Nanga Parbat Continental Dynamics Project
Project Overview

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH.
CRUSTAL REWORKING DURING OROGENY:
AN ACTIVE-SYSTEM HIMALAYAN PERSPECTIVE

Official words (abstract of our 1995 proposal):

We propose a multidisciplinary study of the Nanga Parbat-Haramosh Massif of the northwestern Himalaya, Pakistan. We wish to assess the recent and still-active processes responsible for an extraordinary episode of very young high-grade metamorphism, partial melting, high strain, and rapid denudation focused around the center of Nanga Parbat. Our ultimate goal is to exploit the excellent exposures and access to active tectonic processes offered by Nanga Parbat to understand the mesoscale interaction between petrological and mechanical processes during collisional orogenesis. In particular, we wish to evaluate from an active-system perspective which specific processes are most important in reworking the crustal lithosphere, and whether these processes are in fact those traditionally associated with continental collision. To accomplish these goals we propose to integrate a wide variety of measurements made using techniques of geochronology, petrology, stable-isotope geochemistry, radiogenic tracer-isotope geochemistry, seismology, magnetotelluric sounding, structural geology, and geomorphology, and then place our results into a geodynamic context. Using this multidisciplinary approach, we would first characterize the evolution and current state of the Indian crust making up the Nanga Parbat massif, then document the processes responsible for this evolution, and finally aim to combine this information into a coherent model applicable to other (older) orogens.

...Or, in plain English:

Scientific Rationale. Nanga Parbat, the westernmost 8000 meter peak of the Himalaya, provides perhaps the world's best exposures of rocks which are being subjected to the forces and chemical processes that occur during the collision of continents. We are using Nanga Parbat as a natural laboratory to study these processes while they are still active, for Nanga Parbat is world-renowned as a site of what is, from a geologist's perspective, extraordinarily rapid uplift and erosion.

Planned Measurements. To fully understand how the rocks of Nanga Parbat have been deformed and modified, we are exploying a broad variety of techniques which include structural geology and geomorphology to determine how material is entering and leaving the Nanga Parbat region, seismological and electromagnetic probes of the crust immediately beneath Nanga Parbat, and a variety of geochemical techniques to better understand how the crust of Nanga Parbat was created and is being modified.

Significance of Project to Pakistan. Although our project represents basic research in geology, our research will also provide tangible benefits to Pakistan in several ways.

Resources and exploration. As our teams of geologists have traversed the still-poorly-known Nanga Parbat massif, we have built an inventory of the natural resources that are present, such as mineralization and hydrothermal systems.
Natural hazards. The rapid uplift and erosion of Nanga Parbat is accompanied by recurring seismicity and all manner of erosive processes including massive landslides (e.g., the 1841 slide which actually blocked the Indus River for several months). Our investigations of the seismicity and geomorphology of the Nanga Parbat massif are providing important data for risk assessment, pertinent to the Karakorum Highway, which traverses the northwestern edge of the Nanga Parbat massif, and also for present and planned dams on the Indus River.
Project History. This project is in many ways the culmination of many years of collaboration between U.S. geologists and geologists at the National Centre of Excellence in Geology at the University of Peshawar (originally known as the "Dartmouth-Peshawar Project"). Several of the scientists involved in the current project have been working together for over 15 years on the fascinating and complex geology of northern Pakistan.

Project Budget and Status. Full funding for this project was approved by the Continental Dynamics Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation. We were extremely fortunate to have been funded by this high-visibility, major-project program, which each year approves only a few projects. The budget for our project is U.S. $2.1 million, and the project had a start date of 1 May, 1995. A significant amount of this budget has been spent in Pakistan on field logistics and supplies as well as on collaborative activities.

Planned Timetable. Although the project was budgeted for a duration of three years, work will likely continue through 1998. The general project timetable remains as follows: 

  1995 Summer (orientation, government permissions)
  1995 September, October (pilot seimsic study, initial sampling)
  1996 May through October (full seismic deployment, extensive fieldwork)
  1997 May through October (wrap-up, field-checking)
  1998 Presentation of results at Peshawar HKT conference (April),
       December AGU meeting
  1998-1999 Final data integration and publication of technical papers;
       work with film maker to develop segments for communication to public
List of participants. This project has involved many scientific experts from several countries, as well as a number of people who in Pakistan and from abroad who have provided invaluable help with field logistics.
(Maintained by Peter Zeitler (pkz0@lehigh.edu). Last updated 3 February, 1998)