepal, unlike those
of the type localities in the Potwar region, are poor in
vertebrate fossils. This paucity of characteristic fossils
and considerable lateral changes in facies have made
the earlier tripartite division of the Churia Group and
correlation with the type sections only provisional and
informal. Despite this fact, for all practical purposes,
the Churia rocks of Nepal are still generally being sub-
divided on the basis of lithology. Attempts have also
been made to give local names to the lithological sub-
divisions of the Churia Group (Corvinus, 1988; Dhital
et al., 1995; Sah, 1998) but this proliferation of names
without age constraints will hardly help in correlation.
The Lower Churia Group is essentially composed of
alternations of ne-grained sediments such as varie-
gated mudstone, siltstone and shale with subordinate
amounts of ne-grained sandstone. Occurrences of
paleosols are locally common (DeCelles et al., 1998).
The base of a sequence that is informally correlated
with the Middle Siwalik beds is marked by the rst
appearance of multistoried thick sandstone beds
measuring several meters to tens of meters in thickness
and alternating with subordinate beds of mudstone.
Because of the abundance of biotite and the presence
of light-coloured quartz and feldspars these sandstones
have acquired the nickname ``salt and pepper sand-
stones''. Cycles of ningupward sequences are com-
monly observed in which a bed begins with a coarse
sandstone, gradually nes upward and ends up in thin
clay layers or paleosols. The clay layers normally pre-
serve good plant fossils and locally freshwater mol-
luscs. Upper Siwalik correlatives are characterized by
the presence of very coarse sediments such as boulder
conglomerates with minor proportions of mudstone
intercalations.
5.2. Magnetostratigraphic study
The rst paleomagnetic study of the Churia (Siwalik
equivalent) rocks of Nepal was carried out in the
Tinau Khola section in western Nepal by Munthe et
al. (1983). Tokuoka et al. (1986) extended that work
east of the Tinau Khola into the Arung and Binai
Khola areas. They divided the Churia Group in those
areas into four formations on the basis of lithofacies,
namely from bottom to top: The Arung Khola, Binai
Khola, Chitwan and Deorali formations. On the basis
of magnetic polarity stratigraphy they correlated these
rocks with the type localities in Pakistan. Although the
paleomagnetic work of Tokuoka et al., may need
renement, it is one of the very earliest succesful
attempts at a correlation. The work showed that the
oldest rock in the area had an age of about 14.515
Ma. The lower and middle members of the Arung
Khola Formation are correlated with the Chinji
Formation and the upper member with Nagri for-
mation in the type area. The Binai Khola Formation
corresponds to the Dhokpathan and Tatrot
Formations, and Chitwan Formation is equivalent to
Pinjor Formation. The Deorali Formation of Nepal
may thus be correlatable with the Boulder
Conglomerate of Lower Pleistocene age in Pakistan.
The rate of sedimentation in the sequence was found
to vary from 0.2 to 0.5 mm/yr, younger units showing
a higher depositional rate than older units. These
values correspond well with the values obtained in the
Potwar region where depositional rates varied from
0.12 to 0.30 mm/yr (Johnson et al., 1985). On the basis
of paleocurrent analysis Tokuoka et al. suggested that
almost all the terrigenous sediments were supplied
from the northern side of the foreland basin and par-
ticularly from the NNE.
Based on paleomagnetic studies, the age of the
exposed Churia Group in Nepal ranges from 014 Ma
to <2 Ma (Tokuoka et al., 1986; DeCelles et al., 1998;
Ojha et al., 1999; Gautam and Ro sler, this issue). The
results of paleomagnetic studies in Nepal are summar-
ized by Gautam and Rossler in this volume.
5.3. Fauna and plant fossils
Compared to the type localities of the Siwalik rocks
in the Potwar region in Pakistan and localities in the
western Indian Himalaya, vertebrate fossil occurrence
in the Churia rocks of Nepal is scanty but some sys-
tematic work has been done in western Nepal in the
Tinau Khola section, the Dang valley and the Surai
Khola section (West et al., 1978; West and Munthe,
1981; Munthe et al., 1983; Corvinus, 1988).
The Lower Churia (Babai Khola, Balim Khola and
Tinau Khola) fauna includes the following species
(Munthe et al., 1983; West et al., 1978):
PISCES: Channiformes Ophiocephalus
REPTILIA: Testudines (cf. Callagur sp., Emydidae,
Genus A, Emydidae, Genus B, Geochelone sp.,
Trionychidae, sp.A, Trionychidae, sp. B), Squamata
(Boidae, gen. indet.), Crocodilia (Gavialidae, gen.
indet., Crocodylus sp.)
MAMMALIA Carnivora: (Amphicyon palaeindi-
cus ), Creodonta (Hyaenodontidae, gen. indet.),
Proboscidea (Deinotherium palaeindicus,
Gomphotheriidae gen. indet.), Artiodactyla
(Conohyus sindiense, Hemimeryx pusillus,
Dorcatherium sp., Protragoceras gluten, Sivoreas ere-
mitrea ), Rodentia (Rhizomyidae, gen. indet.),
Primates (Sivapithecus punjabicus ).
The fossil assemblages of the Churia mammals of
Nepal were compared with the well-known Siwalik
faunas of India and Pakistan and were found to be
comparable with both typical Chinji, or lower Siwalik
faunas, and Nagri, or the lower middle Siwalik faunas.
The horizon with the hominoid Sivapithecus
Punjabicus in Tinau Khola north Butwal is paleomage-
tically dated at 9.31 Ma (Gautam and Ro sler, this
issue).
Along the Surai Khola section, south of the Dang
Valley, Corvinus (1988) collected a number of ver-
tebrate and plant fossils. On the basis of the vertebrate
fossil (Gompotherium sp.) the lowest beds in the section
have been correlated with the Chinji Formation
(Lower Siwalik). An Upper Siwalik faunal assemblage
comparable to the Tatrot and Pinjor faunal zone is
recorded in the massive, micaceous, coarse sandstone
facies of the Surai Khola section. Most of the fossils
collected in the section come from these massive sand-
stone beds. The fossils are of great variety, including
mammalian and reptilian fossils, shes, and invert-
ebrate fossils of gastropods and lamellibranchs. Most
common are the remains of reptiles (Crocodylidae and
Trionychidae). Large mammals of the family of
Elephantidae, Hippopotamidae, Suidae, Cervidae,
Giradae and Bovidae were found in these thick sand-
stones, indicating a forested environment crisscrossed
by wide, meandering, aggrading streams. Occurrences
of fresh water ostracods (Candona lactea Baird, Cypria
ophthalmica Jurine, Cyprinotus sp. etc.) from the Surai
Khola section of western Nepal have also been
reported (Khosla et al., 1995).
A striking feature of the Churia Group outcrop in
central Nepal is the occurrence, within the outcrop
area of thrust slices of very old Indian peninsular base-
ment rocks. These very low-grade metamorphic rocks
are intruded by basic volcanic rocks (He rail et al.,
1986; Gautam et al., 1995). Sakai et al. (in prep-
aration) consider them to represent part of a Middle
Proterozoic accretionary prism belonging to the north-
ern Indian peninsular basement.
5.4. Structures
The Churia Zone is tectonically less complicated
than the overlying Lesser Himalayan Zone.
Nevertheless Churia group rocks are faulted, folded
and thrust to the south over the Recent alluvium of
the Terai Zone. Intra-Churia thrusts called the Main
Dun Thrust (He rail et al., 1986; Mugnier et al., this
issue) or the Central Churia Thrust (Tokuoka et al.,
1986) have developed resulting in the repetition of for-
mations. Thrust-propagated broad asymmetric folds
have given rise to many wide valleys in the Churia
Zone of Nepal (Dun Valleys) which are generally lled
with the Recent sediments (Bashyal, 1998; Mugnier et
al., this issue, Fig. 3). The southward propagation of
the Himalayan thrusts and resulting folds has reached
far south into the plains. As a result tilting and folding
of post-Siwalik sediments south of the HFT (e.g.
Ratukhola section, central Nepal) and uplift of parts
of southern Terai, marked by radial drainage patterns
(for example, south of Bhadrapur, eastern Nepal) are
observed. The tectonics of the Churia rocks in western
Nepal is discussed by Mugnier et al. in this issue.
6. The Lesser Himalayan Zone
6.1. General
The Lesser Himalayan Zone lies between the Main
Boundary Thrust (MBT) in the south and the Main
Central Thrust (MCT) in the north (Fig. 2). The MBT
is well seen in the eld and clearly identiable in air-
photos and satellite images. Unmetamorphosed
Neogene to Quaternary Churia Group rocks, essen-
tially composed of sandstones, mudstones and con-
glomerates, are overlain tectonically along the MBT
by the much older Precambrian metasedimentary
sequences and associated younger sedimentary rocks
of the Lesser Himalaya. The thrust plane ranges from
being sharp, with only a thin and well-dened shear
zone, to diuse with a shear zone extending over sev-
eral tens of meters. The MBT is essentially a continu-
ous structure all along the Himalayan range but it is
oset at many places by 0NS transverse faults.
