Dating of the oldest continental sediments from the Himalayan foreland basin

Yani Najman, Malcolm Pringle, Laurent Godin and Grahame Oliver
Additional contact information
Yani Najman: Fold and Fault Research Project, University of Calgary
Malcolm Pringle: Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park
Laurent Godin: Oxford University
Grahame Oliver: Crustal Geodynamics Group, School of Geography and Geosciences, Purdie Building, The University, St Andrews

Nature, 2001, vol. 410, issue 6825, 194-197

Abstract: Abstract A detailed knowledge of Himalayan development is important for our wider understanding of several global processes, ranging from models of plateau uplift to changes in oceanic chemistry and climate1,2,3,4. Continental sediments 55 Myr old found in a foreland basin in Pakistan5 are, by more than 20 Myr, the oldest deposits thought to have been eroded from the Himalayan metamorphic mountain belt. This constraint on when erosion began has influenced models of the timing and diachrony of the India–Eurasia collision6,7,8, timing and mechanisms of exhumation9,10 and uplift11, as well as our general understanding of foreland basin dynamics12. But the depositional age of these basin sediments was based on biostratigraphy from four intercalated marl units5. Here we present dates of 257 detrital grains of white mica from this succession, using the 40Ar–39Ar method, and find that the largest concentration of ages are at 36–40 Myr. These dates are incompatible with the biostratigraphy unless the mineral ages have been reset, a possibility that we reject on the basis of a number of lines of evidence. A more detailed mapping of this formation suggests that the marl units are structurally intercalated with the continental sediments and accordingly that biostratigraphy cannot be used to date the clastic succession. The oldest continental foreland basin sediments containing metamorphic detritus eroded from the Himalaya orogeny therefore seem to be at least 15–20 Myr younger than previously believed, and models based on the older age must be re-evaluated.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35065577 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:410:y:2001:i:6825:d:10.1038_35065577

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35065577

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().