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Journal Article•DOI•

Lhasa terrane in southern Tibet came from Australia

Di-Cheng Zhu1, Zhidan Zhao1, Yaoling Niu1, Yaoling Niu2, Yaoling Niu3, Yildirim Dilek4, Xuanxue Mo1 •
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)1, Durham University2, Lanzhou University3, Miami University4
01 Aug 2011-Geology (Geological Society of America)-Vol. 39, Iss: 8, pp 727-730
TL;DR: In this paper, detrital zircons from the Lhasa terrane (Tibet) were found to have a distinctive age population of ca. 1170 Ma with a similar Hf (t) range to those from the western Qiangtang and Tethyan Himalaya terranes.
Abstract: The U-Pb age and Hf isotope data on detrital zircons from Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks in the Lhasa terrane (Tibet) defi ne a distinctive age population of ca. 1170 Ma with e Hf (t) values identical to the coeval detrital zircons from Western Australia, but those from the western Qiangtang and Tethyan Himalaya terranes defi ne an age population of ca. 950 Ma with a similar e Hf (t) range. The ca. 1170 Ma detrital zircons in the Lhasa terrane were most likely derived from the Albany-Fraser belt in southwest Australia, whereas the ca. 950 Ma detrital zircons from both the western Qiangtang and Tethyan Himalaya terranes might have been sourced from the High Himalaya to the south. Such detrital zircon connections enable us to propose that the Lhasa terrane is exotic to the Tibetan Plateau system, and should no longer be considered as part of the Qiangtang‐Greater India‐Tethyan Himalaya continental margin system in the Paleozoic reconstruction of the Indian plate, as current models show; rather, it should be placed at the northwestern margin of Australia. These results provide new constraints on the paleogeographic reconstruction and tectonic evolution of southern Tibet, and indicate that the Lhasa terrane evolved as part of the late Precambrian‐early Paleozoic evolution as part of Australia in a different paleogeographical setting than that of the Qiangtang−Greater India−Tethyan Himalaya system.

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Citations
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Journal Article•DOI•
Gondwana dispersion and Asian accretion: Tectonic and palaeogeographic evolution of eastern Tethys

[...]

Ian Metcalfe1, Ian Metcalfe2•
Macquarie University1, University of New England (Australia)2
08 Apr 2013-Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
TL;DR: The Phanerozoic evolution of the region is the result of more than 400 million years of continental dispersion from Gondwana and plate tectonic convergence, collision and accretion as discussed by the authors.

1,381 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
The Lhasa Terrane: Record of a microcontinent and its histories of drift and growth

[...]

Di-Cheng Zhu1, Zhidan Zhao1, Yaoling Niu2, Yaoling Niu3, Yaoling Niu1, Xuanxue Mo1, Sun-Lin Chung4, Zengqian Hou, Li-Quan Wang, Fu-Yuan Wu5 •
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)1, Lanzhou University2, Durham University3, National Taiwan University4, Chinese Academy of Sciences5
03 Jan 2011-Earth and Planetary Science Letters
TL;DR: Using zircon in situ U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotope and bulk-rock geochemical data of Mesozoic-Early Tertiary magmatic rocks sampled along four north-south traverses across the Lhasa Terrane, Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper showed that the Lhao Terrane has ancient basement rocks of Proterozoic and Archean ages (up to 2870 Ma) in its centre with younger and juvenile crust (Phanerozoic) accreted towards its both northern and southern edges.

986 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
The origin and pre-Cenozoic evolution of the Tibetan Plateau

[...]

Di-Cheng Zhu1, Zhidan Zhao1, Yaoling Niu2, Yaoling Niu3, Yildirim Dilek1, Yildirim Dilek4, Zengqian Hou, Xuanxue Mo1 •
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)1, Lanzhou University2, Durham University3, Miami University4
01 May 2013-Gondwana Research
TL;DR: This paper reviewed and reevaluated these hypotheses in light of new data from Tibet including the distribution of major tectonic boundaries and suture zones, basement rocks and their sedimentary covers, magmatic suites, and detrital zircon constraints from Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks.