The Lesser Himalayan Zone constitutes a relatively
broad tectonic zone, especially in western Nepal.
Sandwiched between the Churia Range in the south
and the High Himalaya in the north, the Lesser
Himalayan Zone displays a relatively subdued and
mature geomorphology. Tectonically, the zone is made
up of low-grade metasedimentary rock units, with
overriding crystalline nappes and klippen. Therefore, a
distinction can be made between the non-metamor-
phosed to low-grade metamorphic Lesser Himalayan
rock units and the rocks of the crystalline nappes of
the Lesser Himalayan Zone which are discussed later.
The unfossiliferous nature of the low-grade metasedi-
mentary rocks and the complicated structure of the
zone in Nepal have contributed to many problems re-
lated to the age, stratigraphy, tectonics and correlation
of the Lesser Himalayan sedimentary units.
Correlation outside Nepal suers equally from uncer-
tainties. It has only been very recently that work invol-
Fig. 3. Structural cross-section across Terai, Siwaliks, Lesser Himalaya (Bashyal, 1998, with permission from Nepal Geol. Soc.).
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grade metasedimentary rocks (Sto cklin and Bhattarai,
1977; Sto cklin, 1980; Sakai, 1983, 1985; Sharma et al.,
1984; Dhital and Kizaki, 1987a). Extension of this
detailed work will undoubtedly bring a better under-
standing of this important tectonic zone.
6.2. Stratigraphy
The stratigraphy of the Lesser Himalaya of central
Nepal including that of the sedimentary rocks and that
of the rocks of the overlying crystalline nappes has
been established and mapped continuously for about
250 km along the strike from the Dudh Kosi River in
the east to the Marshyangdi River in the west
(Sto cklin and Bhattarai, 1977; Sto cklin, 1980).
Presently, the area between the Marshyangdi River
and the Tansen area has not been investigated in detail
so that lithounits have not yet been well traced from
central to western Nepal. This has created some uncer-
tainties in the correlation of the formations. A com-
piled geological map of the western Nepal Lesser
Himalaya is presented in Fig. 4 and stratigraphic col-
umns along various measured sections that exclude the
crystalline nappes are given in Figs. 5 and 6. A syn-
thesis of the stratigraphy of western Nepal and its cor-
relations is given in Table 2.
In central Nepal Sto cklin and Bhattarai (1977) and
Sto cklin (1980) have used the term Nawakot Complex
to include all the formations of the Lesser Himalaya
and the term Kathmandu Complex for all the rock
formations lying within the Kathmandu Nappe includ-
ing both crystalline rocks and overlying fossiliferous
sedimentary rocks. Sakai (1983) used the term Kali
Gandaki Supergroup for the older sequence (Late
Precambrian-Early Paleozoic) and Tansen Group for
the younger sequence (Late-Carbeniferous-Permian to
Oligocene-Early Miocene) for Lesser Himalayan rocks
in western Nepal.
Except for the crystalline rocks of the Jajarkot
Nappe, the entire area of western Nepal between the
MBT and the MCT is underlain by rocks of Nawakot
Complex (Sto cklin and Bhattarai, 1977; Sto cklin, 1980,
Fig. 4) and the Tansen Group (Sakai, 1983). The top-
most unit of Tansen Group is a thick sequence of
unmetamorphosed sandstones and mudstones called
the Dumri Formation. This uvial unit, which overlies
Lower-Middle Eocene marine rocks unconformably, is
generally considered to represent the rst foreland
basin sedimentary deposits to be derived from the
Himalaya in Nepal. The section south and southwest
of Pokhara around Tansen was investigated in detail
by Sakai (1983, 1985) and most of the western part of
the outcrop as far as the Bheri River was investigated
by Fuchs and Frank (1970), Sharma et al. (1984) and
Dhital and Kizaki (1987a,b). Farther west in the Dang
and Surkhet Surkhet areas, the stratigraphy of the
Lower Tertiary rocks has been described by Kayastha
(1992). Though the area between the Marsyangdi
River and Tansen is not mapped in detail, most of the
rocks outcropping in that area are broadly correlatable
with the Nawakot Complex of Sto cklin and Bhattarai
(1977).
The eastern Nepal Lesser Himalayan Zone east of
Kathmandu has not been mapped in detail and its
stratigraphy remains poorly understood. Lesser
Himalayan rocks are mainly exposed in tectonic win-
dows cut through thrusts that carry crystalline rocks
southward from the Higher Himalayan Zone. Exposed
Lesser Himalayan Zone sedimentary rocks can be gen-
erally recognised as belonging to the Nawakot
Complex but detailed correlation with central and wes-
tern Nepal is dicult.
6.3. Age
The age of the Lesser Himalayan formations has
remained a matter of discussion and controversy for a
long time. Early investigators with Alpine backgrounds
were tempted to assign Paleozoic and Mesozoic ages
to most Lesser Himalayan rocks (Hagen, 1969; Bordet,
1961) but the general lack of fossils has rendered age
assignment dicult. The stratigraphy of the Lesser
Himalayan rocks is therefore presently based mainly
on lithology. In Nepal the Lesser Himalayan rocks
may be divided into two groups:
1. The Older Lesser Himalayan Formations; and
2. The Younger Lesser Himalayan formations.
The two groups are separated by a major unconfor-
mity contemporary with Late Panafrican diastrophism
(Valdiya, 1995, 1998). This unconformity may be
called the Great Lesser Himalayan Unconformity
(Pan-African Unconformity of Valdiya, 1998). The
older formations beneath the unconformity are
Precambrian in age, probably ranging from the
Paleoproterozoic (approx. 18002000 Ma) (Parrish and
Hodges, 1996; Valdiya, 1995, 1998; Sakai, 1983, 1985;
Sakai et al., in preparation) to the uppermost
Precambrian (0570 Ma). The 1800 Ma Lesser
Himalayan augen gneiss associated with the Kuncha
Formation also gives an age constraint to these rocks
(Le Fort and Rai, this issue). The older group of for-
mations is succeeded above the Great unconformity by
continental facies Gondwana sedimentary rocks of
Permo-Carboniferous age. The Gondwana rocks in
turn are unconformably overlain by marine rocks of
Early Cretaceous to Eocene age (Sakai, 1983, 1985)
and the sequence of the Lesser Himalaya is nally
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capped unconformably by the uvial Dumri
Formation of Late OligoceneEarly Miocene age.
The younger Lesser Himalayan rocks were originally
thought to be largely conned to outcrops in the
TansenSallyanJajarkot area of western Nepal but
recently they have been found to occur over a much
wider area. The younger rocks seem to be present in
tectonically isolated patches throughout the Lesser
Himalayan domain. It is not yet very clear whether
these younger rocks originally covered the entire
Lesser Himalayan region or were deposited in isolated
shallow basins. Sakai et al. (this issue) has mapped the
Fig. 6. Stratigraphy of younger lesser Himalayan sediments above the unconformity (Tansen Group, Sakai, 1983, Sakai et al., this issue).
younger Lesser Himalayan sedimentary rocks as far as
north of Jajarkot near the MCT. On a country-wide
basis the distribution of the younger Lesser Himalayan
Zone rocks from areas close to the MBT in the south
to the base of the MCT in the north, and from the
eastern to the western boundary of Nepal, indicates
that probably these younger Lesser Himalayan conti-
nental to marine fossiliferous rocks originally covered
an area corresponding to a signicant part of the
Lesser Himalaya of Nepal.
6.4. Tectonics and structure
From east to west, the tectonics of the Lesser
Himalayan Zone of Nepal show great variety. In east-
ern Nepal the tectonics are characterized by the devel-
opment of an extensive crystalline thrust sheet that has
traveled southward for at least 100 km to reach close
to the outcrop of the MBT. Almost the entire Lesser
Himalayan Zone in this eastern area is occupied by
this single thrust sheet. Lesser Himalayan sediments
are exposed only in a few large tectonic windows
through the sheet such those as Taplejung, Arun and
Chautara-Okhaldhunga (Fig. 2). The Lesser
Himalayan Zone in Central Nepal is similarly occupied
by the Kathmandu nappe which outcrops over a wide
area around Kathmandu and extends in a narrow arm
south-eastward along the Mahabharat Range to join
with the great thrust sheet of eastern Nepal. West of
Kathmandu between the Burhi Gandaki and Bheri riv-
ers, crystalline rocks are restricted to the Higher
Himalayan Zone north of the MCT except for out-
crops in a narrow klippe in the Jajarkot area. Between
the two rivers a large tract of Lesser Himalayan Zone
outcrop is free from crystalline rock cover and exposes
only metasedimentary rocks. It is dicult to guess how
extensively crystalline thrust sheets covered the Lesser
Himalaya in the past. In addition to the larger nappes
very small and scattered crystalline klippen in many
areas (Jnawali and Tuladhar, 1996) point to the former
presence of much more extensive crystalline outcrops.
