Preliminary Landsat lineament analysis of the northern Nanga Parbat-Haramosh Massif, northwest Himalaya

Abstract: Analysis of a mosaic of Landsat 2 MSS band 7 images covering the northern Nanga Parbat-Haramosh Massif (NPHM) has yielded approximately 540 lineaments, defined by sets of colinear drainage segments and aligned linear graytone boundaries. We recognized segments of the few well-mapped faults along the NPHM as lineaments. The paucity of field data concerning faults, joints, lithological fabric and contacts prevents us from interpreting most of the lineaments atthis time. However, some of the prominent lineament trends probably mark the trace of previously unmapped active faults that accommodate the recent uplift of the NPHM. The origins of these lineaments must be established through structural geological field work. The Nanga Parbat-Haramosh Massif (NPHM) of northern Pakistan is a prominent salient of allochthonous Indian continental crust that is exposed within the Kohistan-Ladakh magmatic arc (Fig. 1). Earth's sixth tallest mountain, Nanga Parbat (8126 m), has the greatest local relief and one of the most rapid rates of sus-tained uplift yet observed in continental crust, at between 5 and 10 mm per year (Zeitler et al. 1982a, 1989; Zeitler 1985; Treloar et al. 1989). The northerly trend of the NPHM is nearly perpendicular to the active thrust faults of the Himalayan foreland, and crosses the course of the Indus River. Uplift of the NPHM may have resulted in the ponding of the Indus River a