Research Projects

Revelation of the provenance, burial and exhumation history of a sedimentary basin in the hinterland of the collisional orogen provide clues to the early stage evolution of the orogen. One of such sedimentary basin is the Karakoram Tethys sequence (KTs) in Himalayan-Tibetan orogen which exists on the overriding Asian plate between the shyok suture Zone (ssZ) and Jinsha suture Zone (JsZ), that forms part of the western Tibetan Plateau. The KTs contains the information of the sedimentation of Paleo-Tethys Ocean, closure of the Paleo-Tethys ocean along the JsZ and uplift history of western-central Tibetan plateau prior-and-post India-Asia collisional event. Thus, the proposed research will assess (a) the provenance using Zircon U-Pb Dating, (b) absolute depositional timing (i.e. burial) using Magnetostratigraphy and (c) the exhumation history using Fission Track Thermochronology of the lithounits of the KTs to reveal/assess the initial architecture of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen. These assessments will not only resolve the history of sedimentation of Paleo-Tethys Ocean and closure of the Paleo-Tethys ocean but also shed light on the pre-and-post India-Asia collisional uplift of the Tibetan Plateau in its western margin. Further, the exhumation studies using thermochronology will also assess the thermal history of the basin and provide preliminary data about the hydrocarbon potential of the Mesozoic rocks of the KTs as the Mesozoic formations are the major source of hydrocarbon in the world.