Vikram Thakur

Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology | WIHG · Structure Tectonics

The Zanskar Range is unique in varied aspects and is always been an attraction to the geoscientists and tourists due to its geographic location. The most of the area and routes are not easily accessible but it is the place where the glaciers are accessible by road and hence the best place for the study on glacial geomorphology and geology. Geologic...

The Surin Mastgarh anticline (SMA) marks the active deformation front in the northwest Sub-Himalaya near Jammu. The southern limb of the SMA is not truncated by an emergent thrust, unlike other frontal folds along the Himalayan front. We investigate the structural data, deformation pattern, and seismic potential of the SMA using field surveys and r...

The Surin Mastgarh anticline (SMA) marks the active deformation front in the northwest Sub-Himalaya near Jammu. The southern limb of the SMA is not truncated by an emergent thrust, unlike other frontal folds along the Himalayan front. We investigate the structural data, deformation pattern, and seismic potential of the SMA using field surveys and r...

The Surin Mastgarh anticline (SMA) marks the active deformation front in the northwest Sub-Himalaya near Jammu. The southern limb of the SMA is not truncated by an emergent thrust, unlike other frontal folds along the Himalayan front. We investigate the structural data, deformation pattern, and seismic potential of the SMA using field surveys and r...

An attempt has been made to reconstruct the landform evolution in monsoon-dominated the Ravi River Valley (a major tributary of the Indus River), Chamba Nappe, Lesser Himalaya based on detailed field mapping, supported by the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dates. In the upper Ravi River Valley sediments are generated by glaciation-paraglac...

The Himalaya grew progressively with the development of fold-thrust systems towards foreland from north to south. The Cenozoic foreland basin of the Sub-Himalaya zone was developed in front of the rising Himalaya. It is bounded between the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT). The Himalayan Frontal Fault zone encompasse...

To analyze the grain size and depositional environment of the foreshore sediments, a study was undertaken on wave refraction along the wide sandy beaches of central Tamil Nadu coast. The nearshore waves approach the coast at 45° during the northeast (NE) monsoon, at 135° during the southwest (SW) monsoon and at 90° during the non-monsoon or fair-we...

The tectonic framework of NW Himalaya is different from that of the central Himalaya with respect to the position of theMain Central Thrust andHigher Himalayan Crystalline and the Lesser and SubHimalayan structures. The former is characterized by thick-skinned tectonics, whereas the thin-skinned model explains the tectonic evolution of the central...

The book contributes to understanding the pattern of strain release and the level of seismic hazard imposed by large-great earthquakes in the frontal fold-thrust belts of Kumaun and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand. The motivation for active fault studies and their characterization have been emphasized. The book presents the compilation of knowledge...

The present invention relates to a method for exploration and discrimination of the presence of heavy mineral distribution in the beach sand, for example. The 5 invention primarily relates to a method of quantifying individual heavy mineral concentration based on estimating the linear relationship between heavy mineral weight percentage in field sp...

Deformed monuments can be used to help constrain the timing of an earthquake, its epicenter, and the extent of its damage. In the present work, we studied the ancient temples in the Chamba and Bharmour area from the seventh century onward in the Ravi River catchment of the Chamba district of western Himachal Pradesh, India, which lies in the Kashmi...

Results “N, 76°18’31.47"E), Sub-Himalayan range of the Himachal Himalaya are presented. The active backthrust revealed the last event took place after 0.8±0.03 ka ago (i.e. post A.D. 1200). The age of the last earthquake with a minimum fault slip ∼1 m along F1 fault and presence of single colluvium on the back thrust nearly matches with an earthqua...

The Kangra reentrant constitutes a similar to 80-km-wide zone of fold-thrust belt made of Cenozoic strata of the foreland basin in NW Sub-Himalaya. Earlier workers estimated the total long-term shortening rate of 14 +/- A 2 mm/year by balanced cross-section between the Main Boundary Thrust and the Himalayan Frontal Thrust. Geologically estimated ra...

In the Sub-Himalayan zone, the frontal Siwalik range abuts against the alluvial plain with an abrupt physiographic break along the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT), defining the present-day tectonic boundary between the Indian plate and the Himalayan orogenic prism. The frontal Siwalik range is characterized by large active anticline structures, whic...

A shallow-focus damaging earthquake of magnitude 6.9 Mw struck the Sikkim Himalaya, north-east India, on 18 September 2011 at 12:40:48 UTC (06:10:48PM IST). The epicentre was located north-west of Chungthang on Indo-Nepal border of Sikkim Himalaya. The earthquake was widely felt in northern India and caused widespread damage to poorly built and fra...

