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A challenge in tectonic studies concerns the attempt to relate deformation features at the microscale and the crystalline lattice scale of rock-forming minerals up to the regional scale. The South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS) in Himalaya is a natural laboratory for such correlations, being a prime example of regional-scale low-angle ductile extensional fault/shear zone systems within collisional settings, with a top-down-to-the-north sense of shear. The STDS shearing involves, with a thickness of c. 1-2 km, the uppermost part of the metamorphic core of the belt, the Greater Himalayan Sequence (GHS), and the basal part of the Tethyan Himalayan Sequence (THS), developing a mylonitic foliation and a nearly constant strike. Recurrent ideas on the STDS architecture and rheological behavior come from the clearly and well exposed 3D outcrops around the Everest area (Eastern Nepal), where it mostly developed in quartz-bearing lithologies with a lower ductile shear zone and an upper brittle fault. Vice versa, the location of the exact shear zone boundaries and structural evolution of the STDS are still under controversial discussions in Central-Western Nepal, where few kinematic indicators occur in the carbonate-bearing lithologies of both GHS and THS.In this contribution, we examine a suite of over 20 field-oriented marble samples affected by the STDS, comparing the deformation recorded by calcite in two different areas in central Himalaya, where essentially only the ductile shear zone has been clearly identified. Calcite microstructures (e.g., grain size and shape) and crystallographic preferred orientations (textures) of impure marbles from the Lower Dolpo region and pure marbles from the Manaslu area (Western Nepal), coupled with petrographic observations, allowed us to conclude on temperature, paleo stress, strain rates, and kinematic of the flow. Our results support the idea of a complex history of the STDS in regard to different thermal and lithospheric stress regimes during deformation. Decreasing temperatures from an early-stage of shearing (at HT-MT condition) to a late-stage of shearing (LT conditions) are coupled with increasing differential stress recorded at comparable strain rates and decreasing simple shear conditions. We propose a progressive exhumation of the STDS towards shallower structural levels, with a temporal (rather than spatial) lowering of kinematic vorticity (“decelerating strain path”), in which progressively more general shear replaced high-temperature simple shear flow during cooling, strain hardening, and narrowing of the shear zone. Microstructural and texture analysis of pure and impure marble proved to be a useful approach to characterize the STDS location and architecture, supporting that, when the upper-brittle fault is not well developed, the ductile shearing proceeded at high structural levels.

Histograms reporting thermometric data obtained with Ti-in-biotite and Ti-in-muscovite geothermometers. (a, c) Data on muscovite along the Sm (muscovite-2) and coronitic around garnet (muscovite-3), respectively. (b, d) Data on biotite along the Sm (biotite-2) and coronitic around garnet (biotite-3), respectively. The legend in (b–d) is the same as in (a).

The major ion and trace element chemistry of water samples, including springs, rivers and irrigation ditches, collected during a survey on August 2016 in the Upper Mustang region of the Mustang District of Dhawalagiri Zone (Nepal) has been investigated. The Upper Mustang region, a cold desert, represents a hot-spot for climate change: indeed, violent hailstorms and rainstorms have been recently observed, consequently exposing land to erosion. Results of this study indicate that waters in the region belong to the Ca–HCO3, Ca–Mg–Cl–SO4 and Na–K–Cl-types, reflecting different hydrochemical regimes. Uranium is widespread in waters, with concentrations up to 19 µg/L recorded in a potable water supply. Locally, anoxic conditions affect uranium mobility due to the low solubility of U(IV) minerals. Highly toxic thallium was detected in a thermal spring at an elevated concentration (45 µg/L Tl). The association of thallium with high concentrations of iron suggests that these elements are derived from pyrite oxidation. Detectable levels of thallium were also measured in the water of an irrigation ditch. Lithium concentrations ranged from 7 µg/L to 12 mg/L in the thermal water and showed a strong association with chloride ions. Arsenic concentrations up to 4.7 µg/L were measured in tributaries of the Kali Gandaki river. The data provide evidence that solutes in water have originated from an array of input sources, including carbonate dissolution, the dissolution of soluble salts, silicate weathering and localized sulfide oxidation. In particular, chemical weathering of granitic rocks is likely the primary source for metals and metalloids in waters. Since the erosion rate is a factor affecting lithological weathering, high-intensity rainfalls due to climate change are expected to influence the release and fate of potentially harmful elements in the in the Upper Mustang Valley.

In Western Bhutan Himalayas leucogranite dykes emplaced in sub-vertical hybrid fractures that cut across the high-grade rocks of the upper Greater Himalayan Sequence just below to the South Tibetan Detachment. The granitic dykes dip to the North often showing a mylonitic deformation with a top-down to-the-N sense of shear. The high-angle fractures are interpreted to be related to the evolution of the South Tibetan Detachment toward a brittle regime of deformation. U-Pb monazite ages constrain the leucogranite emplacement at 13.9±06 Ma implying that brittle-ductile deformation of the South Tibetan Detachment was active at that time. NNE-SSW to nearly E-W trending large scale antiforms and synforms mapped in NW Bhutan affected the Greater Himalayan Sequence and South Tibetan Detachment only after 14 Ma.