Abstract The pre-accretionary shapes of cratonic margins form successions of promontories and re-entrants inherited from the rifting of supercontinents. In accretionary orogens, the extent of deformation related to a collision with a continent characterized by an irregular margin is obfuscated through the partitioning of deformation along pre-existing structures. In the Northern Appalachians, the extent of the deformation related to the oblique collision of the Meguma terrane with the composite Laurentian margin is disputed. Herein, we use a framework based on modern collisional settings to investigate the Late Devonian to Mississippian deformation inboard of the Avalonia–Meguma boundary and evaluate the regional tectonic setting. We combine published shear zone kinematic interpretations, deformation ages and regional 40 Ar/ 39 Ar cooling ages with structural interpretation of aeromagnetic and gravimetric depth slices covering the Northern Appalachians. We find that the deformation related to the collision of the Meguma terrane, attributed to the Neoacadian orogeny, has a larger structural footprint than previously documented. While this deformation is partitioned in multiple structures in the Canadian Appalachians, northern New England is characterized by rapid crustal deformation, high palaeoelevation and fast erosional exhumation, similar to modern syntaxis structures.

Abstract Current tectonic understanding of the Nanga Parbat–Haramosh massif (NPHM) is reviewed, developing new models for the structure and deformation of the Indian continental crust, its thermorheological evolution, and its relationship to surface processes. Comparisons are drawn with the Namche Barwa–Gyala Peri massif (NBGPM) that cores an equivalent syntaxis at the NE termination of the Himalayan arc. Both massifs show exceptionally rapid active denudation and riverine downcutting, identified from very young cooling ages measured from various thermochronometers. They also record relicts of high-pressure metamorphic conditions that chart early tectonic burial. Initial exhumation was probably exclusively by tectonic processes but the young, and continuing emergence of these massifs reflects combined tectonic and surface processes. The feedback mechanisms implicit in aneurysm models may have been overemphasized, especially the role of synkinematic granites as agents of rheological softening and strain localization. Patterns of distributed ductile deformation exhumed within the NPHM are consistent with models of orogen-wide gravitation flow, with the syntaxes forming the lateral edges to the flow beneath the Himalayan arc.

Abstract The Mansehra granite in the NW Himalaya is a typical Lesser Himalayan granite. We present here new whole-rock geochemistry, Rb–Sr and Sm–Nd isotope data, together with zircon U–Pb ages and Hf isotope data, for the Mansehra granite. Geochemical data for the granite show typical S-type characteristics. Zircon U–Pb dating yields 206 Pb/ 238 U crystallization ages of 483–476 Ma. The zircon grains contain abundant inherited cores and some of these show a clear detrital origin. The 206 Pb/ 238 U ages of the inherited cores in the granite cluster in the ranges 889–664, 1862–1595 and 2029 Ma. An age of 664 Ma is considered to be the maximum age of the sedimentary protoliths. Thus the Late Neoproterozoic to Cambrian sedimentary rocks must be the protolith of the Mansehra granitic magma. The initial Sr isotope ratios are high, ranging from 0.7324 to 0.7444, whereas the ε Nd(t) values range from −9.2 to −8.6, which strongly suggests a large contribution of old crustal material to the protoliths. The two-stage Nd model ages and zircon Hf model ages are Paleoproterozoic, indicating that the protolith sediments were derived from Paleoproterozoic crustal components.