Abstract
ONE of the most significant features of the Himalayan mountain chain is its crystalline core which separates the tectonic belts of the Palaeo–Mesozoic–Cainozoic rock sequences of the Himalaya in the south and those of the Trans-Himalaya in the north. This crystalline core is described as the Central Crystalline Zone1 and the Central Barrier2. There are indications that the rocks of this zone are essentially a Precambrian–Proterozoic rock suite1,3, although they were strongly remobilised during the Himalayan orogeny. No hypothesis on the evolution of this tectogene has yet explained satisfactorily the existence of the crystalline core4,5, and taking this and the tectono-stratigraphic evidence into consideration and identifying some constraints in the existing models on the origin of the Himalaya, an alternative model, based on plate tectonics, involving microcontinents, is suggested here.
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SINHA ROY, S. A possible Himalayan microcontinent. Nature 263, 117–120 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/263117a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/263117a0
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