West of Bheri and extending as far as the western bor-
der of Nepal, which abuts the Kumaon Himalaya of
India, crystalline nappes again reappear and cover
much of the Lesser Himalaya.
In the east, from the meridian of Kathmandu to
Bhutan and the Arunanchal Himalaya of India,
Himalayan tectonics are dominated by large thrust
sheets of Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks. To the
west comparable crystalline nappes are much less
extensive. The Himalaya to the west of Kathmandu
exposes a large tract of Lesser Himalayan rocks in an
area that extends from the MBT to the MCT. The
topography of the western Lesser Himalaya is also
Table 2
Stratigraphic correlation of the Lesser Himalayan formations of western Nepal
much more subdued and mature than that of eastern
areas, where the topography is more rugged. I inter-
pret this dierence as indicating that thrust tectonics
and exhumation were initiated earlier in the west than
in the east so that most of the thrust sheets of the
Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks in the western
region have been eroded away.
The Lesser Himalayan Zone contains many major
thrusts as well as other types of fault. Older Lesser
Himalayan metasediments have, for example, been
brought to override younger rock sequences along
thrusts such as the Phalebas thrust (Upreti et al., 1980;
Sakai, 1983, 1985; Sharma et al, 1984; Poudel and
Arita, 1998). The Barigad Fault (Fig. 4) in western
Nepal which extends for over 150 km in a NWSE
direction is considered to be one of the more import-
ant faults of the Lesser Himalayan Zone. It is inter-
preted to be an active fault with a right-lateral slip
component (Nakata, 1989). In addition to smaller
folds, Lesser Himalayan rocks are folded into an east
west trending mega-anticline (TrisuliGorkhaPokhara
anticline). The core of this anticline has exposed the
oldest rocks of the Lesser Himalaya, in the Kuncha
Formation. However, no basement rocks of the Lesser
Himalayan sediments are exposed anywhere. The
Lesser Himalayan rocks are also folded into a corre-
sponding syncline to the south known as the
Mabharat Syncline which runs almost throughout the
entire frontal part of the Nepal Himalaya.
7. Higher Himalayan Zone
7.1. General
Since Heim and Gansser (1939) rst identied and
described the Central Crystalline zone of the Kumaon
Himalaya, that zone has been mapped and traced
throughout the entire Himalayan region, although it
has been given dierent names in dierent areas.
Geologically, the Higher Himalayan Zone in Nepal
corresponds to the Central Crystalline Zone of
Kumaon and includes the tectono-stratigraphic unit
that lies to the north of, and above, the Main Central
Thrust (MCT) and below the fossiliferous Tibetan-
Tethys Zone of sedimentary rocks. The Higher
Himalayan Zone is essentially composed of various
kinds of gneisses that form a basement to the Tibetan-
Tethys sedimentary pile. Topographically, in contrast
to the geologically dened Higher Himalayan Zone,
most of the highest peaks of the High Himalaya in
Nepal including Everest, Manaslu, Annapurna,
Dhaulagiri, Kanjiroba, Saipal and Api, are capped
with Tibetan Tethyan Zone sediments and the Tertiary
leucogranites (Fig. 2).
Whereas the upper boundary of the Higher
Himalayan Zone is comparatively easily discernible
locating the lower boundary of the unit is problematic
and complicated. This diculty is directly linked to
diculty in dening the precise location of the MCT
and its associated metamorphism and deformation. A
detailed discussion of the problems of position, num-
ber and correlation of MCT and of its associated de-
formation, metamorphism and thermal history is
presented below. First the nature of the simpler upper
boundary of the Higher Himalayan Zone is discussed.
Along the Himalayan range in many areas the Higher
Himalayan Zone is separated from the Tethyan sedi-
mentary rocks by intervening bodies of Tertiary leuco-
granite forming the Higher Himalayan Granites. These
granitic bodies obscure the nature of the contact
between the rocks of the Higher Himalayan Zone and
the Tethys sedimentary rock zone. In the past it was
generally considered that the contact between the
Higher Himalayan gneisses and the Tethyan rocks was
gradational and showed no structural break (Gansser,
1964; Fuchs and Frank, 1970). More recently a normal
fault system, the Southern Tibetan Detachment Fault
System (STDFS) has been recognised. That fault sep-
arates the rocks of the two zones (Pe cher, 1991;
Burchel et al., 1992; Hodges et al, 1992; Brown and
Nazarchuk, 1993; Coleman, 1996).
In Nepal, the Higher Himalayan Zone consisting of
high-grade crystalline rocks including various kinds of
gneisses, schists and migmatites extends continuously
along the entire length of the country. The north
south width of the unit varies from place to place. At
places where the unit is conned to its root zone, the
width is restricted to a few kilometers. On the other
hand, where the Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks
occupy thrust sheets, as in eastern Nepal, the width
reaches to tens of kilometers (Fig. 2).
7.2. Nomenclature
The crystalline rocks of the Higher Himalaya of
Nepal have been variously named. In eastern Nepal,
Lombard (1953, 1958) used the term Dalle du Tibet
(Tibetan Slab) for this unit and later French workers
retained that term extending its use along the entire
Himalayan Range (Le Fort, 1975a,b, 1989; Bordet et
al., 1972, Pe cher, 1975, 1977; Brunel et al., 1979;
Colchen et al., 1980). The Higher Himalayan Zone of
Nepal falls within Hagen's (1969) Khumbu and
Lumbasumba nappes as well as partly within both the
upper units of his Kathmandu nappe, and the root
zones of his Kathmandu nappe. Bodenhausen et al.
(1964) called the Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks
the Annapurna Gneissic Complex from outcrops in the
Kali Gandaki valley. American authors, and some
others, commonly call the rocks of this zone the
Greater Himalayan Sequence or the Greater
Himalayan Crystallines (Hodges et al., 1988;
Macfarlane et al., 1992; Harrison et al., 1998). In wes-
tern Nepal, Frank and Fuchs (1970), Fuchs and Frank
(1970); Fuchs (1977) describe this unit as the upper
crystalline nappes. Japanese workers (Hashimoto et
al., 1973; Arita, 1983) have included this unit in their
Himalayan Gneiss Zone or Himalayan Gneiss Group
(Kano, 1984) which lies above and to the north of
their MCT II or Upper MCT, and below the Tethyan
sediments. Schelling (1989) in eastern Nepal included
this unit in his Junbesi Group that embraced his
Rolwaling (Khumbu) migmatites and Rolwaling para-
gneisses. The rocks of this zone are designated as the
Himal Group in the geological maps published by
DMG (Shrestha et al., 1987). I prefer to call the rock
units of the Higher Himalayan Zone the Higher
Himalayan Gneisses, or the Higher Himalayan
Crystalline rocks to make a clear distinction between
these rocks and the gneisses of the Lesser Himalaya
such as the Ulleri augen gneiss (Le Fort, 1975a).
7.3. Geology
The crystalline rocks of the Higher Himalayan Zone
of Nepal have been studied in detail in outcrops within
the deep gorges of the major rivers that cut through
the High Himalaya. Those gorges expose the entire
>12 km thick Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks as
well as an overlying 1012 km thick section of
Tethyan zone sedimentary rocks. Exposure of this
deep-seated core of the mountain belt is one of the
most distinctive characteristics of the Himalaya. The
other sections of the Higher Himalayan Zone are
extremely remote and lie at very high altitudes, making
them highly inaccessible. The best-studied sections of
the Higher Himalayan Zone in Nepal are along the
river sections of Upper Karnali, Kali Gandaki, Modi,
Marshyangdi, Burhi Gandaki, and Trisuli (Langtang
section). Some work has also been done along the sec-
tions in the Tama Kosi, Dudh Kosi and Arun valleys.
7.3.1. The Karnali and Upper Thulo Bheri Sections
The area between the Mugu Karnali and the Kali
Gandaki valleys has been studied almost solely by
Fuchs (Fuchs, 1967, 1977, 1980; Fuchs and Frank
1970; Frank and Fuchs, 1970) who places the Higher
Himalayan Zone in his upper crystalline nappe. In the
Mugu Karnali section Fuchs (1977) placed the MCT
above his Lower Crystalline nappe near Khumpa
Village. The exposed base of the gneiss zone consists
of well-layered, ne to medium grained, banded two-
mica gneisses. Above these gneisses lie thicker layers of
light to grey quartzites and quartzite gneisses followed
by garnet-mica-schists to paragneisses. Farther up the
section, graybrowngreenwhite banded alternations
of quartzite, quartzite gneiss, garnet-kyanite-two-mica
gneiss, calc-silicate bearing paragneisses and amphibo-
lite occur. Migmatites and augen gneisses, granitic
gneiss and migmatites follow up in the section. The
gneisses generally contain kyanite and sillimanite. This
unit which is exposed over 5000 to 10,000 m consists
of coarse-grained garnet-kyanite gneisses (2staurolite
or sillimanite) passing upward into augen granite-
gneiss, ortho-to migmatitic gneisses, calc-gneisses,
marbles, and calc mica schists.