18 September 2011 Sikkim earthquake indicate strike-slip fault plane solution. All the earlier fault plane solutions determined for earthquakes (magnitude Mw 4.7 - 6.2), in Sikkim and Bhutan show strike-slip mechanism. However the regional framework of the region is thrust dominated compressional tectonics. Recent paleoseismological investigation a...

Four large to great earthquakes of magnitude, Mw >=7 have occurred in the Indian subcontinent during the last 110 years. The 1905 Kangra (Mw 7.8), 1934 Bihar-Nepal (Mw 8.1) and 1950 (Mw 8.4) (former Assam, now Arunachal Pradesh) were located in the Himalayan belt, and the fourth 1897 (Ms 8.1) Assam affected the Shillong plateau and adjoining Brahma...

The MBT demarcates a tectonic boundary between the Tertiary Sub Himalaya and the pre-Tertiary Lesser Himalaya. South of the MBT, another tectonically important fault extends from Muzaffarabad and Riasi in Jammu–Kashmir to Bilaspur and Nahan in Himachal. Medlicott and Wadia had designated this fault the Main Boundary Fault (MBF) in Simla Hills and J...

Khajnawar village in Saharanpur district of western Utter Pradesh is inhabited over the remains of an ancient archaeological settlement. Field observations and archaeological investigation reveal two periods of settlement: settlement I with grey ware and iron objects and settlement II with painted red ware. Radiocarbon and optical stimulated lumine...

Widespread landslides were reported in the devastating earthquake of 7.6 Mw that occurred on 8 October 2005 with epicentre located within Hazara syntaxis, Kashmir Himalaya. As this area covers mostly inaccessible mountainous terrain, an attempt was made to detect and map landslides on medium to high resolution satellite data products such as Indian...

The seismically active Northwest (NW) Himalaya falls within Seismic Zone IV and V of the hazard zonation map of India. The region has suffered several moderate (~25), large-to-great earthquakes (~4) since Assam earthquake of 1897. In view of the major advancement made in understanding the seismicity and seismotectonics of this region during the las...

The Pinjor dun is an intermontane valley within the Sub Himalaya of Panjab lying between the rivers Satluj and Ghaggar. The dun is bounded to south by the Frontal Siwalik Range (FSR) and to north by the Inner Siwalik Range (ISR). The FSR is made of an anticlinal ridge, trending northwest - southeast, of folded upper Siwalik strata. The southern mar...

We have studied the earthquake-induced ground deformation features like fractures and landslides associated with the 2005 Muzaffarabad-Kashmir earthquake. During the study we observed well-developed liquefaction features at Simbal camp, about 20 km south of Jammu. We excavated small trenches for palaeoseismological study at the site. We recorded tw...

New tectonic uplifts south of the Salt Range Thrust and Himalayan Front Thrust (HFT) represent an outward step of the plate boundary from the principal tectonic displacement zone into the Indo-Gangetic Plain. In Pakistan, the Lilla Anticline deforms fine-grained overbank deposits of the Jhelum River floodplain 15 km south of the Salt Range. The ant...

After the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, we mapped surface ground fractures in Tangdhar, Uri, Rajouri and Punch sectors and liquefaction features in Jammu area lying close to the eastern side of the Line of Control (LOC) in Kashmir, India. The NW trending ground fractures occurred largely in the hanging wall zone of the southeastern extension of the caus...

Quaternary alluvial fans in the tectonically active Pinjaur Dun, an intramontane valley in the Sub-Himalaya, were deposited in front of the Nalagarh Thrust and were influenced both by tectonics and glacial climate fluctuations. The surface morphology indicates that an earlier set of first-order fans (Qf1) became entrenched and onlapped by a series...

Dun structures are common in the Sub-Himalayan zone of the Himalaya bounded by the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT). They are broad synclinal longitudinal valleys formed as a consequence of the exhumation of the range front of the Himalaya. In the Garhwal Sub-Himalaya, these structures have grown since 0.5Ma, with t...

The 8 October 2005 Muzaffarabad earthquake was the deadliest earthquake in the history of Indian subcontinent. Its epicenter located 10 km northeast of Muzaffarabad lies in the Indus Kohistan Seismic Zone (IKSZ), which represents northwestern continuation of the microseismicity and moderate earthquakes belt of Garhwal, Kumaun and Nepal. A multi-ins...

Toward understanding the relationship between strain accumulation and strain release in the context of the mechanics of the earthquake and mountain building process and quantifying the seismic hazard associated with the globes largest continental thrust system, we describe the late Quaternary expression and paleoseismic evidence for great surface r...

