Protracted zircon growth in migmatites and In situ melt of Higher Himalayan Crystallines: U-Pb ages from Bhagirathi valley, NW Himalaya, India

The Higher Himalayan Crystallines (HHC), in western Garhwal, Uttarakhand are located in a regional-scale intracontinental ductile shear zone (15-20 km wide) bounded by the Main Central Thrust at the base, and the South Tibetan Detachment System at the top. The migmatite zone in the centre has the highest grade of metamorphism in the NW Himalayas and show evidence of flowage. Zircons extracted from samples of metasediment, migmatite, biotite granite and in situ partial melt (tourmaline-bearing leucogranite) along the Bhagirathi Valley, preserve U-Pb isotopic evidence of magmatic history, magma source and effects of the Himalayan orogeny in the region. Three distinct periods of zircon growth in the leucogranite record the episodic influx of magma between 46 Ma and 20 Ma indicating a time span of more than 25 Ma between the onset of fluid-fluxed partial melting in the mid-crustal intracontinental shear zone and the emplacement of the magma into the upper crust in a post-collisional extensional setting. Metamorphic zircon growth was initiated about 46 Ma, when the partial melts were generated as the migmatite zone was exhumed. (C) 2018, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.