964 citations

The Lhasa Terrane: Record of a microcontinent and its histories of drift and growth

[...]

Di-Cheng Zhu1, Zhidan Zhao1, Yaoling Niu2, Yaoling Niu1, Yaoling Niu3, Xuanxue Mo1, Sun-Lin Chung4, Zengqian Hou, Li-Quan Wang, Fu-Yuan Wu5 •
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)1, Lanzhou University2, Durham University3, National Taiwan University4, Chinese Academy of Sciences5
01 Dec 2010
TL;DR: Using zircon in situ U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopic and bulk-rock geochemical data of Mesozoic-Early Tertiary magmatic rocks sampled along four north-south traverses across the Lhasa Terrane, Wang et al. as discussed by the authors showed that the Lhaasa terrane has ancient basement rocks of Proterozoic and Archean ages (up to 2870 Ma) in its centre with younger and juvenile crust (Phanerozoic) accreted towards its both northern and southern edges.
Abstract: article i nfo The Lhasa Terrane in southern Tibet has long been accepted as the last geological block accreted to Eurasia before its collision with the northward drifting Indian continent in the Cenozoic, but its lithospheric architecture, drift and growth histories and the nature of its northern suture with Eurasia via the Qiangtang Terrane remain enigmatic. Using zircon in situ U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopic and bulk-rock geochemical data of Mesozoic-Early Tertiary magmatic rocks sampled along four north-south traverses across the Lhasa Terrane, we show that the Lhasa Terrane has ancient basement rocks of Proterozoic and Archean ages (up to 2870 Ma) in its centre with younger and juvenile crust (Phanerozoic) accreted towards its both northern and southern edges. This finding proves that the central Lhasa subterrane was once a microcontinent. This continent has survived from its long journey across the Paleo-Tethyan Ocean basins and has grown at the edges through magmatism resulting from oceanic lithosphere subduction towards beneath it during its journey and subsequent collisions with the Qiangtang Terrane to the north and with the Indian continent to the south. Zircon Hf isotope data indicate significant mantle source contributions to the generation of these granitoid rocks (e.g., ~50-90%, 0-70%, and 30-100% to the Mesozoic magmatism in the southern, central, and northern Lhasa subterranes, respectively). We suggest that much of the Mesozoic magmatism in the Lhasa Terrane may be associated with the southward Bangong-Nujiang Tethyan seafloor subduction beneath the Lhasa Terrane, which likely began in the Middle Permian (or earlier) and ceased in the late Early Cretaceous, and that the significant changes of zircon eHf(t) at ~113 and ~52 Ma record tectonomagmatic activities as a result of slab break-off and related mantle melting events following the Qiangtang-Lhasa amalgamation and India-Lhasa amalgamation, respectively. These results manifest the efficacy of zircons as a chronometer (U-Pb dating) and a geochemical tracer (Hf isotopes) in understanding the origin and histories of lithospheric plates and in revealing the tectonic evolution of old orogenies in the context of plate tectonics.

730 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Tectonic evolution of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

[...]

Guitang Pan1, Li-Quan Wang, Rongshe Li, Sihua Yuan, Wenhua Ji, Fuguang Yin, Wanping Zhang, Bao-Di Wang •
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)1
07 Jul 2012-Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
TL;DR: In this article, a new integrated model for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is proposed to account for the new ophiolite melange zones and their associated island arcs, and the entire orogen, surrounded by suture zones that mark the locations of oceanic closure, is investigated.

569 citations

References
More filters
Journal Article•DOI•
Geologic Evolution of the Himalayan-Tibetan Orogen

[...]

