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Estimating the viscosity and Prandtl number of the Tso Morari crystalline gneiss dome, Indian western Himalaya

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Abstract

The Tso Morari crystalline (TMC) gneiss dome in the Indian Himalaya extruded from a depth of ~120 km through an inclined subduction channel of sub-elliptical cross-section at the leading edge of the Indian plate. The velocity profile of this gneiss dome is derived after (1) presuming its incompressible Newtonian rheology, (2) finding the “best fit” of the outcrop of the gneiss dome to an ellipse, (3) taking into account different lithologies to have existed at the top of the extruding gneiss body, (4) considering the extrusion to have been driven by the buoyant push of the denser mantle beneath the lighter gneiss, and (5) assigning a range of plausible densities for different litho-units. Fitting the known rates of extrusion—from a few centimetres up to about one-hundredth of a millimetre per year—from ~53 Ma onwards of this gneiss dome to its velocity profile constrains its maximum possible viscosity to ~7.5 × 1022 Pa s. This magnitude is 102–104 times higher than previous estimates for gneisses and granites. Alternative explanations of our data are the following: (1) There was a fall in extrusion rates of the TMC gneiss from 53 to <30 Ma because of an increase in the estimated maximum viscosity from 6.2 × 1020 to 7.5 × 1022 Pa s, possibly indicating a fall in temperature and/or compositional change of the TMC gneiss. (2) Lower the extrusion rates, higher are the estimated viscosities. (3) The TMC gneiss was more viscous probably due to its eclogite content. (4) The estimated maximum viscosity is ~102 times higher than that in collision zones and 102–104 times than that in the Tibetan lower crust, but broadly conforms to that for the crustal channel, and average lithospheric and asthenospheric values. The high magnitude of maximum possible Prandtl number of ~1028 of the TMC gneiss might be related to isothermal decompression of the gneiss during its extrusion.

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Acknowledgments

SM acknowledges IIT Bombay’s flexible ‘Seed Grant’ (Spons/GS/SM-1/2009) and Department of Science and Technology’s (New Delhi) SERC Fast Track Scheme: SR/FTP/ES-117/2009. IIT Bombay’s travel grant enables SM to make an oral presentation (Mukherjee and Mulchrone 2011) at the Tectonic Studies Group Meeting in Durham in January 2011. S. Guillot made two rounds of thorough constructive review that led us to rearrange and fine tune arguments. The work benefited significantly from C.J. Talbot’s (retired from Uppsala University) mentoring and his meticulous corrections in English and the scientific contents as an informal reviewer. Manendra (IIT Bombay) cross-checked the Appendix B. S Murthy, A. Bandyopadhyay and R. Ghosh (IIT Bombay), R. S. Sharma (Indian National Science Academy Fellow), B. Mukherjee and K. Sen (Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology), and K.C. Sahu (IIT Hyderabad) are thanked for discussions. S. Bhattacharyya (Alabama University) continues to supply research papers to SM (for more than a decade). Comments by P. Leat (Editor, Geological Magazine) helped to clarify a number of points. W.-C. Dullo’s chief editorial handling is greatly appreciated.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400 076, Maharashtra, India

    Soumyajit Mukherjee

  2. School of Mathematical Sciences, Department of Applied Mathematics, University College, Cork, Ireland

    Kieran F. Mulchrone

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Mukherjee, S., Mulchrone, K.F. Estimating the viscosity and Prandtl number of the Tso Morari crystalline gneiss dome, Indian western Himalaya. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 101, 1929–1947 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-012-0758-3

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