Hostname: page-component-669899f699-tpknm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-26T13:20:12.071Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interactions between deformation, magmatism and hydrothermal activity during active crustal thickening: a field example from Nanga Parbat, Pakistan Himalayas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Robert W. H. Butler ,
Nigel B. W. Harris  and
Alan G. Whittington
Robert W. H. Butler
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Nigel B. W. Harris
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
Alan G. Whittington
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Nanga Parbat massif is a rapidly eroding, thrust-related antiform that is distinct from other regions of the Himalayan orogen in being both intruded by Late Miocene-Pliocene anatectic granites and permeated by a vigorous hydrothermal system. Exhumation is achieved by erosion during thrusting along the Liachar thrust in the apparent absence of extensional tectonics. At depths in excess of 20 km, small batches of leucogranitic melt have been generated by fluid-absent breakdown of muscovite from metapelitic lithologies. These melts ascend several kilometres prior to emplacement, aided by low geothermal gradients at depth and by interaction with meteoric water as they reach shallow levels. At intermediate depths (∼15 km) limited fluid infiltration is restricted to shear zones resulting in localised anatexis. Within the upper 8 km of crust, magmatic and meteoric fluid fluxes are channelised by active structures providing a feedback mechanism for focusing deformation. Leucogranite sheets show a range of pre-full crystallization and high-temperature crystal-plastic textures indicative of strain localisation onto these sheets and away from the country rocks. At subsolidus temperatures meteoric fluids promote strain localisation and may trigger cataclastic deformation. Since near-surface geothermal gradients are unusually steep, the macroscopic transition between distributed shearing and substantial, but localised, cataclastic deformation occurred at amphibolite-facies conditions (∼600°C). Even with the greatest topographic relief in the world, the meteoric system of Nanga Parbat is effectively restricted to the upper 8 km of the crust, strongly controlled by active structures.

Keywords

crustal thickeningdeformationmagmatismhydrothermal activityHimalayas
Type
Petrology
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 61 , Issue 404 , February 1997 , pp. 37 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Brown, M., Averkin, Y.A., McLennan, E.L. and Sawyer, E.L. (1995) Melt segregation in migmatites. J. Geophys. Res., 100, 15655-79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, R.W.H. and Prior, D.J. (1988) Anatomy of a continental subduction zone: the Main Mantle Thrust in northern Pakistan. Geologische Rundschau, 77, 239-55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, R.W.H., Prior, D.J. and Owen, L.A. (1988) Flashfloods, earthquakes and uplift in the Pakistan Himalayas. Geology Today, 4, 247-50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, R.W.H., Prior, D.J. and Knipe, R.J. (1989) Neotectonics of the Nanga Parbat syntaxis, Pakistan, and crustal stacking in the northwest Himalayas. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 94, 329–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, R.W.H., George, M., Harris, N.B.W., Jones, C., Prior, D.J., Treloar, P.J. and Wheeler, J. (1992) Geology of the northern part of the Nanga Parbat massif, northern Pakistan, and its implications for Himalayan tectonics. J. Geol. Soc. London, 149, 557-67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrington, D.P., and Watt, G.R. (1995) A geochemical and experimental study of the role of K-feldspar during water-undersaturated melting of metapelites. Chem. Geol., 122, 59–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain, C.P., Zeitler, P.K., Barnett, D.E., Winslow, D., Poulson, S.R., Leahy, T. and Hammer, J.E. (1995) Active hydrothermal systems during the recent uplift of Nanga Parbat, Pakistan Himalaya. J. Geophys. Res., 100, 439-53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craw, D., Koons, P.O., Winslow, D., Chamberlain, C.P. and Zeitler, P.K. (1994) Boiling fluids in a region of rapid uplift, Nanga Parbat massif, Pakistan. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 128, 169-82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deniel, C., Vidal, P., Fernandez, A., Le Fort, P. and Peucat, J.J. (1987) Isotopic study of the Manaslu granite (Nepal Himalaya): Inferences of the age and source of Himalayan leucogranites. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 96, 78–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, M.T. (1993) The magmatic, thermal and exhumation history of the Nanga Parbat-Haramosh massif, Western Himalaya. Unpubl. Ph.D. thesis, Open University, Milton Keynes, U.K. Google Scholar
