MAIN CENTRAL THRUST ZONE IN THE KATHMANDU AREA, CENTRAL NEPAL, AND ITS TECTONIC SIGNIFICANCE

The Himalaya, a fold\|and\|thrust belt in the northern margin of the Indian continent, is characterized by thrust tectoncis (Schelling and Arita, 1991). It consists mainly of three thrust\|bounded lithotectonic units: from south to north the Sub\|Himalayan imbricate zone, the Lesser Himalayan thrust package (LH) and the Higher Himalayan thrust sheet (HH) with the overlying Tethys Himalayan sequence. These units are separated by a series of propagated thrusts, i.e. from south to north the Himalayan Frontal Fault (HFF), Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and Main Central Thrust (MCT). These thrusts are splays off of an underlying mid\|crustal subhorizontal d$B;D(Jollement (Main Detachmen Trust or Main Himalayan Thrust), and were propagated southward with time. Among these thrusts the MCT is most important intracrustal thrust in considering the geological evolution of the Himalaya, and is controversial regarding its location and nature. In western and eastern Nepal the Higher Himalayan Crystalline sheet is thrust over the Lesser Himalayan rocks along the MCT. In the Kathmandu area of central Nepal also the high\|grade rocks of the HH with the overlying Tethyan sediments covers southward the Lesser Himalayan rocks, and form the Kathmandu nappe. In the north of the Kathmandu nappe the Higher Himalayan crystallines are skirted by the Main Central Thrust zone (MCT zone) which consists of green and black phyllites with sporadic garnet snow\|ball garnet and calcareous schist associated with characteristic mylonitic augen gneiss. The southern margin of the nappe is bounded by the Mahabharat Thrust (MT: Stoecklin, 1990) with a narrow zone of the LH which is cut by the MBT. But the relationship of the MCT in the north and the MT in the south is disputable and important (Arita et al., 1997: Rai et al., 1998: Upreti and Le Fort, 1999), and in the margin of the Kathmandu nappe the MCT zone has not been confirmed.