Redefining Medlicott-Wadia's main boundary fault from Jhelum to Yamuna: an active fault strand of the main boundary thrust in Northwest Himalaya

Abstract

The MBT demarcates a tectonic boundary between the Tertiary Sub Himalaya and the pre-Tertiary Lesser Himalaya. South of the MBT, another tectonically important fault extends from Muzaffarabad and Riasi in Jammu-Kashmir to Bilaspur and Nahan in Himachal. Medlicott and Wadia had designated this fault the Main Boundary Fault (MBF) in Simla Hills and Jammu region respectively. In between these two areas, later workers gave local-area names to the MBF as the Riasi Thrust in Jammu, Palampur Thrust in Kangra, Bilaspur Thrust in Simla Hills and Nahan Thrust in Sirmur. We have reviewed and established the tectonostratigraphic framework and physical continuity of the lower Tertiary belt and the MBF. The lower Tertiary belt, lying south of the MBT, has characteristic tectonostratigraphic setting with discontinuous bodies of stromatolite-bearing Proterozoic limestone overlain with depositional contact by the Paleocene-lower part Middle Eocene marine Subathu/Patala formation which in turn overlain by the Upper Oligocene-Lower Miocene non-marine Dharamsala/Murree Formation. To avoid confusion with the MBT, we designate collectively the MBF and related faults as the Medlicott-Wadia Thrust (MWT). The MWT extends east of Hazara-Kashmir syntaxis to river Yamuna, covering a distance of not, vert, similar ~700 km. Further east of Yamuna, the lower Tertiary belt pinches out and the MWT merges with the sensuo-stricto MBT. The Proterozoic limestone represents the basement over which the lower Tertiary sediments were deposited. The limestone basement with its cover was detached by the MWT, exhuming to the surface and thrusting over largely the Siwalik group. The reactivated Balakot-Bagh Fault, causative fault for the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, extends southeast with right-step to the Riasi Thrust. The Riasi Thrust shows evidence of reactivation and active tectonic activity in Jammu region. It extends further east to the Palampur Thrust in Kangra reentrant, which lies within the 1905 Kangra earthquake rupture zone. The Bilaspur Thrust, continuation of the Palampur Thrust, shows active faulting south of Simla hills between Sataun and Yamuna River. These observations indicate that the MWT represents a southern strand of the sensuo-stricto MBT and shows active faulting in some segments.