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Alpine-Himalayan Orogens |
Istituto di Geologia, Università di Milano, Piazzale Gorini 15, Milan, Italy
The Karakorum Mountains are part of a group of orogenic belts which include Pamir and Tien Shah to the north, Aghil and Kun Lun to the east, Hindu Kush to the west and Kashmir Himalaya to the south. The belt of Alpine orogenesis includes together with the Karakorum, the South and Central Pamir tectonic zones, the Aghil tectonic zone with the Changchemmo, Lokzung and Aksae Chin sub-zones, most of Kashmir and the eastern Hindu Kush. The Alpine orogenic belt is flanked on three sides by Hercynian orogens; to the north the Hercynian belt describes an arc parallel to the boundary of the Alpine belt, made up of the North Pamir tectonic zone and, more to the north, of the Tien Shan range; to the east comes the Kun Lun range, and to the west the Hindu Kush. To the south no Hercynian ranges are present between the Indian platform and the Alpine orogenic belt. The nearest non-orogenic areas are the Tarim and Tibet platforms belonging to Angara to the east, and the Indian platform belonging to Gondwana to the south. To the west, a smaller platform, buried beneath mostly Cretaceous-Tertiary gently folded sediments, lies within the Tadjikistan depression of Amu Darya, to the west of Pamirs.
Segment: the segment of the Karakorum Mountains selected for description has a width, measured along strike, of 50 km and a length across strike of 180 km (Fig. 1). This segment was chosen because it is the only segment known in some detail which
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