Two distinct styles and amplitudes of folding occur in Dun. In the northern part, the overturned Santaurgarh anticline with both limbs dipping steep to moderate was developed as fault propagated fold over the Santaurgarh Thrust (ST). The uplifted hanging wall of the ST constituted the dissected Siwalik, and the down-faulted footwall formed the pedi...

Neogene basin fills of the Middle and Upper Siwalik Subgroup in the central sector of Indian foreland basin record changes in fluvial architecture, dispersal pattern and provenance in response to deformation and uplift of the frontal Himalaya. The 2.4 km thick Neogene Siwalik succession in the Subathu sub-basin exposed in the vicinity of Nahan Thru...

The Quaternary deposits of Pinjaur Dun characterized by a series of alluvial fans, are indication of tectonic uplift of the northern part of the Sub Himalaya and variation in climate through the time of their sedimentation. The quartz optically stimulated luminescence ages of the exposed bottom and top of the fan deposits indicate that the sediment...

We report here the occurrence of an aborted reversal (geomagnetic excursion) in the Late Pleistocene sediments of Pinjor Dun near Chandigarh, NW Himalaya. The event discovered at ∼ 697.5 cm level from the base of Kiratpur section corresponds to the OSL date of 40 ± 5 Ka coinciding with the Laschamp excursion1 and palaeointensity minima2 elsewhere....

The Black Mango fault is a structural discontinuity that transforms motion between two segments of the active Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) in northwestern India. The Black Mango fault displays evidence of two large surface rupture earthquakes during the past 650 years, subsequent to 1294 A.D. and 1423 A.D., and possibly another rupture at about 2...

Our visit to the field area did not reveal any evidence of a major surface rupture related to the main thrust, perhaps not so surprising in light of subsequently reported aftershock studies that show the main and aftershocks of the event were generally limited to depths below 10 km. Our search did document a tectonic, though secondary, rupture in t...

The microstructural variation with a progressive change in the strain pattern are described in the rocks occurring across the footwall of the Main Central Thrust (MCT) in an area of the Garhwal Himalaya. In the western Garhwal Himalaya, the MCT has brought upper amphibolite facies metamorphic rocks southward over the greenschist facies rocks of the...

Three great earthquakes with magnitude greater than 8 have struck the Himalayan belt within a span of 50 years, and the 1905 Kangra earthquake is one of them. The seismotectonics of the meizoseismal region of this earthquake in the Kangra–Chamba region are analyzed on the basis of the major structures and the present day seismic activity. The micro...

Along the Himalayan thrust front in northwestern India, terrace deposits exposed 20 to 30 m above modern stream level are interpreted to have been uplifted by displacement on the underlying Himalayan Frontal Thrust. A radiocarbon age limits the age of the terrace to ≤1665±215 calendar BC (≤3663±215 radiocarbon years before present), yielding a vert...

Correlation of early Palaeozoic, Pan-African (500 ± 50 Ma) granites that intruded the Chail, Salkhala, Haimanta Formations in the Lesser Himalaya, Zanskar crystallines, and Lower Taglang La of Tso-Morari crystallines in the northwestern Himalaya, is based on the field relationship, tectonic setting, mineralogical, and geochemical characteristics, a...

The Chamba nappe, composed of an approximately 8 km thick sequence of Late Precambrian to Jurassic age rocks is located between the Higher Himalaya Crystallines (HHC) and the Lesser Himalayan (LH) formations of Panjal Imbricate Zone (PIZ) in the Kashmir Himalaya. To the south, the Panjal Thrust, demarcating the base, brings the Chamba nappe rocks o...

Well-preserved soft sediment deformation structures were observed at six sites along the course of the Baldi Nadi in the Doon valley of the Garhwal Himalaya. These deformed structures lie in mid-and side-channel bars of the braided Baldi stream. The deformed sediments are composed of unconsolidated alternations of mud, silt and very fine sand with...

Present study aims at understanding the genetic and tectonic relationship between the enclaves and enclosing granitoids, acidic volcanics and mafic dykes of the Ladakh plutonic complex. Similar rocks from Lhasa Block (Tibet) are also studied and compared. In terms of SiO2 abundance, the enclaves vary in composition from basic to acidic but are pred...

Normal faults on mesoscopic scale are observed in the Panjal Thrust Zone in the Dalhousie area of western Htmachal. The boundary between the southern margin of the Higher Himalaya Crystalline (HHC) of Zanskar and the Chamba syncline sequence is also described as a normal fault, referred to as Bhadarwah Normal Fault in the Bhadarwah area of Doda dis...

