Articles | Volume 9, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-9-1061-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-9-1061-2018
Research article
 | 
10 Sep 2018
Research article |  | 10 Sep 2018

Channel flow, tectonic overpressure, and exhumation of high-pressure rocks in the Greater Himalayas

Fernando O. Marques, Nibir Mandal, Subhajit Ghosh, Giorgio Ranalli, and Santanu Bose

Related subject area

Subject area: Tectonic plate interactions, magma genesis, and lithosphere deformation at all scales | Editorial team: Structural geology and tectonics, paleoseismology, rock physics, experimental deformation | Discipline: Tectonics
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Cited articles

Andersen, T. B., Jamtveit, B., Dewey, J. F., and Swensson, E.: Subduction and eduction of continental crust: major mechanism during continent–continent collision and orogenic extensional collapse, a model based on the south Caledonides, Terra Nova, 3, 303–310, 1991.
Angel, R. J., Nimis, P., Mazzucchelli, M. L., Alvaro, M., and Nestola, F.: How large are departures from lithostatic pressure? Constraints from host–inclusion elasticity, J. Metamorphic Geol., 33, 801–813, 2015.
Beaumont, C., Jamieson, R. A., Nguyen, M. H., and Lee, B.: Himalayan tectonics explained by extrusion of a low-viscosity crustal channel coupled to focused surface denudation, Nature, 414, 738–742, 2001.
Beaumont, C., Jamieson, R. A., Butler, J. P., and Warren, C. J.: Crustal structure: a key constraint on the mechanism of ultra-high-pressure rock exhumation, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett. 287, 116–129, 2009.
Brun, J.-P. and Faccenna, C.: Exhumation of high-pressure rocks driven by slab rollback, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 272, 1–7, 2008.
Short summary
We couple Himalayan tectonics to numerical simulations to show how upward-tapering channel (UTC) flow can be used to explain the evidence. The simulations predict high tectonic overpressure (TOP > 2), which increases exponentially with a decrease in UTC mouth width, and with increase in velocity and channel viscosity. The highest TOP occurs at depths < −60 km, which, combined with the flow in the UTC, forces high-pressure rocks to exhume along the channel’s hanging wall, as in the Himalayas.