Plio-Quaternary exhumation history of the central Nepalese Himalaya: 1. Apatite and zircon fission track and apatite [U-Th]/He analyses

[1] New apatite and zircon fission track and (U-Th)/He analyses serve to document the bedrock cooling history of the central Nepalese Himalaya near the Annapurna Range. We have obtained 82 apatite fission track (AFT), 7 zircon fission track (ZFT), and 7 apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe) ages from samples collected along the Marsyandi drainage, including eight vertical relief profiles from ridges on either side of the river averaging more than 2 km in elevation range. In addition, three profiles were sampled along ridge crests that also lie 2 km above the adjacent valleys, and a transect of >20 valley bottom samples spans from the Lesser Himalaya across the GreaterHimalaya and into the Tethyan strata. As a consequence, these data provide one of the more comprehensive low-temperature thermochronologic studies within the Himalaya. Conversely, the youthfulness of this orogen is pushing the limits of these dating techniques. AFT ages range from >3.8 to 0 Ma, ZFT ages from 1.9 to 0.8 Ma, and AHe ages from 0.9 to 0.3 Ma. Most ridges have maximum ages of 1.3–0.8 Ma at 2 km above the valley bottom. Only one ridge crest (in the south central zone of the field area) yielded significantly older ZFTand AFTages of 2Ma; we infer that a splay of the Main Central Thrust separates this ridge from the rest of the Greater Himalaya. ZFT and AFT ages from a vertical transect along this ridge indicate exhumation rates of 1.5 km Myr 1 (r > 0.7) from 2 to 0.6– 0.8 Ma, whereas AHe ages indicate a faster exhumation rate of 2.6 km Myr 1 (r = 0.9) over the last 0.8 Myr. Exhumation rates calculated for six of the remaining seven vertical profiles ranged from 1.5 to 12 kmMyr 1 (all with low r values of <0.6) for the time period from 1.2 to 0.3 Ma, with no discernible patterns in south to north exhumation rates evident. The absence of a trend in exhumation rates, despite a strong spatial gradient in rainfall, argues against a correlation of long-term exhumation rates with modern patterns of rainfall. AFT ages in the Tethyan strata are, on average, older than in the Greater Himalaya andmay be a response to a drier climate, slip on the South Tibetan Detachment, or a gentler dip of the underlying thrust ramp. These data are further evaluated with thermokinematic modeling in the companion paper by Whipp et al. Citation: Blythe, A. E., D. W. Burbank, A. Carter, K. Schmidt, and J. Putkonen (2007), Plio-Quaternary exhumation history of the central Nepalese Himalaya: 1. Apatite and zircon fission track and apatite [U-Th]/He analyses, Tectonics, 26, TC3002, doi:10.1029/2006TC001990.