Author Posting. © The Author, 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Oxford University Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Petrology 47 (2006): 1051-1093, doi:10.1093/petrology/egl002.

A Detailed Geochemical Study of Island Arc Crust: The Talkeetna Arc Section, South-central Alaska

The Himalayan range exposes a spectacular assemblage of metamorphic rocks from the mid- and deep crust that have fostered numerous models of how the crust responds to continental collisions. Recent petrogenetically based petrologic and geochronologic studies elucidate processes with unprecedented resolution and critically test models that range from continuum processes to one-time events. The pronounced metamorphic inversion across the Main Central Thrust reflects continuum thrusting between ca. 15 and 20 Ma, whereas exposure of ultrahigh-pressure rocks in northwestern massifs and syntaxis granulites reflects singular early (≥45 Ma) and late (≤10 Ma) exhumation events. Multiple mechanisms including wedge collapse and flow of melt-weakened midcrust are debated to explain pressure-temperature trajectories, patterns of thinning, and thermal overprinting. A geochronologic revolution is under way in which spatially resolved compositions and ages of accessory minerals are combined in a petrogenetically valid co...

Himalayan Metamorphism and Its Tectonic Implications

http://drs.nio.org/drs/bitstream/handle/2264/4802/Gondwana_Res_28_451a.pdf;sequence=1

A tectonic model reconciling evidence for the collisions between India, Eurasia and intra-oceanic arcs of the central-eastern Tethys

Sedimentologic and provenance analyses for the Qaidam Basin in the northern Tibetan Plateau help to elucidate the stratigraphic signatures of initial deformation and exhumation in basin-bounding ranges. The basin recorded sedimentary transitions in response to uplift and unroofing of several distinctive source regions. Along the NE basin margin, a detrital record of exhumation and basin isolation is preserved in the 6200-m-thick Cenozoic succession at the Dahonggou anticline. An up-section shift from axial fluvial and marginal lacustrine deposition to transverse fluvial sedimentation suggests progradation and increasingly proximal sediment sources, reflecting activation and advance of crustal deformation. Provenance results from sandstone petrology, U-Pb geochronology, and heavy mineral analyses indicate initial late Paleocene–early Eocene derivation from igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary sources, consistent with Permian–Triassic arc rocks dominating the southern (Kunlun Shan) or southwestern (Qimen Tagh) basin margins. Up-section variations in sediment composition and detrital zircon U-Pb age distributions are attributed to Eocene–Oligocene derivation from lower Paleozoic and Mesozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks of the central to northern Qilian Shan–Nan Shan. Disappearance of igneous sources and persistence of metamorphic sources are consistent with derivation from the southern Qilian Shan–Nan Shan during early–middle Miocene shortening along the frontal Nan Shan–North Qaidam thrust belt. These results are supported by paleocurrent analyses revealing an Eocene shift from roughly E-directed (axial) to SW-directed (transverse) dispersal of sediment. Variations in lithofacies, composition, U-Pb ages, and paleoflow are consistent with late Paleocene–early Eocene exhumation in the Kunlun Shan followed by middle Eocene–middle Miocene exhumation in the Qilian Shan–Nan Shan. The up-section disappearance and reappearance of diagnostic U-Pb age populations can be associated with progressive unroofing of multiple thrust sheets, successive input of sedimentary and magmatic sources, and southward encroachment of Qilian Shan–Nan Shan shortening into the Qaidam Basin. The sedimentary record presented here indicates that during the Paleogene, the unified Qaidam-Tarim Basin was partitioned and uplifted as it was incorporated into the growing Tibetan Plateau. Comparison with basins on and surrounding the Tibetan Plateau suggests that basement strength and lateral homogeneity, and formation of syndepositional structural dams are among the primary controls on formation of giant sedimentary basins.

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Growth of the Qaidam Basin during Cenozoic exhumation in the northern Tibetan Plateau: Inferences from depositional patterns and multiproxy detrital provenance signatures

Age and geochemistry of western Hoh-Xil-Songpan-Ganzi granitoids, northern Tibet: Implications for the Mesozoic closure of the Paleo-Tethys ocean

A garnet-bearing tonalitic porphyry from the Achiq Kol area, northeast Tibetan Plateau has been dated by SHRIMP U-Pb zircon techniques and gives a Late Triassic age of 213 ± 3 Ma. The porphyry contains phenocrysts of Ca-rich, Mn-poor garnet (CaO > 5 wt%; MnO  17 wt%) contents, and is metaluminous to slightly peraluminous (ACNK = 0.89–1.05). The rock samples are enriched in LILE and LREE but depleted in Nb and Ti, showing typical features of subduction-related magmas. The relatively high Sr/Y (~38) ratios and low HREE (Yb < 0.8 ppm) contents suggest that garnet is a residual phase, while suppressed crystallization of plagioclase and lack of negative Eu anomalies indicate a high water fugacity in the magma. Nd–Sr isotope compositions of the rock (eNdT = −1.38 to −2.33; 87Sr/86Sri = 0.7065–0.7067) suggest that both mantle- and crust-derived materials were involved in the petrogenesis, which is consistent with the reverse compositional zoning of plagioclase, interpreted to indicate magma mixing. Both garnet phenocrysts and their ilmenite inclusions contain low MgO contents which, in combination with the oxygen isotope composition of garnet separates (+6.23‰), suggests that these minerals formed in a lower crust-derived felsic melt probably in the MASH zone. Although the rock samples are similar to adakitic rocks in many aspects, their moderate Sr contents (<260 ppm) and La/Yb ratios (mostly 16–21) are significantly lower than those of adakitic rocks. Because of high partition coefficients for Sr and LREE, fractionation of apatite at an early stage in the evolution of the magma may have effectively decreased both Sr and LREE in the residual melt. It is suggested that extensive crystallization of apatite as an early phase may prevent some arc magmas from evolving into adakitic rocks even under high water fugacity.

Garnet-bearing tonalitic porphyry from East Kunlun, Northeast Tibetan Plateau: implications for adakite and magmas from the MASH Zone

Zircon grains separated from 2 granulites from the eastern Himalaya were investigated by Raman spectroscopy, cathodoluminescence imaging, and secondary ion mass spectrometry. These grains have a thin homogeneous rim and an oscillatory inner zone domain with or without a relict inherited core. Garnet, kyanite, and rutile inclusions were identified within only the rim domain of zircon grains, indicating that the rim had formed during peak granulite-facies metamorphism. U–Pb zircon data record three distinct age populations: 1,805 Ma (for the inherited core), ca. 500 Ma (oscillatory inner zone), as well as 24–25 Ma and ca. 18 Ma (for the metamorphic rim). These new precision ages suggest that the peak metamorphic age for the HP granulite is at ca. 24–25 Ma, and subsequent amphibolite-facies retrograde metamorphism occurred at ca. 18 Ma.

Xiaohan Liu

Papers

Garnet-bearing tonalitic porphyry from East Kunlun, Northeast Tibetan Plateau: implications for adakite and magmas from the MASH Zone

Exact timing of granulite metamorphism in the Namche-Barwa, eastern Himalayan syntaxis: new constrains from SIMS U–Pb zircon age