Geology of the Cenozoic Indus Basin sedimentary rocks: Paleoenvironmental interpretation of sedimentation

[1] This study reassesses the stratigraphy, sedimentol-ogy, and provenance of the Indus Basin sedimentary rocks, deposited within the Indus Tsangpo Suture Zone (ITSZ) during the early phases of India‐Eurasia col-lision. Using field observations, biostratigraphy, and petrographic and isotopic analyses we create a paleode-positional reconstruction within the paleotectonic setting of the early phases of India‐Eurasia collision. We then re‐examine existing constraints to the timing of India‐ Eurasia collision previously interpreted from the earliest occurrence of mixed Indian ‐ and Eurasian‐derived detri-tus in the succession. From mid‐Cretaceous to early Paleocene times the Jurutze and Sumda Formations were deposited within an arc‐bounded marine basin between the Dras and Kohistan‐Ladakh Island arcs. The <51 M