7.3.2. Central and western Nepal
In central and western Nepal, this zone has been
studied by many workers e.g. Fuchs (1977); Fuchs and
Frank (1970); Frank and Fuchs (1970); Bordet et al.
(1972); Le Fort (1975a,b); Pe cher (1975, 1977, 1989);
Pe cher and Le Fort (1986); Le Fort et al. (1986, 1987);
Brunel et al. (1979); Bouchez and Pe cher (1981); Arita
(1984a,b); Kano (1982, 1984) and Hodges et al. (1988).
7.3.2.1. The Kali Gandaki section. This area oers an
excellent cross-section of the entire unit where the river
Kali Gandaki cuts through the Higher Himalaya mak-
ing one of the deepest gorges of the world. The Higher
Himalayan gneiss Zone of this area has been studied
by Le Fort (1971), Le Fort et al. (1986); Bordet et al
(1972); Sako et al. (in: Hashimoto et al., 1973); Kano
(1982). The section of Modi Khola, one of the Eastern
tributaries of Kali Gandaki has been thoroughly stu-
died by Pe cher (1975, 1977) and Arita, (1983).
Le Fort (1975a) grouped the Higher Himalayan
crystalline rocks into three formations: Formation I, II
and III (from bottom to top). He interpreted this zone
as showing a homoclinal structure dipping to the NE
or NNE at angles ranging from 30 to 758. The total
thickness of the zone in Kali Gandaki section is
between 6000 and 7000 m. Formation I, which is
1400 m thick, is the lowest unit consisting of Kyanite
(to sillimanite)-garnet two-mica banded gneisses of
pelitic to arenaceous composition. Formation I con-
tinuously increases in thickness eastward reaching up
to 5000 m in Marshyangdi section. In the Kali
Gandaki section, where the thickness is less, only kya-
nite has developed, in thicker sections, sillimanite has
developed in the upper part of the formation. The pre-
sence of augen gneisses, remobilization (migmatization)
and intercalations of lime silicate rocks and quartzites
characterize the upper part of the formation (Le Fort,
1975a). Formation II commonly begins with a coarse
quartzite bed several tens of meters thick. It is mainly
composed of an alternation of pyroxene and amphi-
bole bearing calc-gneisses and marbles. The total thick-
ness of Formation II is 3500 m which remains fairly
constant along the EW extension. The contact
between Formation II and III is arbitrary but
Formation III is characterized by a more pelitic to
graywacke character. The top of the formation is
made up of a 3000 m thick coarse augen gneiss. The
boundary between the Formation III and the lime-
stone of the Tibetan-Tethys Zone (Larjung Formation)
is marked by faults of the South Tibetan Detachment
System (STDS) (Brown and Nazarchuk, 1993; Pe cher,
1991; Coleman, 1996; Godin et al., 1999).
7.3.2.2. The Marshyandi, Burhi Gandaki and Trisuli sec-
tions. The Higher Himalayan Zone of these sections
has been studied by Hashimoto, 1973 (in Hashimoto
et al., 1973); Le Fort (1975a,b, 1981), Caby et al.
(1983), Pe cher and Le Fort (1986) and Hodges et al.
(1988). Some of the most detailed petrographic and
geochemical studies are those of the Marshyangdi sec-
tion by Le Fort (1975a,b, 1981, 1988), Le Fort et al.
(1987), Vidal et al. (1982) and Deniel et al. (1986,
1987). This section constitutes one of the thickest sec-
tions of the Higher Himalayan Zone of Nepal exceed-
ing 10,000 m in thickness. The lithologic succession is
quite similar to the Kali Gandaki section. The sections
along Burhi Gandaki and Trisuli rivers show a more
of less similar stratigraphy and mineralogy to that of
the Marshyangdi except that there is a thick unit of
quartzite in formation I.
7.3.2.3. KathmanduLangtang section. This zone has
been particularly studied by Rai et al. (1998), Macfar-
lane (1995), Inger and Harris (1992) and Arita et al.
(1973). In the Kathmandu area dening the limit of
southward extension of the Higher Himalayan Zone
has been a problem. Most earlier maps show the rocks
of the Higher Himalayan Zone extending to the south
of Kathmandu with the MCT reaching very close to
the MBT. But Upreti and Le Fort (1999) located the
MCT to the north of the Kathmandu valley placing
the rock units to the south in a separate tectonic unit
which is discussed later.
Discussions of the PT conditions and ages of meta-
morphism of the Higher Himalayan Zone rocks and
the associated MCT can be found in the works of
Maruo and Kizaki (1983), Le Fort et al. (1986),
Hodges et al. (1988), Pe cher (1989), Hubbard, (1989),
Hubbard and Harrison (1989), Copeland et al. (1991),
Inger and Harris (1992), Macfarlane (1995), Coleman
and Parrish (1995), Yoneshiro and Kizaki (1996),
Arita et al. (1997, Rai et al. (1998), Harrison et al.
(1998), Harrison et al. (this issue), Guillot (this issue).
A great deal of the petrography and geochemistry of
these rocks and also that of the Manaslu granite have
been worked out by Le Fort (1981, 1987), Vidal et al.
(1982), Deniel et al. (1986, 1987), Guillot et al. (1995,
this issue) and other workers. In general the rocks of
the Higher Himalayan Zone have been metamor-
phosed in the upper amphibolite to granulite facies
(Pe cher, 1989; Rai et al., 1998).
8. Tibetan-Tethys zone
This northernmost tectonic zone of the Himalaya
occupies a wide belt consisting of sedimentary rocks
known as the Tethyan Sedimentary Series (TSS). It
has undergone very little metamorphism except at its
base where it is close to the Higher Himalayan
Crystalline rocks of the Higher Himalayan Zone. The
Tibetan-Tethys Zone lies between the South Tibetan
Detachment Fault System (STDFS), a north dipping
normal fault system, and the Indus-Tsangpo Suture
Zone (ITS). Ages within the fossiliferous sequence
making up this zone range from Cambrian to Late
Cretaceous-Lower Retiary (Colchen et al., 1980). In
Nepal, the Tibetan-Tethys tectonic zone has a very
limited aereal extent with the best sections being found
in western Nepal in the Annapurna-Dhaulagiri and
Dolpa regions (Fig. 2). Most high peaks of the Nepal
Himalaya including the Everest are made up of the
rocks of this zone (Fig. 2).
Subsequent to the Hagen's (1968) pioneering work
in the Thakkhola area in the upper section of the Kali
Gandaki River a great deal of further work on the
Tethys zone of the Nepal Himalaya was carried out
(Bodenhausen et al., 1964; Fuchs, 1964, 1974, 1977;
Waterhouse 1966, 1978; Bordet et al., 1971a,b, 1975;
Bassoullet and Mouterde, 1977; Fort et al., 1980;
Colchen et al., 1986; Fuchs et al., 1988; Garzanti and
Frette, 1991, and this issue; Ogg and Rad 1994; Rad et
al., 1994; Fuchs and Poudel, 1998). The rocks of the
Tibetan-Tethys Zone (TSS) consist of a thick and
nearly continuous lower Paleozoic to lower Tertiary
marine sedimentary succession. Stratigraphic columns
and correlations from dierent sections of Nepal are
presented in Fig. 7. The rocks are considered to have
been deposited in a part of the Indian passive conti-
nental margin (Liu and Einsele, 1994). Exposures are
excellent and easily accessible in the Manang area in
the Marsyangdi River, in the Thakkhola, in the Kali
Gandaki River, and in the Dolpa area of western
Nepal that lies to the north of the high ranges of
Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Kanjiroba Himal (Fig. 2).
Tibetan-Tethys Zone rocks also cover a small area in
the upper reaches of Burhi Gandaki north of the
Manaslu range. In far western Nepal these rocks are
exposed in remote areas along the upper reaches of
Kali and Seti rivers lying to the north of the Api and
Saipal ranges respectively. Detailed description of
these rocks and fuller references are given Garzanti's
paper in this volume.
F
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7
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9. Tectonics of the Nepal Himalaya
9.1. Master thrusts of the Himalaya
The basic framework, or architecture, of the
Himalaya is controlled by three master thrusts that
extend all along the Himalayan range: namely the
Main Central Thrust (MCT), the Main Boundary
Thrust (MBT) and the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT).
