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Abstract The South Karakorum margin, east of the Himalayan syntaxis, consist of an E–W elongated zone of young (10–3 Ma) high-grade metamorphic rocks (M2) and related migmatitic domes. This late tectono-metamorphic event post-dates the Palaeogene (55–37 Ma) phase of thickening of the belt featured by NW–SE structures and associated M1 amphibolite facies metamorphism (0.7 GPa, 700 °C). This M2 metamorphism is characterised by low-pressure, high-temperature conditions coeval with migmatite formation in response to a thermal increase of c . 150 °C compared to M1, culminating at a temperature of c . 770 °C and a pressure of 0.5–0.6 GPa. Rapid exhumation of migmatitic domes, at a rate of 5 mm yr-1 , was accommodated by vertical extrusion, in the core of E–W crustal-scale folds. These crustal-scale folds formed in response to N–S syn-collisional shortening and were enhanced by thermal weakening of the migmatised continental crust. M2 metamorphism is spatially and temporarily associated with granitoids showing a mantle affinity, firmly suggesting that this could be the advective heat source for the granite and syenite generation and the subsequent migmatisation of the mid-crustal level. Such relationships between a mantle-related magmatism and a high-temperature metamorphism in a convergent shortening context are suggestive of the breakoff of the subducted Indian slab since 20 Ma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]