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Abstract Between 81°30ʹE and 83°E, the Himalayan range's “perfect” arcuate shape is interrupted by an embayment. We hypothesize that thrust geometry and duplexing along the megathrust at midlower‐crustal depths play a leading role in growth of the embayment as well the southern margin of the Tibetan plateau. To test this hypothesis, we conducted thermokinematic modeling of published thermochronologic data from the topographic and structural embayment in the western Nepal Himalaya to investigate the three‐dimensional geometry and kinematics of the megathrust at midlower‐crustal depths. Models that can best reproduce observed cooling ages suggest that the megathrust in the western Nepal Himalaya is best described as two ramps connected by a long flat that extends further north than in segments to the east and west. These models suggest that the high‐slope zone along the embayment lies above the foreland limb of an antiformal crustal accretion zone on the megathrust with lateral and oblique ramps at midlower‐crustal depths. The lateral and oblique ramps may have initiated by ca. 10 Ma. This process may have controlled along‐strike variation in Himalayan‐plateau growth and therefore development of the topographic embayment. Finally, we analyze geological and morphologic features and propose an evolution model in which landscape and drainage systems across the central‐western Himalaya evolve in response to crustal accretion at depth and the three‐dimensional geometry of the megathrust. Our work highlights the importance of crustal accretion at different depths in orogenic‐wedge growth and that the midlower crustal accretion determines the location of plateau edge. 

In this study, we use published geologic maps and cross-sections to construct a three-dimensional geologic model of major shear zones that make up the Himalayan orogenic wedge. The model incorporates microseismicity, megathrust coupling, and various derivatives of the topography to address several questions regarding observed crustal strain patterns and how they are expressed in the landscape. These questions include: (1) How does vertical thickening vary along strike of the orogen? (2) What is the role of oblique convergence in contributing to along-strike thickness variations and the style of deformation? (3) How do variations in the coupling along the megathrust affect the overlying structural style? (4) Do lateral ramps exist along the megathrust? (5) What structural styles underlie and are possibly responsible for the generation of high-elevation, low-relief landscapes? Our model shows that the orogenic core of the western and central Himalaya displays significant along-strike variation in its thickness, from ∼25−26 km in the western Himalaya to ∼34−42 km in the central Himalaya. The thickness of the orogenic core changes abruptly across the western bounding shear zone of the Gurla Mandhata metamorphic core complex, demonstrating a change in the style of strain there. Pressure-temperature-time results indicate that the thickness of the orogenic core at 37 Ma is 17 km. Assuming this is constant along strike from 81°E to 85°E indicates that, the western and central Nepal Himalaya have been thickened by 0.5 and 1−1.5 times, respectively. West of Gurla Mandhata the orogenic core is significantly thinner and underlies a large 11,000 km2 Neogene basin (Zhada). A broad, thick orogenic core associated with thrust duplexing is collocated with an 8500 km2 high-elevation, low-relief surface in the Mugu-Dolpa region of west Nepal. We propose that these results can be explained by oblique convergence along a megathrust with an along-strike and down-dip heterogeneous coupling pattern influenced by frontal and oblique ramps along the megathrust.