MESOZOIC NEOTETHYAN PRE-OROGENIC DEEP MARINE-SEDIMENTS ALONG THE INDUS YARLUNG SUTURE, HIMALAYA

Shelf, forereef and basin margin (slope) olistoliths (Exotic blocks of limestone) of Permian-jurassic age are tectonically juxtaposed within the Triassic to Eocene age pre-orogenic, deep abyssal plain turbidite s of the Lamayuru. The pre-collision tectonic setting and depositional environment of the limestone olistoliths can be reconstructed from wi thin the neighbouring Zanskar range. The disorganized Ophiolitic Melan ge Zone, an association of different tectonic rock slivers of Jurassic -Eocene age, is tectonically underlain by the overthrusted Lamayuru Fo rmation and tectonically overlain by the Nindam Formation. Tectonic sl ivers of Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous age red radiolarian cherts rep resent a characteristic lithotectonic unit of the Ophiolitic Melange Z one, those occurring near the contact zone with the Lamayuru Formation , were deposited within the neo-Tethyan deep-ocean floor of the Indian passive margin below the carbonate compensation depth. These tectonic slivers accumulated along the northern margin of the Indus-Yarlung Su ture Zone of the Ladakh Indian Himalaya during subduction accretion as sociated with the initial convergence of the Indian plate beneath the Eurasian plate.