India–Asia collision resulted in crustal thickening and shortening, metamorphism and partial melting along the 2200 km-long Himalayan range. In the core of the Greater Himalaya, widespread in situ partial melting in sillimanite+K-feldspar gneisses resulted in formation of migmatites and Ms+Bt+Grt+Tur±Crd±Sil leucogranites, mainly by muscovite dehydration melting. Melting occurred at shallow depths (4–6 kbar; 15–20 km depth) in the middle crust, but not in the lower crust. 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios of leucogranites are very high (0·74–0·79) and heterogeneous, indicating a 100% crustal protolith. Melts were sourced from fertile muscovite-bearing pelites and quartzo-feldspathic gneisses of the Neo-Proterozoic Haimanta–Cheka Formations. Melting was induced through a combination of thermal relaxation due to crustal thickening and from high internal heat production rates within the Proterozoic source rocks in the middle crust. Himalayan granites have highly radiogenic Pb isotopes and extremely high uranium concentrations. Little or no heat was derived either from the mantle or from shear heating along thrust faults. Mid-crustal melting triggered southward ductile extrusion (channel flow) of a mid-crustal layer bounded by a crustal-scale thrust fault and shear zone (Main Central Thrust; MCT) along the base, and a low-angle ductile shear zone and normal fault (South Tibetan Detachment; STD) along the top. Multi-system thermochronology (U–Pb, Sm–Nd, 40 Ar– 39 Ar and fission track dating) show that partial melting spanned ~24–15 Ma and triggered mid-crustal flow between the simultaneously active shear zones of the MCT and STD. Granite melting was restricted in both time (Early Miocene) and space (middle crust) along the entire length of the Himalaya. Melts were channelled up via hydraulic fracturing into sheeted sill complexes from the underthrust Indian plate source beneath southern Tibet, and intruded for up to 100 km parallel to the foliation in the host sillimanite gneisses. Crystallisation of the leucogranites was immediately followed by rapid exhumation, cooling and enhanced erosion during the Early–Middle Miocene.

Abstract The Himalaya-Tibet and Caledonide orogens are comparable in scale and are similar in various aspects. Regional suture zones are recognizable in both, although their identification is more problematic in the deeply eroded Caledonide orogen. Crustal-scale thrust belts, regional Barrovian metamorphism characterized by clockwise P – T paths, and migmatitic cores with crustally-derived leucogranite complexes are the dominant structural feature of both orogens. Both orogens also record calc-alkaline magmatism attributed to subduction activity prior to collision. Syn-orogenic extension accompanied crustal thickening in both orogens, however, the Caledonides also have a protracted record of late- to post-orogenic extension that is attributed to lithospheric delamination in combination with oblique plate divergence. The oblique nature of the Caledonian collision is also reflected in the development of regionally significant sinistral strike-slip faults and shear zones, whereas such structures are apparently not as significant within the Himalayan orogen. The major difference between the two orogens relates to their contrasting gross structure: the Caledonides has bivergent geometry with thrust belts developed in the pro- and retro-wedges, whereas the Himalaya has a thrust belt located only in the pro-wedge segment. These differing geometries are probably explicable with reference to pre-collision contrasts in rheology and/or inherited structures. As such, there is no reason to suggest that either example should be viewed as being a ‘typical’ product of collisional orogenesis – they likely represent end-members of a range of possible orogenic profiles.

Abstract The Moine Thrust zone of NW Scotland marks the Caledonian orogenic front and in the Assynt region consists of several west-vergent major thrust sheets (Moine, Ben More, Glencoul and Sole Thrust sheets) that place allochthonous rocks onto the Lewisian basement and Torridon Group cover in the west. Here we present two new balanced and restored sections across the Moine Thrust zone in the region of the Loch Ailsh and Loch Borralan alkali intrusions. Syenites and alkaline pyroxenites intrude up to Durness Group carbonates. Syenites are interpreted as cut by the Moine and Ben More Thrusts and therefore their intrusion age ( c . 430 Ma) provides a maximum age constraint on cessation of motion along the Moine Thrust. We review and discuss several controversies, notably: (1) relationships between folding in the Ben More Thrust sheet (Sgonnan Mor folds) and fabric development associated with intrusion of the Loch Ailsh pluton and initiation of the Moine and Ben More Thrusts; (2) structural relationships around the Borralan intrusion, particularly the nature of its basal and lateral margins (intrusive or thrust-ramp); (3) the structural relationships of the Cam Loch and Benn Fhuarain klippen; and (4) the timing of motion of all thrust sheets in the southern Assynt culmination.