The evolution of the Eastern Himalayan syntaxis revealed by India
(Tethyan Himalaya Series) in central Myanmar
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.