Growth and deformation of the Ladakh batholith, northwest Himalayas: Implications for timing of continental collision and origin of calc-alkaline batholiths
Rf. Weinberg et Wj. Dunlap, Growth and deformation of the Ladakh batholith, northwest Himalayas: Implications for timing of continental collision and origin of calc-alkaline batholiths, J GEOLOGY, 108(3), 2000, pp. 303-320
The calc-alkaline Ladakh batholith (NW'Himalayas) was dated to constrain th
e timing of continental collision and subsequent deformation. Batholith gro
wth ended when collision disrupted subduction of the Tethyan oceanic lithos
phere, and thus the youngest magmatic pulse indirectly dates the collision.
Both U-Pb ages on zircons from three samples of the Ladakh batholith and K
-Ar from one subvolcanic dike sample were determined. Magmatic activity nea
r Lch (the capital of Ladakh) occurred between 70 and 50 Ma, with the last
major magmatic pulse crystallizing at ca. 49.8 +/- 0.8 Ma (2 sigma). This w
as followed by rapid and generalized cooling to lower greenschist facies te
mperatures within a few million years, and minor dike intrusion took place
at 46 +/- l Ma. Field observations, the lack. of inherited prebatholith zir
cons, and other isotopic evidence suggest that the batholith is mantle deri
ved with negligible crustal influence, that it evolved through input of fre
sh magma from the mantle and remelting of previously emplaced mantle magmat
ic rocks. The sedmimentary record indicates that collision in NW Himalaya o
ccurred around 52-50 Ma. Ii this is so, the magmatic system driven by subdu
ction of Tethys ended immediately on collision. The thermal history of one
sample from within the Thanglasgo Shear Zone (TSZ) was determined by Ar-Ar
method to constrain timing of batholith. internal deformation. This is a wi
de dextral shear zone within the batholith, parallel to the dextral, N 30 d
egrees W-striking crustal-scale Karakoram Fault. Internal deformation of th
e batholith, taken up partly by this shear zone, has caused it to deviate f
rom it regional WNW-ESE trend to parallel the Karakoram Fault. Microstructu
res and cooling history of a sample from the TSZ indicate that shearing too
k place before 22 Ma, implying that (1) the history of dextral shearing on
NW-striking planes in northern Ladakh started at least 7 m.yr. before the <
15 Ma Karakoram Fault, (2) shearing was responsible for deviation of the re
gional trend of the Ladakh batholith, and (3) dextral shearing occured with
in a zone approximately 100 km wide that includes the Ladakh batholith and
portions of the younger Karakoram batholith.