Most people I talk to about geology are aware that the Himalaya formed by the buckling and uplift of crust caught up in the India-Asia collision. But, I do see eyebrows raised when I tell them that the summits of some of the highest peaks are made up of marine sedimentary rocks.
The summit of Mount Everest is a fossil bearing limestone of Ordovician age. These deposits are part of a thick pile of sediments of Cambrian to Eocene age which accumulated on the continental shelf of India. They suffered only shallow burial (up to ~10 km) preceding and during continental collision. They are known formally as the Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence.
What happened to these sediments as they got caught up in Himalayan mountain building? A recent study published in Lithosphere has teased out the deformation and metamorphic history of this limestone.
Polyphase deformation, dynamic metamorphism, and metasomatism of Mount Everest’s summit limestone, east central Himalaya, Nepal/Tibet - Travis L. Corthouts, David R. Lageson, and Colin A. Shaw
These scientists trained Nepalese Sherpa climbers to recover samples from the Everest summit. The location of the samples and the basic geological divisions of the summit is seen in the annotated photograph posted below
Source: Travis L. Corthouts, David R. Lageson, and Colin A. Shaw 2018
The Everest region is made up of high grade metamorphic rocks of the Greater Himalayan Sequence. They are rocks of the Indian continental shelf of Late Proterozoic (~1000 million years old) to Ordovician (450 million years old) age which were buried to greater depths (up to 20-25 km) during continental collision. These rocks are intruded by leucogranite ( a light colored granite) dikes and sills.
Towards the upper levels, the grade of metamorphism decreases gradationally to upper greenschist facies. The contact between the two metamorphic grades is a shear zone termed the Lhotse Shear Zone. The greenschist faces rocks are termed the Everest Series. On top of the Everest Series is the 'Yellow Band'. This is a coarse grained marble and calc-schist. The summit limestones (Qomolangma Formation) rests on this Yellow Band. The boundary between them is a fault zone known as the Qomolangma detachment. This fault zone is a strand of the South Tibetan Detachment (STD) that puts the Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence (TSS) on top of the Greater Himalaya Sequence throughout the extent of the Himalaya.
A schematic cross section depicting this stratigraphy is shown below.
Source: Travis L. Corthouts, David R. Lageson, and Colin A. Shaw 2018
Researchers used three types of analysis to figure out the geologic history of the limestone.
a) Microfabric analysis of the samples gave the geologists clues to the deformation and stress regime experienced by the summit limestone. The limestones have been converted into a mylonite. This means that increased temperatures and pressures from faulting resulted in a new textural arrangement in which the original calcite grains of the limestone were recrystallized and deformed. New calcite crystals grew flattened and stretched along one direction, resulting in a foliated (layered) streaky appearance to the rock. This texture forms during ductile deformation in a compressive stress regime. Geologists found that near the vicinity of the Qomolangma fault, a set of dilational fractures indicating extensional forces cut across these ductile deformation textures. This indicates that the summit limestone was subjected to tensile forces and normal faulting at a later stage.
b) Titanium content of quartz and biotite from samples close to the South Summit (EV6) indicated the temperature of metamorphism. This is so because the amount of Ti incorporated in to growing crystals of quartz and biotite increases with increase in temperature of crystallization. Results indicated that the limestones at the base of the Qomolangma Formation experienced temperatures as high as 500 deg C.
c) The age of metamorphism was estimated by dating muscovite crystals using Ar40/Ar39 technique. Muscovite crystals grew in response to the increased temperature and pressure the limestone was subjected to during Himalayan orogeny. Dates show that there were two phases of mineral growth. The first at 28 million years ago, and a younger phase at about 18 million years ago, indicating separate events of movement and heating along the Qomolangma fault zone.
The leucogranite sills and dikes, which intrude the underlying Greater Himalaya Sequence, also merit a mention. They formed by the partial melting of the crust during Himalaya orogeny. As this magma intruded and solidified inside the Greater Himalaya Sequence, they expelled fluids with volatile elements which permeated into the overlying limestone. This caused metasomatism and crystallization of secondary minerals in the limestone. Boron, potassium, titanium and H2O were introduced into the limestone and were incorporated into minerals like muscovite, biotite and quartz. This activity is dated to about 28 million years ago based on the age of secondary muscovite in the lower parts of the summit limestone.
The sequence of geologic events is summarized in the graphic below:
Source: Travis L. Corthouts, David R. Lageson, and Colin A. Shaw 2018
And an excerpt of the conclusions from the paper-
The different fabrics and metamorphic temperatures observed between the upper and lower parts of the Qomolangma Formation are the result of distinct events that influenced the summit limestone at different times throughout Himalayan orogenesis. Fabrics seen in summit samples are the result of Eohimalayan deformation and low-grade metamorphism associated with initial thrust faulting, folding, and crustal thickening of the Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence in the Eocene. In contrast, the fabrics and elevated temperatures preserved in South Summit samples are the result of events that occurred in the late Oligocene and early Miocene, including metasomatism associated with Neohimalayan metamorphism and normal faulting on the South Tibetan detachment. This means that several significant tectonic events in Himalayan orogenesis are preserved in the Qomolangma Formation, a succession of deformed Ordovician limestone that now comprises the top of Mount Everest.