The three thrusts are considered to come together in a
low angle decollement known as the Main Himalayan
Thrust (MHT) to the north, deep below the Himalaya.
Harrison et al. in this volume illustrate this relation-
ship. The decollement is a major crustal break separ-
ating the upper and the lower continental crust of the
Indian plate. The lower crust underthrusts to the north
below the Tibetan continental crust resulting in the
doubling the crust below Tibet but the crust above the
decollement is being pushed out to the south along the
three master thrusts. Initiation of the three thrusts was
younger in age from north to south. The MCT was
the rst thrust to break the Indian crust. It carried
southward on its back a pile of rocks 2530 km thick
for 200 km or more (Schelling, 1992; Srivastava and
Mitra, 1994; Parrish and Hodges, 1996; Harrison et
al., this issue). Excellent reviews on the nature, age
and evolution of MCT are also given by Le Fort
(1975a,b, 1996), Hodges et al. (1988), Copeland et al.
(1991), Searle (1995) and by other authors.
9.2. The Mystic MCT
For long, one of the most controversial topics in the
Himalayan geology has been the nature, position and
the role of MCT in the evolution of the mountain
range. A great deal of recent research in the Himalaya
continues to revolve around the MCT and studies of
that thrust system continue to attract high priority for
research funding. The long ago recognised problems of
the inverted metamorphism and the origin of Higher
Himalayan leuco-granites are generally considered to
be intimately related to movements along the MCT. A
great variety of models have been proposed to explain
the abnormal bottom to top increase of metamorphism
and these are well reviewed by Harrison et al. (1998),
as well as in a paper in this volume.
9.2.1. The MCT in India and Nepal
9.2.1.1. The original MCT. Heim and Gansser (1939)
while working in the eastern Kumaon Himalaya along
the Kali River section adjacent to the Nepal border
recognised a thrust at the base of a gneissic unit just
north of the border town of Darchula. The gneissic
zone essentially consisted of coarse biotite-alkali-feld-
spar gneiss with the general aspect of a granitic gneiss
that passed into a muscovite-biotite gneiss and a bio-
tite-granite gneiss with local porphyroblastic augen.
According to Gansser (1964, p.104), metamorphism
seemed to decrease upward and a sequence of sedimen-
tary rocks called the Sirdang Sedimentary Zone
appeared. A thick snow-white sericite quartzite formed
the base of the next higher crystalline rock unit which
began with garnetiferous biotite-psammite gneisses and
gave way upward to an intercalated rock sequence
with a predominance of staurolite-garnet-biotite
schists. Farther upward still, augen gneisses appeared
which were again followed by biotite-psammitic
gneisses. Higher up in the sequence, metamorphism
decreased and a conspicuous schist zone occurred,
which was given the local name of the Budhi schist.
Heim and Gansser (1939) considered that the inter-
calation of the Sirdang Sedimentary section divided
the crystalline rocks of the Higher Himalayan Zone
into lower and upper crystalline units. This thrust at
the base of the lower gneisses was originally dened as
the Main Central Thrust but no thrust was placed at
the bottom of the upper crystalline unit. Farther west
in areas in India where the lower gneissic units are
missing, the thrust, locally called the Jutogh Thrust
was placed at a horizon where the sedimentary rocks
of the Lesser Himalaya gave way to low to medium
grade metamorphosed rock units such as biotite to
garnet bearing schists and marbles. For long, and even
today in India, this is the true MCT to most research-
ers.
9.2.1.2. MCT in Nepal. In Nepal, Hagen (1969) was
working independently and mapping a multitude of
thrusts at many levels both in the sedimentary rocks
and in the crystalline rocks. Because Hagen envisaged
a structure with many nappes no single thrust equival-
ent to the original MCT was recognisable although
some of Hagen's thrusts could be considered as poss-
ibly correlatable with the MCT in India. On the other
hand French researchers, working particularly in cen-
tral and western Nepal (Bordet, 1961; Bordet et al.,
1972; Le Fort, 1975a,b; Pe cher, 1975, 1977), recognised
an MCT which was dierent from the MCT of Heim
and Gansser (1939) and Gansser (1964). That MCT is
at a higher structural level than the MCT in India and
is characterised by a thick ductile shear zone that was
given the name: the MCT zone. Though in most cases
the precise location of a thrust plane was dicult to
map, it was realised that a thrust in this position is the
most signicant and fundamental of the thrusts that
have contributed to the geodynamic evolution of the
Himalaya. The thrust separates two fundamentally
dierent domains of the Himalaya: the Lesser Himala-
yan zone with unmetamrphosed and low grade meta-
morphic rocks and the high grade metamorphic rocks
of the Higher Himalaya. Following Lombard (1958),
the thick pile of the kyanite to sillimanite bearing
high-grade metamorphic rocks which are essentially
composed of gneisses, calcgneisses, schists and migma-
tites lying above the MCT, was called the Tibetan Slab
(Le Fort, 1975a,b). In Nepal, French workers did not
recognise a thrust equivalent to the MCT of Heim and
Gansser (1939).
After a decade of research nearly covering the whole
country, the Japanese research group (Hashimoto et
al., 1973) came up with the idea of two thrusts which
they called MCT I (Lower MCT) and the MCT II
(Upper MCT). The MCT I is equivalent to the MCT
of Heim and Gansser (1939) and the MCT II corre-
sponds with the MCT of the French workers (Le Fort,
1975a,b; Pe cher, 1989). The intervening zone between
the MCT I and II was called the Main Central Thrust
zone. In most areas, the MCT I is placed at the base
of the augen gneiss (Ulleri augen gneiss, Le Fort,
1975a,b) or arbitrarily along the base of a rock unit
with medium grade metamorphism not far below from
the base of the Higher Himalayan crystallines. The
contact between the rocks of MCT zone and the
Lesser Himalayan metasediments is not sharp and
looks gradational everywhere. The famous inverted
metamorphism of Himalaya is actually observed in
this zone. Interestingly, the French researchers do not
recognise this lower thrust anywhere in the Nepal
Himalaya.
In western Nepal, Fuchs and Frank (1970) also
recognised two distinct thrusts lying at the bases of
Upper (Tibetan slab) and Lower (MCT zone) crystal-
line nappes in similar positions to those of the
Japanese workers. Along the Kali Gandaki section, at
Tatopani they described ``quartzites and basic rocks of
the Chail Nappe dipping beneath the phyllitic mica
schists, which contain layers of carbonate rocks, quart-
zites and gneisses''. These latter rocks constitute the
Lower Crystalline Nappe of Fuchs and Frank (1970)
and the gneiss probably represents the Lesser
Himalayan augen gneiss. Perhaps this led these
workers to place a thrust at the base of the gneiss.
Surprisingly, most authors have not reported this
augen gneiss in Kali Gandaki section. Their next
thrust (equivalent to the MCT of French) begins just
north of Dana at the base of their Upper Crystalline
Nappe.
Subsequent workers in Nepal (Sto cklin, 1980;
Hodges et al., 1988; Hubbard and Harrison, 1989;
Copeland et al., 1991; Macfarlane et al., 1992;
Schelling, 1992; Harrison et al., 1993) have all recog-
nised the Tibetan Slab as the distinctive tectonic unit
of the Higher Himalayan Zone and put the MCT at
its base. Equally importantly, all these later workers
have also recognised the MCT zone which lies at the
base of the Tibetan Slab.
Until 1980 when Valdiya (1980) put the idea of the
existence of two thrusts, his Munsiari Thrust which
was the original MCT of Heim and Gansser (1939)
lying at a lower level and the Vaikrita Thrust, the
equivalent of the French MCT at the base of the
Tibetan Slab, most authors in India were content with
the original MCT of Heim and Gansser (1939) and no
thrust was put at the higher level at the base of the
high grade crystalline unit. Valdiya also proposed that
the Lesser Himalayan crystalline nappes root to the
north in the Munshiari Group of low to medium
grade metamorphic rock units lying between his intra-
crustal boundary thrusts the Vaikrita and Munsiari
thrusts.
9.3. The Lesser Himalayan augen gneisses (the Ulleri
gneisses) and the MCT I
Le Fort (1975a,b) and Pe cher and Le Fort (1977)
had early pointed out the nature and origin of the
augen gneisses of the Lesser Himalaya, which they
called the Ulleri augen gneisses. They indicated that
they belong to the Lesser Himalayan zone and do not
require any thrust contact with the surrounding rocks.
