Zircon age determinations for the Ladakh batholith at Chumathang (Northwest India): Implications for the age of the India–Asia collision in the Ladakh Himalaya

Paleogene monsoons across India and South China: Drivers of biotic change

“…The exact timing of first contact between India and Asia remains controversial but it most likely occurred ~55 ± 10 Ma (Beck et al, 1995;Rowley, 1996;Acton, 1999;de Sigoyer et al, 2000;Aitchison et al, 2002;Ding et al, 2005;Leech et al, 2005;Zhu et al, 2005;Garzanti, 2008;Guillot et al, 2008;Copley et al, 2010;Liebke et al, 2010;St-Onge et al, 2010;Cai et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2011;Hu et al, 2012; A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T…”

Early–Middle Eocene Exhumation of the Trans-Himalayan Ladakh Batholith, and the India–Asia Convergence

“…After pulsative crystallization of the LB between ~100 and 41 Ma (refs 15,17,24,26,36,37,47) with main phase at ~58.0 Ma (ref. 38) (U-Pb zircon ages), the batholith initially cooled by normal conductive cooling and then underwent much faster cooling, resulting from tectonically controlled uplift due to convergence of the India-Asia Plates.…”

Mountain Building, Tectonic Evolution, Rheology, and Crustal Flow in the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Tibet

“…The timing of the India-Asia collision and the closing of Neotethys along the main Himalayan chain are constrained by several factors, including the abrupt slowing of the northward drift of India from paleomagnetic data (Dupont-Nuvet et al, 2010;Najman et al, 2010;van Hinsbergen et al, 2011a,b), the abrupt ending of marine sedimentation within the Indus suture zone and along the North Indian Plate margin (Garzanti et al, 1987;Green et al, 2008;Searle et al, 1997aSearle et al, , 1988, the ending of subduction-related I-type granite magmatism along the South Asian margin in the Ladakh Range (St-Onge et al, 2010), and the beginning of terrestrial fluviatile and lacustrine sedimentation along the Indus suture zone (Garzanti et al, 1987;Searle et al, 1990). All of these events occurred at, or close to, 50 Ma, and it is widely thought that this marks the timing of closing the Neotethys seaway that once lay between India and the Lhasa Block (Asia).…”

“…U-Pb ages of the host I-type hornblende-bearing granodiorites show intrusion occurred at 57.7 AE 0.2 Ma. These granodiorites are cut by leucogranite dikes, the youngest magmatic units in the Ladakh batholith along the South Asian plate margin, dated at 47.1 AE 0.1 Ma (St-Onge et al, 2010). By this time, India and Asia had collided, the Neotethys ocean that lay between them had closed, and north-directed oceanic subduction resulting in intrusion of I-type granites along the Kohistan-Ladakh-Gangdese batholith had ceased.…”

“…U1-U8 marks major unconformities. Ages shown are U-Pb zircon ages from Ladakh granites and Chumatang dikes(St-Onge et al, 2010) and detrital zircons and age range of nummulitic limestones in the final marine sedimentary rocks along the suture zone(Green et al, 2008).…”