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Ladakh Himalayan Ophiolites (LHO): A Geological Heritage of Northwestern India

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Abstract

Ladakh has a rich and fascinating sociocultural heritage owing to its unique geographical location and a mixture of varying civilizations. It covers a wide range of geological and geomorphic features of the western Himalaya including high mountain ranges, glacial valleys, saline to freshwater high-altitude lakes, and cold rocky desert. Himalaya is the product of a continent-continent collision between Indian and Eurasian plates and the closure of the Neo-Tethys Ocean during the Late Mesozoic to Early Tertiary. The Neo-Tethys Ocean existed during the Mesozoic Era and completely disappeared along the north dipping subduction zones. The Ladakh Himalayan Ophiolites (LHO) are the remnants of the eastern part of the Neo-Tethys Ocean that were obducted discontinuously along the Indus Suture Zone and incorporated on the Indian continental margin. These include Dras-Thasgam-Suru Valley-Shergol dismembered ophiolitic slices and Nidar-Spongtang ophiolitic complexes. These ophiolitic remnants comprise typical lithostratigraphy, viz., radiolarian cherts, pillow volcanics, gabbros, mafic-ultramafic cumulates, and mantle peridotites. They are scattered in the Ladakh region, accessible by foot and road, and form recognizable picturesque outcrops. They provide insights into the mantle sources, depth and degree of partial melting, melt-rock interaction, mantle wedge melting and metasomatism, and evolution of mantle-derived melts. In strength weakness opportunity threat analysis, the total weighted score (TWS) for the internal factor evaluation matrix is 3.22, indicating that strength exceeds weaknesses. While the TWS for the external factor evaluation matrix is 3.25, suggesting that the opportunity to develop and conserve the proposed geoheritage sites exceeds the threat. Thus, the LHO, with excellent aesthetic sense and good accessibility, are attractive from both scientific and geotourism perspectives. They must be recognized as valuable geoheritage sites worthy of protection and conservation against exploitation

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Acknowledgements

The first author would like to acknowledge CSIR, New Delhi, for the Research Associateship and Head Department of Earth Sciences, University of Kashmir for infrastructural facilities. HC thanks the UGC for the DS Kothari Fellowship and Director IUAC New-Delhi for encouragement and infrastructure facilities. TA thanks the SERB-DST for the JC Bose Fellowship. The authors express their sincere thanks to guest editors Prof. M. G. Thakkar, Prof. S. C. Mathur, and Dr. Gaurav D. Chauhan, for inviting to contribute in this particular issue. In addition, authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that really helped in improving the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, 190006, J&K, India

    Irfan Maqbool Bhat & Reyaz Ahmad Dar

  2. Inter University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), New Delhi, 110067, India

    Hiredya Chauhan

  3. Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, 248001, India

    Talat Ahmad

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  1. Irfan Maqbool Bhat
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  2. Hiredya Chauhan
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  4. Talat Ahmad
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IMB took lead in writing the manuscript with support from HC, RD, and TA. TA provided critical feedback and helped in fieldwork in identifying the various lithological units of ophiolites. All authors contributed and approved the submitted manuscript.

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Correspondence to Irfan Maqbool Bhat.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Indian Geoheritage: From the Precambrian to the Present

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Bhat, I.M., Chauhan, H., Dar, R.A. et al. Ladakh Himalayan Ophiolites (LHO): A Geological Heritage of Northwestern India. Geoheritage 15, 2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-022-00764-y

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