These Ulleri-type augen gneisses, which I prefer to call
the Lesser Himalayan augen gneisses to distinguish
them from the augen gneisses of the Higher
Himalayan Zone and the augen gneisses of the Lesser
Himalayan crystalline nappes, are very widely devel-
oped in the Nepal Himalaya extending intermittently
for a long distance from west to east. They consistently
occur more or less at the same stratigraphic level in
the Lesser Himalayan sequence. In most cases they are
found in the upper part of the Kuncha Formation
(Sto cklin, 1980), the oldest rock unit of the Lesser
Himalaya in Nepal. Large bodies are mapped in the
Chainpur area of the far west, in the Lower Karnali
section, north-west of Surkhet, north-west of Pokhara,
at Ulleri, which is the type locality of the Ulleri augen
gneisses, and north-west of Kathmandu in the upper
Trisuli River section. In the Trisuli section, interest-
ingly, the augen gneiss is found in two horizons: one
at the lower level within the Kuncha formation and
the other at the top of the Nawakot Complex within
the Benighat Slate (Rai, 1998). In the east, the augen
gneisses exposed to the north of Ramechap and
Okhaldhunga are over 2 km thick and extend for
nearly 100 km (Fig. 2). That is the largest body of
Lesser Himalayan augen gneiss in Nepal. I here pro-
pose calling it the Melung-Salleri augen gneiss (the
Phaplu augen gneisss of Maruo and Kizaki, 1983).
Farther east, in the Arun and Taplejung widows, the
augen gneiss again appears in the upper part of the
Lesser Himalayan Zone. In addition to the occurrences
described here there are many thin lenticular smaller
bodies of augen gneiss in other areas within the
Kuncha Formation for example in Daraundi Khola
section, north of Gorkha.
The presence of bodies of augen gneiss amidst the
low-grade rocks of Lesser Himalaya led most research-
ers to interpret them as thrust sheets. The gneisses
were considered as high-grade metamorphic rocks
lying side by side with low-grade rocks such as the
Kuncha phyllites. Regarding the augen gneisses as
high-grade metamorphic rocks has been the critical
reason for putting thrust contacts between the gneisses
and adjacent rocks with low grade metamorphism
(Heim and Gansser, 1939; Gansser, 1964; Arita, 1983;
Maruo and Kizaki, 1983). But interestingly, in most
cases thrusts were put only at the base of the gneisses
and not at their upper limits.
Field relationships between the gneisses and the sur-
rounding rocks show that the gneisses imperceptibly
grade into low-grade country rocks such as the
Kuncha phyllites. There are excellent outcrops showing
gradations and interlayered relationships with the
country rocks along the Chaku Khola, at 102 km from
Kathmandu, on the KathmanduKodari highway,
north of Okhaldhunga near the village of Necha, and,
by my personal observation, along the Daraundi
Khola, north of Gorkha and in the Ulleri area (Le
Fort, 1975a,b). In the Chaku Khola area, the augen
gneisses gradually grade into the Upper Nawakot
Group of Sto cklin (1980) without any structural break.
Near the contacts the augens gradually become ner
and stretched and the rocks merge into the surround-
ing phyllites. In the Daraundi Khola section, there are
two augen gneiss sheets intercalated within the
Kuncha Formation, each over 50 m thick. The inter-
vening rocks between the two gneiss bodies are also
phyllites of Kuncha Formation. This eld evidence
clearly indicates that the augen gneisses are not thrust
bound. The gneisses and the host rocks have under-
gone metamorphism essentially under the same con-
ditions.
Many authors have described the gneissic rocks as
cataclastic gneisses or blastomylonitic or mylonitic
augen gneiss (Ishida and Ohta, 1973; Arita, 1983).
This textural interpretation of the nature of the
gneisses helped to promote the idea of thrust contacts
between the gneisses and the country rock. It is true
that the Lesser Himalayan augen gneisses in general
are characteristically strongly foliated and show a
streaky appearance as a result of a mineral lineation
observable on foliation planes. The individual grains
of mica (0.10.2 mm) are hardly identiable in hand
specimen. The streaks are produced by micas, es-
pecially black mica. Other minerals such as quartz and
feldspars too show stretching. This texture is so perva-
sive that it is found throughout the over 2 km thick
gneiss section and is not limited to the contact zone. I
interpret this texture of the augen gneiss to be the
result of strong regional deformation of the protolith,
which probably consisted of either granite or siliceous
volcanic rocks, at a low temperature, around 300 to
3508C, but not at a temperature dierent from that
obtaining during deformation of the protolith of the
surrounding country rocks. Because of the diering
physical properties of the protoliths of the gneisses
and the county rocks, dierent kinds of textures were
produced by the same degree of deformation.
Therefore, at least in Nepal, the contact between the
Lesser Himalayan augen gneiss and the host rock is
not marked by a regional thrust the MCT I of Arita
(1983) lying at the base of the Ulleri augen gneiss or
the Phaplu Thrust of Maruo and Kizaki (1983).
However, it may be pointed out that in places the
existence of faults of local signicance cannot be ruled
out.
9.4. The Lower Boundary of the MCT zone and the
existence of MCT I
Japanese researchers (Hashimoto et al., 1973; Arita,
1983) have placed the MCT I or the Lower MCT not
only at the base of the Lesser Himalayan augen
gneisses but also close to the upper units of the Lessser
Himalayan metasediments where the gneisses are not
developed. This thrust is placed at a level where the
low grade metasedimentary rocks of the Lesser
Himalaya are supposed to give way to higher grade
metamorphic rocks. A break in metamorphism has
been envisaged at this level. Fuchs and Frank (1970)
also placed a thrust at the base of their Lower
Crystalline Nappe in a similar position to that postu-
lated by the Japanese researchers.
Field observations in several sections in central and
western Nepal indicate that no sharp metamorphic
break exists (Le Fort, 1975a,b; Pe cher, 1975, 1989;
Pe cher and Le Fort, 1986; Schelling, 1992; Rai et al.,
1998) at the place where the MCT I has been placed.
In all these sections, the upper part of the metasedi-
ments of the Lesser Himalaya shows a gradual increase
in metamorphism in an upward direction towards the
base of the Higher Himalayan Zone. Rocks at chlorite
grade in the lower part of the Lesser Himalayan Zone
gradually pass upward to garnet staurolite and rarely
to kyanite grade at the base of the Higher Himalayan
Zone. This is the well-known inverted metamorphism
of the Himalaya. For example: in western Nepal,
along the Marsyangdi River section the Kuncha
Formation starts showing developments of biotite and
garnet south of Besisahar. Biotites and garnets start
appearing almost imperceptibly and become more pro-
minent and larger as one approaches to the MCT.
Near Khudi, the garnets enlarge to as big as several
mm in diameter and become very prominent. No real
break in metamorphism can be observed along the sec-
tion. Similar observations can be made in other sec-
tions such as along SunkosiBhotekosi River on the
KathmanduKodari Highway, in the Trisuli River, the
Burhi Gandaki, the Kali Gandaki, the Modi Khola
and elsewhere. These gradational changes make it very
dicult to accept the existence of the MCT I or the
Lower MCT of Japanese workers and Fuchs and
Frank (1970).
However, apart from the boundary thrusts, there
exist many thrusts within the major tectonic zones of
the Himalaya. Macfarlane et al. (1992) have recognised
not one but a number of brittle thrusts in the MCT
zone in the Langtang area of central Nepal. They are
generally of local importance and do not extend
throughout the length of the orogen. I would therefore
stress that, though there may be locally important
thrusts at the levels of an MCT I or within the MCT
zone, they are not regionally signicant thrusts com-
parable to the MCT or the MBT. This is contrary to
the interpretations given by Arita (1983) and Fuchs
and Frank (1970).
The use of the name of MCT for proliferating
thrusts at many levels whether within the Lesser or
Higher Himalayan zones renders the meaning of the
term MCT vague and diuse. I therefore restrict the
use of the term only to the intracrustal boundary
thrust recognised by the French workers that separates
the distinct Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks, the
Tibetan Slab of some authors, from the Lesser
Himalayan rocks.
Recently Harrison et al. (1998, and this issue) have
proposed a new model for the origin of the inverted
metamorphism and the anatexis that gave rise to the
higher Himalayan and north Himalayan granites. They
explain the inverted metamorphism in the MCT zone
as a result of the juxtaposition of the two normal
metamorphic sequences by out-of-sequence thrusting.
They consider that a 69 Ma old out-of-sequence
thrust, equivalent to the MCT I of Arita, developed
on the Lesser Himalayan unit which was metamor-
phosed to the biotite-garnet grade during the eohima-
layan metamorphism. These rocks were thus welded to
the Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks giving rise to
the apparent inverted metamorphic zonation.
Although the model better explains the origin of the
two contrasting granite belts delineating a thrust in the
eld is very dicult. Moreover, the postulated thrust
does not seem to coincide with the visible metamorphic
break.
9.5. Age of MCT thrusting
Constraining the ages of both the initiation of the
MCT and the cessation of its activity has been a di-
cult task. Though in most cases the MCT is seen to
overthrust rocks no younger than the Eocene (Le Fort,
1996), Sakai et al. (this issue) reports overthrusting of
the Dumri Formation (Late Eocene to Early Miocene
in age) by the MCT. Part of the metamorphism of the
Dumri Formation (2617 Ma) occurring close to the
MCT is interpreted to have resulted from heat trans-
ferred from the crystalline rocks of the Higher
Himalayan Zone brought over these rocks by the
MCT. This constrains the upper age limit of the MCT.
