iS DIEXER : GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF CHITICHUN 



In the vicinity of the Niti Pass and in the district of Rimkin 

 Paiar, the folds and thrust-faults (Painkhanda fault) strike almost 

 directly north-west to south-east. In the frontier part Of Painkhanda, 

 JobaY and Hundes they approach more nearly to a north to south direc- 

 tion. This meridional direction is most clearly indicated in the strike 

 of the narrow synclinal of Spiti shales from Laptal to the Kiangur 

 Pass with its continuation into the permo-triassic synclinal of the 

 Utadhura, in the parallel anticlinal of the Lahur, with the adjoining 

 synclinal of Kungribingri, and in the broad anticlinal of the Chanam- 

 baniali range. In the Dharma ranges, in Eastern Johar and Byans, 

 the folds of the Himalayan system have again a north-west to south- 

 east strike, as in Painkhanda. 



The strike of the chain of crags, to which Chitichun No. I belongs, 

 is quite independent of the direction of the Himalayan folds. This 

 chain runs obliquely across the fold of upper-triassic limestones, 

 which gradually rises from out of the Chitichun synclinal, in the peak 

 Chitichun No. II, 19,550 feet, and transversely across the narrow 

 synclinal of Dharma, which is enclosed between the anticlinal folds 

 of Chitichun No. II and Chanambaniali. 



The independence of this Tibetan chain of crags from the neigh- 

 bouring folds of the Himalayan system is one of the chief characters 

 by which these crags differ from the Carpathian Klippen of the 

 Piennine type. In the Piennine chain the strike of every single 

 row of Klippen almost invariably follows the direction of the zone of 

 folds, of which this chain forms a part. A deviation from the normal 

 direction of the folds is a great exception. The only instance on a 

 larger scale, which has been noticed by Uhlig 1 are the Klippen of 

 Falstin, which for a distance of 2 kilometres strike transversely 

 across the direction of the entire chain. But this instance scarcely 

 allows any comparison with the structural independence of the 



1 V. Uhlig — Ergebnisse Geologischer Aufnahmen in den vvestgalizischen Karpathen, II. 

 Theil, Der Pienninische Klippenzug, Jahrb. K. k. Geol. ReichsAnst. Wien. XL. 1890, 

 P. 797. 



( 18 ) 



