The Tibetan–Tethys zone of the Zanskar Himalaya shows a complete Mesozoic shelf carbonate sequence overlying metamorphic basement of the Central crystalline complex and Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks. Continental rifting in the Permian produced the alkaline and basaltic Panjal volcanic rocks and by Triassic time a small ocean basin was developed in the Indus-Tsangpo zone. Stable sedimentation continued until the Middle-Late Cretaceous when a thick sequence of tholeiitic to andesitic island arc lavas (Dras arc) were erupted in the basin above a N-dipping subduction zone. The Spontang ophiolite was emplaced southwards onto the Zanskar shelf edge during latest Cretaceous or earliest Tertiary times.

Following emplacement of the Spontang ophiolite, deep-sea sedimentation ended abruptly with initial collision between the Indian plate and the Dras island arc. Emplacement of the massive Ladakh (Trans-Himalayan) batholith along the southern margin of Tibet in late Cretaceous-Eocene time occurred by crustal melting as a result of northward subduction of Mesozoic oceanic crust along the Indus subduction zone. Southward-directed thrusting in both Zanskar and Indus zones accompanied ocean closure during the late Cretaceous–Eocene. Late Tertiary compression caused intense folding, overturning and a phase of northward-directed thrusting along the Indus suture zone and the northern margin of the Tibetan–Tethys zone, resulting in a large amount of crustal shortening.