RECENT MOVEMENTS ALONG THE MAIN BOUNDARY THRUST OF THE HIMALAYAS - NORMAL FAULTING IN AN OVER-CRITICAL THRUST WEDGE

The Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) is one of the major Himalayan thrusts occurring during the Cainozoic, and it is presently incorporated within the Himalayan thrust wedge (Lesser and Outer Himalayas) displaced above the Indian lithosphere. Nonetheless the MBT shows recent normal displacement along most of its length. We suggest that the orientation of the major principal stress within the Himalayan thrust wedge deviates significantly from the horizontal and when this deviation exceeds the dip of the vectors normal to back-tilted thrusts, the normal component of displacement may act along these faults. Steep north-dipping segments of the MBT therefore show a normal component of displacement if a geometrical definition is used, but they are faults in a compressional regime where the major principal stress axis has deviated from the horizontal. Micro-structural data recorded along the Surkhet-Ghorahi segment of the MBT are consistent with a strong deviation of the state of stress. The presence of such peculiar normal faulting along the MBT is used to calibrate the mechanical characteristics of the belt considered as a Coulomb wedge. The following characteristics are suggested: (a) very poor strength contrast between basal decollement and rocks in the wedge body, and (b) a high pore fluid pressure ratio (probably close to 0.8-0.9) and a higher fluid pressure ratio (close to 1.0) along the active normal faults if a high internal friction angle (close to the Byerlee value) is considered. The strong deviation in principal stress direction may have recently increased, due to a taper of the Himalayan wedge exceeding the stability boundary and may be controlled by erosion and isostatic uplift rebound of the Himalayan range.