Late Oligocene high-temperature shear zones in the core of the Higher Himalayan Crystallines (Lower Dolpo, western Nepal)

A high-temperature shear zone, Toijem shear zone, with a top-to-the-SW sense of shear affects the core of the Higher Himalayan Crystallines (HHC) in western Nepal. The shear zone developed during the decompression, in the sillimanite stability field, of rocks that previously underwent relatively high-pressure metamorphism deformed under the kyanite stability field. PT conditions indicate that the footwall experienced higher pressure (∼9 kbar) than the hanging wall (∼7 kbar) and similar temperatures (675°-700°C). Monazite growth constrains the initial activity of the shear zone at 25.8 ± 0.3 Ma, before the onset of the Main Central Thrust zone, whereas the late intrusion of a crosscutting granitic dike at 17 ± 0.2 Ma limits its final activity. Monazites in kyanite-bearing gneisses from the footwall record prograde metamorphism in the HHC from ∼43 to 33 Ma. The new data confirm that exhumation of the HHC started earlier in western Nepal than in other portions of the belt and before the activity of both the South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS) and Main Central Thrust (MCT) zones. As a consequence, western Nepal represents a key area where the channel-flow-driven mechanism of exhumation, supposed to be active from Bhutan to central-eastern Nepal, does terminate. In this area, exhumation of crystalline units occurred by foreland propagation of ductile and, subsequently, brittle deformation.