Paleomagnetic results from the Early–Middle Jurassic rocks in the Tethyan Himalayas and tectonic implications.

[Display omitted] • In the Early–Middle Jurassic, the Tethyan Himalayas was located at 18.9° ± 4.3°S. • The paleolatitude of the Tethyan Himalayas is consistent with cratonic India. • The Neo-Tethys Ocean expanded by 2300–4200 km during the Early–Middle Jurassic. The latitudinal changes of Greater India and the paleogeographic evolution of the Tethys Ocean are controversial and depend strongly on determining the paleogeographic locations of the Tethyan Himalayas as a function of geological time. However, the lack of reliable paleomagnetic results from the Jurassic in the Tethyan Himalayas has cast a shadow on the above research. We conducted detailed paleomagnetic research on the Ningri Formation strata (Early–Middle Jurassic) of the Zanda area, Tethyan Himalayas. Positive fold and reversal tests and microscopic observations indicate that the characteristic remanent magnetization component (ChRM) is primary. Elongation/Inclination analysis of the ChRM of the Ningri Formation yields a best-estimated value of 35.8° for the mean inclination with a 95 % confidence interval between 29.2° and 42.3°. Our results constrain the Early–Middle Jurassic paleolatitude of the Tethyan Himalayas to 18.9 ± 4.3°S. The calculated paleopole is at 30.9°N, 277.1°E (A 95 = 4.3°, K = 12.6). The Neo-Tethys Ocean had an N-S width of approximately 2300 km during the Early Jurassic and 4200 km during the Middle Jurassic by combining published paleolatitudes of the Lhasa Terrane and the Tethyan Himalayas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]