Water in the Thickened Lower Crust of the Eastern Himalayan Orogen

Abstract

Water content in nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs) of the high-pressure (HP) metamorphic rocks controls the thermal structure, rheology and partial melting of orogenic belts. This paper conducts a systematic analysis of water in NAMs of the HP granulites from the Greater Himalayan Sequence (GHS), representing the thickened lower crust of the eastern Himalayan Orogen. The present result shows that the garnet, clinopyroxene, feldspar, quartz and kyanite contain 188 ppm–432 ppm, 193 ppm–547 ppm, 335 ppm–1 053 ppm, 125 ppm–185 ppm and 89 ppm H₂O, respectively, and indicates that the thickened lower crust of the Himalayan Orogen is relatively wet rather than dry. The considerable concentrations of water in the HP granulites are expected to promote the rheological weakening of the metamorphic core of the Himalayan Orogen, providing a favorable evidence for the channel flow model of the exhumation of thickened lower crust.

Keywords

micro-FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) / water content / granulite / Himalayan Orogen

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