Younger hanging wall rocks along the Vaikrita thrust of the high Himalaya: A model based on inversion tectonics

In sharp contrast to the common observed characteristic of areas of thrust tectonics, where older rocks are thrust over younger, along the Vaikrita Thrust in the High Himalaya younger hanging wall rocks (i.e. Vaikrita Group-Late Mesoproterozoic to Early Neoproterozoic) lie above the older footwall rocks (i.e. Munsiari Formation-Paleoproterozoic). The phenomenon is explained by an inversion tectonics-based model where normal faulting and metamorphism were followed by thrusting, in which the thrust displacement was less than the displacement during the earlier normal faulting. The present day hanging wall tilt towards north may have been caused by a later thrust, initiated as a piggy back sequence, accompanied by folding and Himalayan metamorphism.