An Yin, T. Mark Harrison
01 May 2000-Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences
TL;DR: A review of the geologic history of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen suggests that at least 1400 km of north-south shortening has been absorbed by the orogen since the onset of the Indo-Asian collision at about 70 Ma as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A review of the geologic history of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen suggests that at least 1400 km of north-south shortening has been absorbed by the orogen since the onset of the Indo-Asian collision at about 70 Ma. Significant crustal shortening, which leads to eventual construction of the Cenozoic Tibetan plateau, began more or less synchronously in the Eocene (50–40 Ma) in the Tethyan Himalaya in the south, and in the Kunlun Shan and the Qilian Shan some 1000–1400 km in the north. The Paleozoic and Mesozoic tectonic histories in the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen exerted a strong control over the Cenozoic strain history and strain distribution. The presence of widespread Triassic flysch complex in the Songpan-Ganzi-Hoh Xil and the Qiangtang terranes can be spatially correlated with Cenozoic volcanism and thrusting in central Tibet. The marked difference in seismic properties of the crust and the upper mantle between southern and central Tibet is a manifestation of both Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonics. The form...

4,494 citations

Additional excerpts

  • ...…terrane was rifted away from Indian Gondwana before it collided with the Qiangtang terrane to the north in the Mesozoic (cf. Allègre et al., 1984; Yin and Harrison, 2000; Metcalfe, 2009), although Audley-Charles (1983, 1984) proposed that the Lhasa terrane might have rifted from northern…...

    [...]

  • ...The widely accepted current models all suggest that the western Qiangtang and Lhasa terranes are continental slivers sequentially rifted and drifted away from the same Indian Gondwana supercontinent to the south (Allègre et al., 1984; Yin and Harrison, 2000; Metcalfe, 2009)....

    [...]

  • ...…of the Tibetan Plateau have been widely accepted to have resulted from several collisional events between Gondwana-derived terranes (e.g., Qiangtang, Lhasa) or continents (e.g., India) and Eurasia since the early Paleozoic (e.g., Allègre et al., 1984; Yin and Harrison, 2000; Zhu et al., 2009)....

    [...]

Journal Article•DOI•
The Lhasa Terrane: Record of a microcontinent and its histories of drift and growth

[...]

Di-Cheng Zhu1, Zhidan Zhao1, Yaoling Niu1, Yaoling Niu2, Yaoling Niu3, Xuanxue Mo1, Sun-Lin Chung4, Zengqian Hou, Li-Quan Wang, Fu-Yuan Wu5 •
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)1, Durham University2, Lanzhou University3, National Taiwan University4, Chinese Academy of Sciences5
03 Jan 2011-Earth and Planetary Science Letters
TL;DR: Using zircon in situ U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotope and bulk-rock geochemical data of Mesozoic-Early Tertiary magmatic rocks sampled along four north-south traverses across the Lhasa Terrane, Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper showed that the Lhao Terrane has ancient basement rocks of Proterozoic and Archean ages (up to 2870 Ma) in its centre with younger and juvenile crust (Phanerozoic) accreted towards its both northern and southern edges.

986 citations

Additional excerpts

  • ...A similar age distribution is also conspicuous in inherited zircons from the Mesozoic peraluminous granites in the Lhasa terrane (Zhu et al., 2009, 2011) (Fig....

    [...]

Journal Article•DOI•
Structure and evolution of the Himalaya–Tibet orogenic belt

[...]

