The geomorphic character of major river drainages in the Himalayan foothills of central Nepal suggests the existence of a discrete, west-northwest–trending break in rock uplift rates that does not correspond to previously mapped faults. The 40Ar/39Ar thermochronologic data from detrital muscovites with provenance from both sides of the discontinuity indicate that this geomorphic break also corr...

[1] Erosion in the Himalaya is responsible for one of the greatest mass redistributions on Earth and has fueled models of feedback loops between climate and tectonics. Although the general trends of erosion across the Himalaya are reasonably well known, the relative importance of factors controlling erosion is less well constrained. Here we present 25 Be-derived catchment-averaged erosion rates...

We use petrographic and mineralogical data on modern sediments to investigate erosion patterns in the Marsyandi basin of the central Himalaya, a privileged natural laboratory in which a series of multidisciplinary geomorphological, sedimentological, geochemical and geochronological studies have been recently carried out to unravel the interrelationships between tectonic, climatic and sedimentar...

Models for the origin and deformation of Himalayan rocks are dependent upon geometric and age relationships between major units. We present fi eld mapping and U-Pb dating of igneous and detrital zircons that establish the lithostratigraphic architecture of the eastern Himalaya, revealing that: (1) the South Tibet detachment along the BhutanChina border is a top-to-the-north ductile shear zone; ...

One way to probe earthquake nucleation processes and the relation between stress buildup and seismicity is to analyze the sensitivity of seismicity to stress perturbations. Here, we report evidence for seasonal strain and stress (~2–4 kPa) variations in the Nepal Himalaya, induced by water storage variations which correlate with seasonal variations of seismicity. The seismicity rate is twice as...

Abstract The Siwalik Group, ranging from the Early Miocene to Pleistocene, is believed be deposited in fluvial environment and controlled by contemporary Himalayan tectonics climate. In this study, we established its controlling factors responsible for deposition of succession along Muksar Khola section eastern Nepal Himalaya. Five sedimentary facies associations are identified; these interpret...

Myrmica elmesisp. n. is described from Himalaya. This species belongs to the pachei group of Myrmica speciesand is distinct from the species described in this group hitherto, which is represented by 14 species including three from Indian Himalaya. Myrmica elmesi is the fourth species of the diverse pachei group found in Himalaya; it was collected from the transitional zone and is described with...

Most mountain ranges are flanked by foredeep basins, and in general neither the ranges nor the basins are in local isostatic equilibrium. The basins are overcompensated whereas the ranges themselves are usually undercompensated, I describe a method of analysing gravity anomalies over mountain ranges assuming that the topography is supported by the elastic strength of the continental lithosphere...

[1] Along the southern Himalayan topographic front, the Indian summer monsoon modulates erosive processes and rates. To investigate the influence of topography and relief on rainfall generation and resultant erosion, we processed satellite rainfall amounts for the last 8 years (1998–2005) from the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM). Based upon a spatial resolution of 5 5 km for the Hi...