New⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar thermochronological results from the Ladakh region in the India-Asia collision zone provide a tectono-thermal evolutionary scenario. The characteristic granodiorite of the Ladakh batholith near Leh yielded a plateau age of 46.3 ± 0.6 Ma (2σ). Biotite from the same rock yielded a plateau age of 44.6 ± 0.3 Ma (2σ). The youngest phase of the Ladakh batholith, the leucogranite near Himya, yielded a cooling pattern with a plateau-like age of ∼ 36 Ma. The plateau age of muscovite from the same rock is 29.8 ±0.2 Ma (2σ). These ages indicate post-collision tectono-thermal activity, which may have been responsible for partial melting within the Ladakh batholith. Two basalt samples from Sumdo Nala have also recorded the post-collision tectono-thermal event, which lasted at least for 8 MY in the suture zone since the collision, whereas in the western part of the Indus Suture, pillow lava of Chiktan showed no effect of this event and yielded an age of emplacement of 128.2 ±2.6 Ma (2σ). The available data indicate that post-collision deformation led to the crustal thickening causing an increase in temperature, which may have caused partial melting at the base of the thickened crust. The high thermal regime propagated away from the suture with time.

Pudukkottai region in the northeastern part of the Madurai Block exposes the garnetiferous pink granite that intruded the biotite gneiss. Charnockite patches are associated with both the rock types. Rb–Sr biotite and Sm–Nd whole-rock isochron ages indicate a regional uplift and cooling at ∼550 Ma. The initialNd isotope ratios (ε^t_{Nd} = −20 to −22) and Nd depleted-mantle model ages (T_{DM} = 2.25 to 2.79 Ga) indicate a common crustal source for the pink-granite and associated charnockite, while the biotite gneiss and the charnockite within it represent an older crustal source (ε^t_{Nd} = −29 and T_{DM} =>3.2 Ga). TheRb–Sr whole-rock data and initial Sr–Nd isotope ratios also help demonstrate the partial but systematic equilibration of Sr isotope and Rb/Sr ratios during metamorphic mineral-reactions resulting in an ‘apparent whole-rock isochron’. The available geochronological results from the Madurai Block indicate four major periods of magmatism and metamorphism: Neoarchaean–Paleoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic, mid-Neoproterozoic and late-Neoproterozoic. We suggest that the high-grade and ultrahigh-temperature metamorphism was preceded by magmatism which ‘prepared’ the residual crust to sustain the high P–T conditions. There also appears to be cyclicity in the tectono-magmatic events and an evolutionary model for the Madurai Block should account for the cyclicity in the preserved records.