Extrusion vs. duplexing models of Himalayan mountain building 1: Discovery of the Pabbar thrust confirms duplex-dominated growth of the northwestern Indian Himalaya since Mid-Miocene

Ongoing Himalayan growth is generally thought to be dominated by duplexing and/or extrusion processes. These models may be tested by reconstructing Himalayan fold-thrust belt growth since the middle Miocene. However, our knowledge of basic structural geometry remains too fragmentary to resolve the issue, even in areas with rich stratigraphic diversity such as the northwestern Indian Himalaya. In this region, a primary outstanding question involves the uncertain relationship of the Berinag thrust and the Tons thrust, structures with displacements of >80 km and >40 km, respectively. The uncertain geometry and kinematics allow for the complete range of duplexing or extrusion processes for the integrated kinematic history since the middle Miocene. To address this issue, field mapping and kinematic analysis were performed to reconstruct the deformation of the Lesser Himalayan Sequence in the northwest Indian Himalaya. Our results reveal a new discovery: a ~ 450 m thick top-to-southwest shear zone, termed the Pabbar thrust. The Pabbar thrust placed the Outer Lesser Himalayan Sequence (the Tons thrust hanging wall) directly on the Berinag Group (the Berinag thrust hanging wall). This discovery requires that the Berinag thrust and Tons thrust are, in fact, the same structure, and discrete duplexing processes dominated growth of the northwest Indian Himalaya for the past ~10–15 million years. Along-strike extension of these kinematics and corresponding geometries is consistent with the observed orogenic framework and resolves a stratigraphic continuity problem across the India-west Nepal border, where prior work suggests that structures are continuous but stratigraphy does not match.