Claude J. Allègre1, Vincent Courtillot1, Paul Tapponnier1, A. Hirn1, Maurice Mattauer, C. Coulon, Jean-Jacques Jaeger, José Achache1, Urs Schärer1, J. Marcoux2, Jean-Pierre Burg, Jacques Girardeau1, Rolando Armijo1, C. Gariépy1, Christa Göpel1, Li Tindong, Xiao Xuchang, Chang Chenfa, Li Guangqin, Lin Baoyu, Teng Jiwen, Wang Naiwen, Chen Guoming, Han Tonglin, Wang Xibin, Den Wanming, Sheng Huaibin, Cao Yougong, Zhou Ji, Qiu Hongrong, Bao Peisheng, Wang Songchan, Wang Bixiang, Zhou Yaoxiu, Rong-Hua Xu •
University of Paris1, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne2
01 Jan 1984-Nature
TL;DR: In this article, the role of smaller blocks in the accretion of the continental mosaic is emphasized, and subduction related granitoids representing mixtures of mantle and crustal components and anatectic granitoid have been analyzed and dated.
Abstract: The 1981 French–Chinese expedition to Tibet focused on the Lhasa block, extending earlier coverage 400 km north of the Tsangpo suture. The Lhasa block stood between 10 and 15° N latitude over most of the Upper Cretaceous and Eocene and, if Gondwanian in origin, had detached from Gondwana by early Permian. Seismic profiles reveal a complex Moho topography resulting both from multiple continental thrusting and large-scale strike-slip faulting. Subduction related granitoids representing mixtures of mantle and crustal components and anatectic granitoids have been analysed and dated. This study emphasizes the role of smaller blocks in the accretion of the continental mosaic.

946 citations

Additional excerpts

  • ...The widely accepted current models all suggest that the western Qiangtang and Lhasa terranes are continental slivers sequentially rifted and drifted away from the same Indian Gondwana supercontinent to the south (Allègre et al., 1984; Yin and Harrison, 2000; Metcalfe, 2009)....

    [...]

  • ...…of the Tibetan Plateau have been widely accepted to have resulted from several collisional events between Gondwana-derived terranes (e.g., Qiangtang, Lhasa) or continents (e.g., India) and Eurasia since the early Paleozoic (e.g., Allègre et al., 1984; Yin and Harrison, 2000; Zhu et al., 2009)....

    [...]

  • ...…view is that the Lhasa terrane was rifted away from Indian Gondwana before it collided with the Qiangtang terrane to the north in the Mesozoic (cf. Allègre et al., 1984; Yin and Harrison, 2000; Metcalfe, 2009), although Audley-Charles (1983, 1984) proposed that the Lhasa terrane might have rifted…...

    [...]

The Lhasa Terrane: Record of a microcontinent and its histories of drift and growth

[...]

Di-Cheng Zhu1, Zhidan Zhao1, Yaoling Niu2, Yaoling Niu3, Yaoling Niu1, Xuanxue Mo1, Sun-Lin Chung4, Zengqian Hou, Li-Quan Wang, Fu-Yuan Wu5 •
China University of Geosciences (Beijing)1, Durham University2, Lanzhou University3, National Taiwan University4, Chinese Academy of Sciences5
01 Dec 2010
TL;DR: Using zircon in situ U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopic and bulk-rock geochemical data of Mesozoic-Early Tertiary magmatic rocks sampled along four north-south traverses across the Lhasa Terrane, Wang et al. as discussed by the authors showed that the Lhaasa terrane has ancient basement rocks of Proterozoic and Archean ages (up to 2870 Ma) in its centre with younger and juvenile crust (Phanerozoic) accreted towards its both northern and southern edges.
Abstract: article i nfo The Lhasa Terrane in southern Tibet has long been accepted as the last geological block accreted to Eurasia before its collision with the northward drifting Indian continent in the Cenozoic, but its lithospheric architecture, drift and growth histories and the nature of its northern suture with Eurasia via the Qiangtang Terrane remain enigmatic. Using zircon in situ U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopic and bulk-rock geochemical data of Mesozoic-Early Tertiary magmatic rocks sampled along four north-south traverses across the Lhasa Terrane, we show that the Lhasa Terrane has ancient basement rocks of Proterozoic and Archean ages (up to 2870 Ma) in its centre with younger and juvenile crust (Phanerozoic) accreted towards its both northern and southern edges. This finding proves that the central Lhasa subterrane was once a microcontinent. This continent has survived from its long journey across the Paleo-Tethyan Ocean basins and has grown at the edges through magmatism resulting from oceanic lithosphere subduction towards beneath it during its journey and subsequent collisions with the Qiangtang Terrane to the north and with the Indian continent to the south. Zircon Hf isotope data indicate significant mantle source contributions to the generation of these granitoid rocks (e.g., ~50-90%, 0-70%, and 30-100% to the Mesozoic magmatism in the southern, central, and northern Lhasa subterranes, respectively). We suggest that much of the Mesozoic magmatism in the Lhasa Terrane may be associated with the southward Bangong-Nujiang Tethyan seafloor subduction beneath the Lhasa Terrane, which likely began in the Middle Permian (or earlier) and ceased in the late Early Cretaceous, and that the significant changes of zircon eHf(t) at ~113 and ~52 Ma record tectonomagmatic activities as a result of slab break-off and related mantle melting events following the Qiangtang-Lhasa amalgamation and India-Lhasa amalgamation, respectively. These results manifest the efficacy of zircons as a chronometer (U-Pb dating) and a geochemical tracer (Hf isotopes) in understanding the origin and histories of lithospheric plates and in revealing the tectonic evolution of old orogenies in the context of plate tectonics.