Open Access.
The summit of Mount Everest is a fossil bearing limestone of Ordovician age. These deposits are part of a thick pile of sediments of Cambrian to Eocene age which accumulated on the continental shelf of India. They suffered only shallow burial (up to ~10 km) preceding and during continental collision. They are known formally as the Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence.
What happened to these sediments as they got caught up in Himalayan mountain building? A recent study published in Lithosphere has teased out the deformation and metamorphic history of this limestone.
Polyphase deformation, dynamic metamorphism, and metasomatism of Mount Everest’s summit limestone, east central Himalaya, Nepal/Tibet - Travis L. Corthouts, David R. Lageson, and Colin A. Shaw
These scientists trained Nepalese Sherpa climbers to recover samples from the Everest summit. The location of the samples and the basic geological divisions of the summit is seen in the annotated photograph posted below
Source: Travis L. Corthouts, David R. Lageson, and Colin A. Shaw 2018
The Everest region is made up of high grade metamorphic rocks of the Greater Himalayan Sequence. They are rocks of the Indian continental shelf of Late Proterozoic (~1000 million years old) to Ordovician (450 million years old) age which were buried to greater depths (up to 20-25 km) during continental collision. These rocks are intruded by leucogranite ( a light colored granite) dikes and sills.
Towards the upper levels, the grade of metamorphism decreases gradationally to upper greenschist facies. The contact between the two metamorphic grades is a shear zone termed the Lhotse Shear Zone. The greenschist faces rocks are termed the Everest Series. On top of the Everest Series is the 'Yellow Band'. This is a coarse grained marble and calc-schist. The summit limestones (Qomolangma Formation) rests on this Yellow Band. The boundary between them is a fault zone known as the Qomolangma detachment. This fault zone is a strand of the South Tibetan Detachment (STD) that puts the Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence (TSS) on top of the Greater Himalaya Sequence throughout the extent of the Himalaya.
A schematic cross section depicting this stratigraphy is shown below.
Source: Travis L. Corthouts, David R. Lageson, and Colin A. Shaw 2018
Researchers used three types of analysis to figure out the geologic history of the limestone.
a) Microfabric analysis of the samples gave the geologists clues to the deformation and stress regime experienced by the summit limestone. The limestones have been converted into a mylonite. This means that increased temperatures and pressures from faulting resulted in a new textural arrangement in which the original calcite grains of the limestone were recrystallized and deformed. New calcite crystals grew flattened and stretched along one direction, resulting in a foliated (layered) streaky appearance to the rock. This texture forms during ductile deformation in a compressive stress regime. Geologists found that near the vicinity of the Qomolangma fault, a set of dilational fractures indicating extensional forces cut across these ductile deformation textures. This indicates that the summit limestone was subjected to tensile forces and normal faulting at a later stage.
b) Titanium content of quartz and biotite from samples close to the South Summit (EV6) indicated the temperature of metamorphism. This is so because the amount of Ti incorporated in to growing crystals of quartz and biotite increases with increase in temperature of crystallization. Results indicated that the limestones at the base of the Qomolangma Formation experienced temperatures as high as 500 deg C.
c) The age of metamorphism was estimated by dating muscovite crystals using Ar40/Ar39 technique. Muscovite crystals grew in response to the increased temperature and pressure the limestone was subjected to during Himalayan orogeny. Dates show that there were two phases of mineral growth. The first at 28 million years ago, and a younger phase at about 18 million years ago, indicating separate events of movement and heating along the Qomolangma fault zone.
The leucogranite sills and dikes, which intrude the underlying Greater Himalaya Sequence, also merit a mention. They formed by the partial melting of the crust during Himalaya orogeny. As this magma intruded and solidified inside the Greater Himalaya Sequence, they expelled fluids with volatile elements which permeated into the overlying limestone. This caused metasomatism and crystallization of secondary minerals in the limestone. Boron, potassium, titanium and H2O were introduced into the limestone and were incorporated into minerals like muscovite, biotite and quartz. This activity is dated to about 28 million years ago based on the age of secondary muscovite in the lower parts of the summit limestone.
The sequence of geologic events is summarized in the graphic below:
Source: Travis L. Corthouts, David R. Lageson, and Colin A. Shaw 2018
And an excerpt of the conclusions from the paper-
The different fabrics and metamorphic temperatures observed between the upper and lower parts of the Qomolangma Formation are the result of distinct events that influenced the summit limestone at different times throughout Himalayan orogenesis. Fabrics seen in summit samples are the result of Eohimalayan deformation and low-grade metamorphism associated with initial thrust faulting, folding, and crustal thickening of the Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence in the Eocene. In contrast, the fabrics and elevated temperatures preserved in South Summit samples are the result of events that occurred in the late Oligocene and early Miocene, including metasomatism associated with Neohimalayan metamorphism and normal faulting on the South Tibetan detachment. This means that several significant tectonic events in Himalayan orogenesis are preserved in the Qomolangma Formation, a succession of deformed Ordovician limestone that now comprises the top of Mount Everest.
Open Access.
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