Denudation Process of Crystalline Nappes in a Continental Collision Zone Constrained by Inversion of Fission-Track Data and Thermokinematic Forward Modeling: An Example From Eastern Nepalese Himalaya

Thermochronological methods were applied to the Higher Himalayan Crystalline (HHC) nappe and the underlying Lesser Himalayan Sequences (LHS) to elucidate the denudation process for the middle- and upper-crust of eastern Nepal over millions of years. Thermochronological inverse modeling was undertaken for new results of fission-track (FT) age and FT length data of zircon and apatite in order to reconstruct the time-temperature (t-T) paths in the temperature range of 60–350°C. Eight t-T paths calculated along the across-strike section show that the cooling process of the HHC nappe in this study area is characterized by the following three aspects: (a) gradual cooling followed by rapid cooling and subsequent gradual cooling, (b) northward-younging of the timing of the rapid cooling, and (c) gradual cooling followed by <2 Myr rapid cooling in the frontmost part of the HHC nappe. The observed FT ages and t-T paths were then compared with those predicted by forwarding thermokinematic modeling. The results of the thermokinematic modeling for the “Flat-Ramp-Flat MHT model”, in which the HHC and the underlying LHS are denudated in direct proportion to the uplift of rocks transported along the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), reproduced the observed t-T paths and FT ages in eastern Nepal. This indicates that the observed FT ages and t-T paths reflect a denudation process driven by the movement of the MHT with a flat-ramp-flat geometry and that the denudation rate and its spatial distribution have roughly been constant in eastern Nepal since ca. 9 Ma.