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The evolution of the Eastern Himalayan syntaxis revealed by India (Tethyan Himalaya Series) in central Myanmar
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  • Lothar Ratschbacher,
  • Myo Min,
  • Leander Franz,
  • Bradley R. Hacker,
  • Eva Enkelmann,
  • Eko Yoan Toreno,
  • Raymond Jonckheere,
  • Birk Härtel,
  • Bernd Dieter Schurr,
  • Marion Tichomirowa,
  • Jörg A. Pfänder
Lothar Ratschbacher
Geologie, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, 09599 Freiberg, Germany

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Myo Min
University of Mandalay
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Leander Franz
Universität Basel
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Bradley R. Hacker
University of California, Santa Barbara
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Eva Enkelmann
University of Calgary
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Eko Yoan Toreno
TU Bergakademie Freiberg
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Raymond Jonckheere
TU Bergakademie Freiberg
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Birk Härtel
TU Bergakademie Freiberg
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Bernd Dieter Schurr
Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ
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Marion Tichomirowa
TU Bergakademie Freiberg
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Jörg A. Pfänder
TU Bergakademie Freiberg
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Abstract

In the Katha Range of central Myanmar, lithologic tracers and pressure-temperature-deformation-time data identify Cambro-Ordovician, Indian-affinity Tethyan Himalaya Series (THS), located ~700 km from their easternmost outcrop in S-Tibet and ~450 km from Himalayan rocks in the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis (EHS). Metamorphism began at ~65 Ma, peaked at ~45 Ma (~510°C, 0.93 GPa), and exhumation/cooling (~25°C/Myr) occurred until ~30 Ma in a subduction-early collision setting. When the Burma microplate—part of the intra-Tethyan Incertus-arc—accreted to SE-Asia, its eastern boundary, the southern continuation of the Indus-Yarlung suture (IYS), was reactivated as the Sagaing fault (SF), which propagated northward into Indian rocks. In the Katha rocks, this strike-slip stage is marked by ~4°C/Myr exhumation/cooling. Restoring the SF system defines a continental collision-oceanic subduction transition junction, where the IYS bifurcates into the SF at the eastern edge of the Burma microplate and the Jurassic ophiolite-Jadeite belt that includes the Incertus suture.