A synthesis of regional framework and tectonic characteristics of the Yarlung-Zangbo Suture in Southern Tibet has been attempted. The Yarlung-Zangbo Suture lies between the Tethys Himalayan zone to the south and the Lhasa Terrane to the north. In the northern part of the Tethys Himalaya, a belt of Neogene granites and older (Cambrian and Pre-Cambri...

The Indus Tsangpo suture zone in Ladakh lies between the Phanerozoic sequence of the Zanskar Zone of Tethys Himalaya in the south and Karakoram zone in the north. The five palaeotectonic regimes recognized in the suture zone are: The Indus palaeosubduction complex, the Ladakh magmatic arc, the Indus arc-trench gap sedimentation, the Shyok backarc a...

The Himalaya originated as a result of subduction of the Tethyan oceanic crust that lay between India and Tibet followed by continent-continent collision. A petrotectonic assemblage of the subduction complex consisting of the Shergol ophiolitic melange, the Nidar ophiolite, the Nindam flysch Formation and blue-schist rocks were obducted over the In...

The Western Himalaya, which includes the regions of Kumaun, Garhwal, Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir in India displays a complete cross-section of the Himalayan orogenic belt encompassing the principal tectonic zones of Outer Himalaya, Lesser Himalaya, Higher Himalaya, Tethys Himalaya, and Trans Himalaya. The rock formations of the Lesser Himalaya, whi...

Three different phases of plutonic-volcanic activity, viz. 1.(1) Cretaceous volcanics of the Dras and Luzarmu formations.2.(2) Early Tertiary granitoids of the Ladakh plutonic complex.3.(3) Oligocene acid volcanics and dykes of the Khardung Formation have been recognised in the Ladakh magmatic arc. The Dras Formation of the Indus suture zone and th...

The Indus-Tsangpo suture and its adjoining tectonic zones are well displayed in the Ladakh Himalayas where four tectonic zones have been distinguished, viz. the Zanskar, Indus suture, Shyok suture and Karakoram zones. The Zanskar zone is made up of Precambrian basement of the Zanskar crystalline complex and overlying Phanerozic sediments including...

The Nubra-Shyok area lying between the Ladakh range in the north and the Karakoram range in the south, differs tectono-stratigraphically from the Indus suture zone. It is characterized by acid to intermediate volcanics with interbedded sediments of Lower Cretaceous age (Khardung volcanics) and an ophiolitic melange consisting of low- to medium-grad...

The crystalline sheet of the Higher Himalaya, referred to as the Central Crystallines, is a continuous lithotectonic unit which can be traced from the River Kali of eastern Kumaun in the east to Sankoo in the Suru River valley of Kashmir in the west. The principal lithostratigraphic units of this zone are pelites, psammites, gneisses, amphibolites,...

A pebble lineation has been produced as a result of the first phase deformation that formed the Chamba syncline and the associated slaty cleavage. The lineation indicates the principal direction of maximum elongation of the finite tectonic strain ellipsoid of the first phase deformation and lies nearly normal to the axial direction of the Chamba sy...

In the present paper an attempt has been made to describe the geology of the area around Dharmsala, Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh. The stratigraphic position of the problematic horizons, i. e., Dharmkot Limestone and Dharmsala Traps is discussed in detail.In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Versuch unternommen, die Geologie des Gebietes von Dha...

The plots of axial ratios, X/Y and Y/Z, of deformed pebbles of quartz and quartzite occupy the constriction field. It is proved by comparision of observed data with the theoretical models, that the finite shapes of deformed pebbles showing constriction-type deformation ellipsoid has resulted due to superimposition of the schistosity forming flatten...

Zusammenfassung Die penninischen Decken bestehen aus breiten, abgerundeten antiklinalen Kernen kristallinen Basements, die von relativ geringmÄchtigen mesozoischen Metasedimenten umgeben sind. Sie wurden regional durch zwei weitere Deformationsphasen, F 2 und F 3, noch einmal gefaltet. Die Auswirkungen dieser Deformationen, F 2 und F 3, zeigen sich...

The stretched crystals of tourmaline occur in the Orange Group gneisses of the Lucomagno massif and in the quartzite of Piano Croce Group in the Molare region, Ticino, Switzerland. They were stretched as a result of an extension acting in the plane containing the tourmaline crystals by the tectonic strain of F3 phase of deformation. The crystals sh...

We report evidence of surface rupturing earthquakes at Chandigarh, Kala Amb, Rampur Ganda, Dehradun, Lal Dhang, and Ramnagar covering a distance of ~400 km along strike of the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) of India. Trench exposures across the HFT and radiocarbon ages place limits on the timing of the last surface rupture at each site, but Dehradu...