These images are copyright © 1996 by W.S.F. Kidd or M.E.
Edwards.
(email
to request permission to use)
1. Mylonites of the Main Mantle Thrust. Eastern margin of the massif on the Indus Gorge, near village of Silbu.
2. View to north across Astor Valley from below Dashkin village. Westerly-dipping gneisses in near valley wall turn over into major antiform in high ridge beyond. This zone includes pelitic gneisses in a pinched synform, probably associated with east-directed thrusting, and forms the eastern margin of the pop-up structure.
3. View to east from the central Astor River valley. Ladakh-Kohistan mafic rocks form the peak of the mountain on the skyline. Metasediments of the Indian cover sequence dip east below this, with Nanga Parbat gneisses below them. Rocks in the near ridge are the gently-dipping gneisses at the core of the major (western) antiform.
4. Active rockfall erosion on the western wall of the Indus gorge opposite Liachar village. Note trucks on the Karakorum Highway!
5. S/C mylonite of Rupal-Chhichi Shear Zone, in Chhichi Nullah ~9km from entrance; west valley wall, view to north. S/C mylonite from granitoid protolith, showing oblique west side up (thrust) and dextral motion.
6. S/C mylonite of Rupal-Chhichi Shear Zone, northwest side of Rupal valley, near upper end of Rupal village; view to northeast. Dominantly thrust-sense shear in S/C mylonite from granitoid protolith. This ~5km-wide shear zone forms the southeastern margin of the central Nanga Parbat massif and is the eastern fault of the proposed pop-up structure.
7. View from Rupal-Chhichi ridge looking north over Lower Rupal Valley, towards Chongra, and Chongra Glacier. Rupal-Chhichi Shear Zone extends to lower part of nearer ridge across Rupal Valley.
8. View to SSW up Chhichi Nullah from pass over Rupal-Chhichi ridge. S/C mylonitic granitoid rocks of the Rupal-Chhichi Shear Zone form most of the western wall; the eastern wall has abundant metasedimentary schists (probable Indian cover). The contact crosses into the western side of the valley just north of the dark and snow-covered ridge in the far distance.
9. View of Nanga Parbat towards the ENE taken from PIA aircraft near Babusar Pass.
10. Panorama looking down west from Mazeno Pass (5400m). Core gneisses of the Nanga Parbat massif form a regional antiform; this view is from near the hinge over the steepening dips of the western limb.
Nanga Parbat viewed from the north; down the Indus valley from the village of Thelichi on the Karakorum Highway. Liachar Thrust placing gneisses over Quaternary sediments is visible in the mountainside on left.
Michael Edwards on the upper Rupal Glacier. View due west to mountainside south of Toshi Gali. Foliation and lineation in gneisses dip/plunge steeply SSW towards Kashmir, with top to south shear sense.
The incognito geologist (Bill Kidd) above the Astor River Valley
Mike Edwards in Chhichi Nullah near the southern margin of the Rupal-Chhichi Shear Zone.
Mitch Wemple looks down from Mazeno Pass. Toshi Gali is beyond the mountain peak.