George, M.T., Harris, N.B.W. and Butler, R.W.H. (1993) The tectonic implications of contrasting granite magmatism between the Kohistan island arc and the Nanga Parbat-Haramosh Massif, Pakistan Himalaya. In Himalayan Tectonics, (Treloar, P.J. and Searle, M.P., eds). Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ., 74, 173-91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, N. and Massey, J. (1994) Decompression and anatexis of Himalayan metapelites. Tectonics, 13, 1537-46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, N., Ayres, M. and Massey, J. (1995) The geochemistry of granitic melts produced during the incongruent melting of muscovite: implications for the extraction of Himalayan leucogranite magmas. J. Geophys. Res., 100, 15,767-77.Google Scholar
Harrison, T.M. and Watson, E.B. (1983) Kinetics of zircon dissolution and zirconium diffusion in granitic melts of variable water content. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 84, 66–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harte, B., Pattison, D.R.M. and Linklater, C.M. (1991) Field relations and petrography of partially melted pelitic and semi-pelitic rocks. In Equilibrium and Kinetics in Contact Metamorphism, (Voll, G., Topel, J., Pattison, D.R.M. and Seifert, F., eds), 181–473. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, T.J.B. and Powell, R. (1990) An enlarged and updated internally consistent thermodynamic dataset with uncertainties and correlations: the system K2ONa2O-CaO-MgO-MnO-FeO-Fe2O3-A12O3-TiO2-SiO2-C-H2-O2 . J. Metamorphic Geol., 8, 89–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtz, F. and Johannes, W. (1991) Genesis of peraluminous granites 1. Experimental investigation of melt compositions at 3 and 5 kb and various H2O activities. J. Petrology, 32, 935-58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inger, S. and Harris, N. (1993) Geochemical constraints on leucogranite magmatism in the Langtang Valley, Nepal Himalaya. J. Petrology, 34, 345-68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Breton, N. and Thompson, A.B. (1988) Fluid-absent (dehydration) melting of biotite in metapelites in the early stages of crustal anatexis. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 99, 226-37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malinconico, L.L. (1989) Crustal thickness estimates for the western Himalayas. In Tectonics of the Western Himalayas, (Malinconico, L.L. and Lillie, R.J., eds). Geol. Soc. Amer. Spec. Pap. 232, 237-42.Google Scholar
Montel, J.M. (1993) A model for monazite/melt equilibrium and applications to the generation of granitic magmas. Chem. Geol., 110, 127-46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petford, N., Lister, J.R. and Kerr, R.C. (1994) The ascent of felsic magmas in dikes. Lithos, 32, 161–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petö, P. (1976) An experimental investigation of melting relations involving muscovite and paragonite in the silica-saturated portion of the system K2O-Na2O- Al2O3-SiO2-H2O. Progr. Exper. Petrol., 3, 41-5.Google Scholar
Schmid, S.M. (1982) Microfabric studies as indicators of deformation mechanisms and flow laws operative in mountain building. In: Mountain Building Processes, (Hsu, K.J., ed.) 95–110. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Sibson, R.H. (1987) Earthquake rupturing as a mineralising agent in hydrothermal systems. Geology, 15, 701-4.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, H.A., Chamberlain, C. P. and Zeitler, P.K. (1994) Timing and denudation of Himalayan metamorphism with the Indian Plate, NW Himalaya, Pakistan. J. Geol., 102, 493–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Srogi, L., Wagner, M.E. and Lutz, T.M. (1993) Dehydration partial melting and disequilibrium in the granulite-facies Wilmington Complex, Pennsylvania-Delaware Piedmont. Amer. J. Sci., 293, 405-62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, G. and Clemens, J.D. (1993) Fluid-absent melting and the role of fluids in the lithosphere: A slanted summary. Chem. Geol., 108, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, G., Clemens, J.D. and Droop, G.T.R. (1995) Hydrous cordierite in granulites and crustal magma production. Geology, 23, 925-8.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vance, D., Oberli, F. and Meier, M. (1996) Pre-Tertiary metamorphic ages from the Zanskar Himalaya. J. Conf. Abs., 1, 638.Google Scholar
Wheeler, J. and Butler, R.W.H. (1994) Criteria for identifying structures related to true crustal extension in orogens. J. Struct. Geol., 16, 1023-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, J., Treloar, P.J. and Potts, G.J. (1995) Structural and metamorphic exolution of the Nanga Parbat syntaxis, Pakistan Himalayas, on the Indus gorge transect: the importance of early events. Geol. J., 30, 349-71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, A.G. (1996) Exhumation overrated at Nanga Parbat, Northern Pakistan. Tectonophysics, 260, 215-26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winslow, D.M., Zeitler, P.K. and Chamberlain, C.P. (1994) Direct evidence for a steepened geotherm under conditions of rapid denudation, Pakistan Himalayas. Geology, 22, 1075-8.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeitler, P.K. (1985) Cooling history of the NW Himalaya, Pakistan. Tectonics, 4, 127-51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeitler, P.K. and Chamberlain, C.P. (1991) Petrogenetic and tectonic significance of young leucogranites from the northwestern Himalaya, Pakistan. Tectonics, 10, 729-41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar