The Late Eocene-Early Miocene unconformities of the NW Indian Intraplate basins and Himalayan foreland : a record of tectonics or mantle dynamics?

Najman, Yanina Manya Rachel and Burley, Stuart and Copley, Alex and Kelly, Michael and Mishra, Premanand and Pander, Kaushal (2018) The Late Eocene-Early Miocene unconformities of the NW Indian Intraplate basins and Himalayan foreland : a record of tectonics or mantle dynamics? Tectonics, 37 (10). pp. 3970-3985. ISSN 0278-7407

[thumbnail of Najman et al Tectonics 2018]
Preview
PDF (Najman et al Tectonics 2018)
2018TC005286_Merged_PDF.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.

Download (4MB)

Abstract

A well-developed Late Eocene to Miocene unconformity, termed the Base Miocene Unconformity (BMU), is found throughout the intraplate basins of north-western India, and has previously been ascribed to Himalayan tectonics. This hypothesis is investigated by first describing the nature and age of the BMU in the northwest Indian intraplate basins, and then reconstructing the location of the BMU relative to the Himalayan deformation front at the time it formed. We suggest that formation of the BMU in western India cannot be related to Himalayan tectonic processes associated with plate loading and flexure unless the Indian plate had an elastic thickness of >125 km, which is highly unlikely. Furthermore, the resumption of deposition post-unconformity rules out inversion due to compression associated with India-Asia convergence as a cause, as these compressive forces are still present. We note the coeval nature of the unconformity in the NW Indian plate intraplate basins and the Himalayan peripheral foreland basin. If the unconformities of the Himalayan peripheral foreland basin and the NW Indian intraplate basins formed by a common process, uplift due to circulation in the mantle is the only possible regional-scale mechanism. Such circulation could be the result of the intrinsically time-dependent high-Rayleigh number convection in the mantle, which has resulted in well-documented unconformities elsewhere, or be the result of subducting slab break-off beneath the Himalaya.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Tectonics
Additional Information:
Accepted for publication in Tectonics. Copyright 2018 American Geophysical Union. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1906
Subjects:
?? barmer basinbase miocene unconformity (bmu)flexural modelinghimalayan foreland basinmantle dynamicsnw indian plate intraplate basinsgeophysicsforeland basinindian platemantle dynamicsmiocenetectonicsgeochemistry and petrologygeophysicsdiscipline-based res ??
ID Code:
127734
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
24 Sep 2018 14:58
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
01 Feb 2024 00:36