730 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Tectonic implications of U-Pb zircon ages of the himalayan orogenic belt in nepal

[...]

Peter G. DeCelles1, George E. Gehrels1, Jay Quade1, B. LaReau1, M. Spurlin1 •
University of Arizona1
21 Apr 2000-Science
TL;DR: The data suggest that the Main Central thrust may have a large amount of pre-Tertiary displacement, that structural restorations placing Greater Himalayan rocks below Lesser Himalayan sedimentary rocks at the onset of Cenozoic orogenesis are flawed, and that some metamorphism of Greater Himalaya rocks may have occurred during early Paleozoic time.
Abstract: Metasedimentary rocks of the Greater Himalaya are traditionally viewed as Indian shield basement that has been thrust southward onto Lesser Himalayan sedimentary rocks during the Cenozoic collision of India and Eurasia. Ages determined from radioactive decay of uranium to lead in zircon grains from Nepal suggest that Greater Himalayan protoliths were shed from the northern end of the East African orogen during the late Proterozoic pan-African orogenic event. These rocks were accreted onto northern Gondwana and intruded by crustal melts during Cambrian-Ordovician time. Our data suggest that the Main Central thrust may have a large amount of pre-Tertiary displacement, that structural restorations placing Greater Himalayan rocks below Lesser Himalayan rocks at the onset of Cenozoic orogenesis are flawed, and that some metamorphism of Greater Himalayan rocks may have occurred during early Paleozoic time.

532 citations

"Lhasa terrane in southern Tibet cam..." refers background in this paper

  • ...2B and 2F) recorded in detrital zircons from both the western Qiangtang (Pullen et al., 2008; Dong et al., 2011) and Tethyan Himalaya terranes (DeCelles et al., 2000; McQuarrie et al., 2008; Myrow et al., 2010) suggests that zircons from these two terranes likely have a common provenance....

    [...]

  • ...0 200 km 80°E 32°N 28°N Lhasa GB-12 NX1-5 SL5-1 Selong Shuanghu Coqen Gerze IYZSZ 90°E N Xainza Songdo GBJD XM01 Rongma Amdo 80°E 800km Beijing 501 Nyima Gongbo gyamda 08YR10 MB07-2 Xungba CQMB Eastern Qiangtang Tethyan Himalaya High HimalayaLesser Himalaya 28°N Lhasa Terrane Western Qiangtang Spiti Valley Nyalam 32°N STDS MCT MBT BNSZ JSSZ LSSZ 367 364 Detrital zircons in the literature Detrital zircons in this study Dated magmatic rocks (Ma) Figure 1....

    [...]

  • ...These ages also correspond well to the age distributions of detrital zircons from a Neoproterozoic quartzite and Cambrian–Permian sandstones from Spiti Valley and Nyalam (DeCelles et al., 2000; Myrow et al., 2010), and from northern Bhutan (McQuarrie et al., 2008) in the Tethyan Himalaya (Fig....

    [...]

Related Papers (5)
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