Rb/Sr geochronology of granites and gneisses from the Mount Everest region,Nepal Himalaya

Nineteen samples of granites, orthogneisses and paragneisses from the High Himalaya basement nappe(s) of the Mount Everest region have been dated by the Rb/Sr method. The post-metamorphic tourmaline leucogranites of the upper Imja Drangka (Nuptse, Lhotse Glacier) have high initial Sr⁸⁷/Sr⁸⁶ characteristic of an anatectic origin from crustal material. A whole-rock isochron age of 52 m. y. (Early Eocene) has been obtained for the samples from the granite body of Lhotse Glacier; apparently Sr isotopic homogenization was not reached throughout the much larger Nuptse granite. The granite precursor of the migmatitic orthogneisses from the upper Dudh Kosi valley has an age of 550 ± 16 m. y. (whole rock isochron) and a high initial Sr⁸⁷/Sr⁸⁶ ratio indicating its origin from an older basement complex. The Rb/Sr data on paragneisses from the south face of Lhotse do not define an isochron, possibly reflecting isotopic hetero-geneity in the sedimentary protoliths and incomplete homogenization during a late Precambrian metamorphism. All the mineral ages fall in the time span from 15 to 17 m. y. They represent cooling ages reflecting a regional phase of major uplift in the Middle Miocene and post-dating the peak of the Himalayan metamorphism which the data from the Mt. Everest region place in pre-Eocene times.