Parrish and Hodges (1993) put the MCT initiation in
central Nepal at after 22 Ma. In the Everest section
movement on the MCT was already active at 21 Ma
(Hubbard and Harrison, 1989). Broadly speaking, the
MCT may have been active between 25 and 15 Ma
(Copeland et al., 1991; Harrison et al., 1998) and
Harrison et al. (1998, this issue) indicate that the MCT
was reactivated during 68 Ma.
9.6. The Lesser Himalayan crystalline nappes and their
root zones
A large number of crystalline nappes and klippen
have been recognised throughout the Himalaya (in
India: Auden, 1935; Heim and Gansser, 1939; Gansser,
1964; Valdiya, 1981, 1988; Thakur, 1981; Sinha, 1989;
in Nepal: Hagen, 1969; Le Fort, 1975a,b; Brunel,
1975; Fuchs, 1977; Sto cklin, 1980; Arita et al., 1984;
Schelling, 1992; Upreti and Le Fort, 1999).
In Nepal the following crystalline nappes have been
recognized: 1. Kathmandu nappe, 2. Jajarkot nappe, 3.
Dadeldhura nappe, 4. Parchauni nappe (north of
Baitadi), and 5. Karnali nappe (Upreti and Le Fort,
1999, Fig. 2). In addition to these nappes, there is a
at-lying large thrust sheet of crystalline rocks in east-
ern Nepal that covers most of eastern Nepal. That
thrust reaches close to the MBT in the south.
The crystalline nappes of the Lesser Himalaya can
be divided into two groups depending upon the strati-
graphy and the metamorphism of their contained rock
units: 1. Nappes composed of upper amphibolite to
granulite facies rocks, similar to the rocks of Higher
Himalayan Zone or Tibetan Slab. 2. Nappes of the
Bhimphedi Group with Lower Paleozoic cover. The
Bhimphedi Group (Sto cklin, 1980) is composed of low
to medium grade metamorphic rocks such as biotite-
garnet schists and marbles. The stratigraphy and the
metamorphic grades of rocks in these two groups of
nappes are quite distinct and dierent.
1. Nappes with high grade rocks: The Karnali nappe
belongs to this category (Figs. 2 and 7). This nappe
outcrops along the Karnali and Tila rivers and cov-
ers an area of over 5,000 sq. km. The rock units of
this nappe consist of kyanite-sillimanite bearing
gneisses, calc-silicate gneiss, migmatitic gneiss and
augen gneiss (Hayashi et al., 1984). These rocks
show very close similarity to the rock units of the
Higher Himalayan Zone. Near Jumla, the Karnali
nappe is separated from its root zone by only a few
km of intervening Lesser Himalayan rocks (Fig. 2).
Therefore, the root zone of this nappe is very clearly
located in the Higher Himalayan Zone or Tibetan
Slab. At the core of the Karnali nappe lies a 1500 m
thick carbonate sequence composed of calcareous
biotite schist with psamitic and pelitic schist. The
rocks in the core carbonate sequence show typical
brick-red weathering products similar to those com-
monly seen in the Annapurna (Dhaulagiri)
Limestone of the Tibetan-Tethyan Sedimentary
Series. This core zone may thus represent the basal
part of the Tibetan-Tethys sedimentary series
(Hayashi et al., 1984).
The large thrust sheet covering most of eastern
Nepal has been very well mapped (Schelling, 1992,
Fig. 1). The deep erosion of this sheet has produced
large tectonic windows along the major rivers: the
Dudh Kosi, the Arun and the Tamor (Fig. 2).
Lesser Himalayan low-grade metamorphic rocks
such as phyllites, slates and limestones are exposed
in these windows. As the crystalline thrust sheet
dips at a very low angle to the north, the base of
the unit is exposed only in the river gorges. Because
the thrust sheets can be traced northward continu-
ously from their frontal region to their root zone in
the Higher Himalayan zone and because the rocks
are same in both areas (kyanite+sillimanite bearing
gneisses, schists and quartzites), the problem of link-
ing a root zone to frontal nappes does not arise.
2. Nappes of the Bhimphedi Group: Rocks of the
Kathmandu nappe, the Jajarkot nappe, the
Dadeldhura nappe and the Parchauni nappe belong
to the Bhimphedi Group or equivalent (Sto cklin,
1980; Shrestha et al., 1993, Fig. 8). The Bhimphedi
Group has been described by Sto cklin and
Bhattarai (1977) and Sto cklin (1980) from central
Nepal and it also forms the base of the Kathmandu
nappe. This nearly 8 km thick rock sequence (Fig.
Fig. 8. Stratigraphic columns of the Lesser Himalayan nappes (nappes of Bhimphedi Group with Paleozoic cover).
8) consists of formations with various lithologies
metamorphosed to biotite-garnet grade and only
locally reaching as high as kyanite grade, e.g. in
Kathmandu nappe. The biotite-garnet bearing rocks
of the Bhimphedi group have been thrust over very
low grade to unmetamorphosed Lesser Himalayan
rocks. The contacts in most cases are sharp. The
grade of metamorphism decreases gradually towards
the top giving way to a sequence of fossiliferous
rocks. The Kathmandu, Jajarkot and Dadeldhura
nappes contain unmetamorphosed sedimentary
rocks at the top of their sections (Fuchs and Frank,
1970; Sto cklin, 1980; Sharma et al., 1984; Shrestha
et al., 1993; Upreti, 1996, Fig. 8). In the
Kathmandu nappe these rocks are described as
Phulchauki Group (Fig. 6) and make up a 56 km
thick unit of Early Middle Paleozoic age. In the
Jajarkot nappe, Fuchs and Frank (1970) have
reported crinoids in the carbonate rocks at the top
of the section and have correlated them with the
Chandragiri Limestone of the Phulchauki Group
and the Annapurna (Dhaulagiri) Limestone of the
Tibetan Sedimentary Series. No good description is
available of the young unmetamorphosed rocks of
the Dadeldhura nappe.
9.7. Root zone of the nappes of Bhimphedi Group
Two interpretations have been proposed.
1. The root zone is placed in the Higher Himalayan
zone (in Kumaon, India: Heim and Gansser, 1939,
in Nepal: Hagen, 1969; Le Fort, 1975a,b; Sto cklin,
1980). This interpretation is based on the obser-
vations (a) that the rock units in both the nappes
and the root zones are crystalline, although showing
a dierence in grade of metamorphism and (b) that
no rocks exposed between the nappes and the
Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks are comparable
to the rocks within the nappes. The presence of the
Lower Paleozoic fossiliferous rocks at the top of the
crystalline rock sections exposed in the nappes has
been taken as further support for this interpretation.
The sedimentary rocks of Tethyan anity at the top
of the crystalline sections in both the postulated
root zone and in the nappes is compatible with the
idea that the rock packages in both areas belong to
the same tectonic unit.
2. The root is placed at the MCT zone (In Kumaon,
India: Valdiya, 1980 and Srivastava and Mitra,
1994; In Nepal: Fuchs and Frank, 1970 and Arita
et al., 1984). The rock packages in the MCT zone
i.e. the area lying between the MCT I (equivilant to
the Munsiari Thrust of Valdiya) and MCT II
(equivalent to the Vaikrita Thrust of Valdiya) have
comparable metamorphic grades with the rocks of
the Bhimphedi Group (Munshiari Group of
Valdiya, 1980). That similarity has prompted identi-
cation of the MCT zone as the root zone for the
nappes.
Upreti and Le Fort (1999) have adopted a dierent in-
terpretation pointing out that the roots of the nappes
are not exposed in the north. Neither the rocks of the
MCT zone nor those of the Higher Himalayan Zone
can be considered as the root zones of the nappes of
Bhimphedi Group. The arguments put forward in
favour of this view may be summarised as follows:
1. The rocks of MCT zone belong to the upper Lesser
Himalayan unit (Upper Nawakot Group (Le Fort,
1975a,b; Pe cher and Le Fort, 1986). They show
higher grade metamorphism because of their proxi-
mity to the MCT along which the hot slab of the
Higher Himalayan Zone rocks were thrust over the
cold Lesser Himalayan rocks and produced the
inverted metamorphioc gradient (Le Fort, 1975). In
fact, in most sections, the stratigraphic sequence
and the typical sedimentary features of these rocks
are identical with their southern counterparts. The
nappes on the other hand, do not contain rocks
with lithology and stratigraphy similar to that of
the rocks the MCT zone. The thickness of the rocks
in the nappes (over 13 km in the Kathmandu
nappe) far exceeds the thickness in the root zone.
