The geology of the Tama Kosi and Rolwaling valley region, East-Central Nepal

The Tama Kosi/ Rolwaling area of east-central Nepal is underlain by the exhumed mid-crustal core of the Himalaya. The geology of the area consists of Greater Himalayan sequence phyllitic schist, paragneiss, and orthogneiss that generally increase in metamorphic grade from biotite +/- garnet assemblages to sillimanite-grade migmatite up structural section. All metamorphic rocks are pervasively deformed and commonly record top-to-the-south sense shear. The top of the Greater Himalayan sequence in the mapped area is marked by an undeformed, pegmatitic leucogranite stock. Relationships in adjacent areas constrain the age of the leucogranite and the deformation structures it crosscuts, including the top-to-the-south sense deformation, to be older than middle Miocene. The lower portion of the exhumed midcrustal package has been subject to late-stage folding during the formation of the Tama Kosi window, a structural culmination that may reflect out-of-sequence adjustment of the orogenic wedge. The geology of the mapped area appears similar to that observed in the adjacent, better-studied Everest region.