Exotic thrust mass of the Padar area in Kashmir

To the south of the Great Himalaya Range in Kashmir, a group of metasedimentary rocks with altered ultrabasic rocks occur physically over the migmatitic complex, as a klippe. The best exposure of it is met with in the Kudi nala, west of Sumjam, where lensoid outcrops of basic and ultramafic rocks, comprising actinolite—tremolite rock intruded by garnetiferous amphibolite occur within the marble, calc-gneiss and graphitic schist-gneiss. These rocks occur at an altitude of 5000–5500 m and the underlying rocks comprise gneiss, migmatite, schist, etc.The klippe of the metasedimentaries with the basic and ultrabasic suite of rocks, shows a synclinal disposition with a sheared northern contact. The southern contact of this klippe is also sheared and a tectonic “melange” zone is exposed in certain outcrops. This unusual geological set up, along with the absence of a deep-seated fault in the area of investigation, had led the author to believe that this suite of metasedimentaries has no stratigraphic relation with the underlying rocks which they override. These are very much akin to some of the rock suites of the Indus ophiolitic zone outcropping far in the north, particularly those of the Suru valley (Kargil tehsil) and they appear to have been transported during post-Cretaceous times as a thrust mass. This is the first record of an exotic thrust nappe in the Kashmir Himalaya to the south of the Great Himalaya Range.