2. The metamorphism in the MCT zone is clearly
inverted. In the nappes, on the other hand, the
metamorphism is quite normal. This can not be
explained if the MCT zone forms the root to the
nappes.
3. The nappes have clearly preserved the younger sedi-
mentary sequences (Lower Paleozoic in age) at their
tops with well recognised fossils, such as those in
the Phulchauki Group in Kathmandu nappe
(Sto cklin, 1980) and in the Jaljala Fomation in
Jajarkot nappe (Fuchs and Frank, 1970; Sharma et
al., 1984; Upreti, 1996, Fig. 8). No fossiliferous
rocks are recognised of the MCT zone. One may
argue that the fossils have been obliterated in strong
deformation and metamorphism but on the basis of
the well-preserved sedimentary features in rocks of
the MCT zone, this argument is not tenable.
Moreover, the stratigraphic sequences of the sedi-
mentary rocks that are found in the nappes are no
where discernible in the MCT zone.
4. No large granitic bodies are seen within the MCT
zone that are comparable to those found in the
nappes such as the several large cordierite-bearing
two mica granites of the Kathmandu nappes,
Dadeldhura nappe and granites in Almora nappe in
Kumaon (Gansser, 1964).
5. Crystalline rocks of the the Higher Himalayan Zone
Fig. 9. Northsouth geological crosssection through the Nepal Himalaya showing positions of the Lesser Himalayan nappes and their root zones
(redrawn after Upreti and Le Fort, 1999). (a) Section through eastern Nepal (Everest section). (b) Secton through LangtangKathmandu. The
MCT seperates the Gosainkund nappe and the Kathmandu nappe. (c) Section through western Nepal. The rocks of Karnali nappe shows its
root in the Higher Himalayan zones. Legend: 1. Tibetan-Tethys sediments, 2. Phulchauki Group, 3. Higher Himalayan crystallines, 4. Bhimphedi
Group, 5. Lesser Himalayan rocks (Nawakot Complex), 6. Higher Himalayan leucogranites. Lesser Himalayan granites (within Bhimphedi
Group), 8. Churia Group (Siwalik equivalents).
cannot be considered as the root zone of the
Bhimphedi Group nappes for the simple reason that
there is a distinct dierence in the grade of meta-
morphism between the rocks of the regions. The
rocks in the Higher Himalayan Zone were metamor-
phosed at upper amphibolite to granulite facies con-
ditions under 8902260 MPa and 7542408C, while
the rocks of the nappes of the Bhimphedi Group
were metamorphosed at 755251 MPa and
5122228C (Rai et al., 1998). It may be argued that
the nappes may represent a far-travelled frontal and
shallow part of the Higher Himalayan Zone crystal-
line rocks that could be expected to show a meta-
morphic grade lower than its northern counter part.
But this argument becomes weak when one nds, in
eastern Nepal, that the Higher Himalayan Zone
crystalline rocks reach almost as far as the MBT
without showing any change in their grade of meta-
morphism. The Karnali nappe, which is composed
of crystalline rocks of the Higher Himalayan Zone,
does not show lower metamorphic grades. In many
cases the rock units of the Bhimphedi Group and
the Higher Himalayan Zone occur side by side. It is
quite unlikely that the same rock units will exhibit
such contrasting behavior in neighboring areas.
Based on the above arguments, Upreti and Le Fort
(1999) divided the large Kathmandu nappe of earlier
workers (Le Fort, 1975a,b; Sto cklin, 1980) into a smal-
ler Kathmandu nappe in the south and a newly dened
Gosainkund nappe in the north. The two nappes are
separated by the MCT which is placed at the northern
edge of the Kathmandu valley (Fig. 9b). The southern
boundary of the Kathmandu nappe is placed along the
Mahabharat Thrust (MT) which was previously con-
sidered to be the southward continuation of the MCT
where it formed the base of the Kathmandu Nappe
(Sto cklin, 1980). The newly dened Kathmandu nappe
is made up of rocks of the Bhimphedi Group with
Lower Paleozoic cover, the Phulchauki Group
(Sto cklin, 1980). To the north, the Gosainkund nappe
is represented by the high-grade metamorphic rocks of
the Higher Himalayan Zone. Among the Lesser
Himalayan nappes, the Kathmandu nappe has a pos-
ition that is unique in the entire Himalayan range.
Here a nappe of the Bhimphedi group has come into
contact with a nappe made up of Higher Himalayan
zone crystalline rocks along the MCT. The boundary
between the two nappes is complex because of the
development of a long and narrow zone of pegmatite
in the northern hills of the Kathmandu Valley (Rai,
1998; Rai et al., 1998) that obscures the position of the
MCT plane. Copeland et al. (1997) have carried out
Ar/Ar dating on a large number of muscovite minerals
across the Kathmandu and the Gosainkund nappes.
The results show that there is a gradual decrease in the
age of the muscovites from south to the north. The
older ages obtained from the Kathmandu nappe indi-
cate that the rocks making up this nappe must have
been exhumed earlier than those of the Gosainkund
nappe. A U/Pb age obtained on a mineral from one of
the pegmatites that mark the the boundary between
the two nappes indicates that ductile movement along
the MCT ended 025 Ma. Movement on the MCT has
since been transferred to the level of MT to the south
(Rai et al., 1998).
9.8. The lost roots of the nappes
The foregoing discussion suggests that neither the
MCT zone nor the Higher Himalayan Zone crystalline
rocks form the root zone of the nappes of the
Bhimphedi Group. There is no possibility either for
these nappes to have roots farther north. The question
therefore arises: Where are the roots of the outlying
nappes that contain rocks of the Bhimphedi Group?
Upreti and Le Fort (1999) suggested that the root
zones of these nappes are not exposed anywhere in the
north. The rocks are truly exotic (Fig. 9a,c). The ques-
tion also arises: Under what conditions were the rocks
of the Bhimphedi Group metamorphosed to a grade
intermediate between that of the crystalline rocks of
the Higher Himalayan Zone and that of the Lesser
Himalayan Zone sedimentary rocks?
In answer to this question Upreti and Le Fort
(1999) further suggested that the rocks of the
Bhimphedi Group originally belonged to an intermedi-
ate zone between the location of deposition of the sedi-
mentary units deposited in the north which, have the
Phanerozoic Tethyan sedimentary sequence at their
top,and the largely Precambrian sedimentary units
which outcrop in the Lesser Himalaya farther south
which were originally deposited closer to the continent.
The stacking of nappes from the Indus Suture zone
during the Himalayan collision has produced the
upper amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism of
the northern unit (eohimalayan metamorphism, Le
Fort, 1996). Similar tectonics farther south, with a
reduced overburden, may have given rise to the lower
amphibolite facies metamorphism of the basal part of
the newly recognised intermediate zone. The
Bhimphedi Group rocks of that zone have at their top
overlying Paleozoic rocks that show little metamorph-
ism. Harrison et al. (1998, and this issue) proposed
similar eohimalayan metamorphism of the rocks at the
northern edge of the Lesser Himalayan unit. The rocks
lying farther south in the present day Lesser
Himalayan domain were possibly unaected by this
eohimalayan metamorphic phase.
The Higher Himalayan Zone crystalline rocks must
have overridden a large part of the Bhimphedi nappes
during the early phase of the movement along the
MCT. It is proposed that subsequent to the MCT
another thrust (Mahabharat Thrust or MT) developed
farther south which took up the movement that had
earlier been on the MCT. The time of development of
this new thrust is not known. The MT carried the
rocks of Bhimphedi Group to their present position on
top of the Lesser Himalayan rocks. A combination of
movements along the MCT and the MT may have
served to bring the whole Bhimphedi Group to the
surface. After widespread uplift and erosion the
Bhimphedi Group rocks are now preserved only in the
synclinal cores of nappes in an area far south of their
origin where they occupy the structurally highest part
of the Lesser Himalayan Zone (Fig. 9). It may also be
possible that in some cases the Higher Himalayan
Zone crystalline rocks may conceal beneath them the
earlier exposed root of the Bhimphedi nappes as a
result of late stage movement on the MCT around 68
Ma (Harrison et al., 1998 and this issue). The tectonics
of the Himalayan orogen in Nepal have resulted in
200 or more km of shortening on the MCT (Schelling,
1992; Srivastava and Mitra, 1994; Parrish and Hodges,
1996) and the MT. One result of the shortening has
been the stacking of the three tectonic units (Tibetan
Tethys rocks with the crystalline basement, the
Phulchauki Group with the Bhimphedis at the base
and Lesser Himalayan sediments) that were originally
deposited far apart.
Acknowledgements
I am thankful to Dr. Patrick Le Fort, Dr. Peter
Copeland, Dr. Stephane Guillot and Dr. Pitambar
Gautam for going through the manuscript. I am also
thankful to Dr. S.M. Rai for helping me to draft the
gures.
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