Depositional environment of Upper Paleocene – Middle Eocene series of the Lesser Himalaya, Central Nepal

Paleocene–Eocene epoch was the turning point when the Indian subcontinent experienced maximum isolation before it collided with Eurasia. Intense sedimentation occurred in late Paleocene in the foreland basins of young Himalaya, marking the beginning of a major transgression on the Indian subcontinent. In central Himalaya (Nepal), the synorogenic stratigraphy recorded the depositional environment changes from salt-water to brackish-water and even to fresh-water condition, indicating slight and gradual regressive phase. We report petrography, U–Pb detrital zircons ages, whole-rock geochemistry data from sandstone in Cretaceous–Paleocene, Eocene, and lower Miocene of the Lesser Himalaya, central Nepal. The Eocene and Miocene sequences have small Neoproterozoic to Cambrian age zircon populations indicating multiple source terrains. The whole-rock geochemistry supports the unroofing history documented by U–Pb zircon ages, the succession belongs to foreland basin, an area between the active and passive continental margins tectonic setting. Petrography data indicates a recycled orogenic provenance.