Early Carboniferous Back‐Arc Rifting‐Related Magmatism in Southern Tibet: Implications for the History of the Lhasa Terrane Separation From Gondwana

Tectonics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuhui Wang ◽  
Xinghai Lang ◽  
Juxing Tang ◽  
Yulin Deng ◽  
Qing He ◽  
...  
Lithosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Shao-Hua Zhang ◽  
Wei-Qiang Ji ◽  
Hao Zhang ◽  
Guo-Hui Chen ◽  
Jian-Gang Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract The Xigaze forearc sediments revealed the part of the tectonomagmatic history of the Gangdese arc that the bedrocks did not record. However, the sediments’ development is restricted to the region around and west of Xigaze City. Whether the eastern segment of the arc had a corresponding forearc basin is yet to be resolved. In this study, a field-based stratigraphic study, detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology (15 samples), and Hf isotopic analyses (11 of the 15 samples) were carried out on four sections in the Milin-Zedong area, southeast Tibet. The analytical results revealed the existence of three distinct provenances. The lower sequence is characterized by fine-grained sandstone, interbedded mudstone, and some metamorphic rocks (e.g., gneiss and schist). The detrital zircon U-Pb age distribution of this sequence is analogous to those of the Carboniferous-Permian strata and metasediments of the Nyingtri group in the Lhasa terrane. The middle and upper sequences are predominantly composed of medium- to coarse-grained volcaniclastic/quartzose sandstones, which are generally interbedded with mudstone. The detrital zircon U-Pb ages and Hf isotope signatures indicate that the middle sequences are Jurassic to Early Cretaceous in age (~200–100 Ma) and show clear affinity with the Gangdese arc rocks, that is, positive εHft values. In contrast, the upper sequences are characterized by Mesozoic detrital zircons (150–100 Ma) and negative εHft values, indicative of derivation from the central Lhasa terrane. The overall compositions of the detrital zircon U-Pb ages and Hf isotopes of the middle to upper sequences resemble those of the Xigaze forearc sediments, implying that related forearc sediments may have been developed in the eastern part of the Gangdese arc. It is possible that the forearc equivalents were eroded or destroyed during the later orogenesis. Additionally, the detrital zircons from these forearc sediments indicate that this segment of the Gangdese arc experienced more active and continuous magmatism from the Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous than its bedrock records indicate.


1983 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Boucot ◽  
C. H. C. Brunton ◽  
J. N. Theron

SummaryThe Devonian brachiopod Tropidoleptus is recognized for the first time in South Africa. It is present in the lower part of the Witteberg Group at four widely separated localities. Data regarding the stratigraphical range of the genus elsewhere, combined with information on recently described fossil plants and vertebrates from underlying strata of the upper Bokkeveld Group, suggest that a Frasnian or even Givetian age is reasonable for the lower part of the Witteberg Group. The recognition of Tropidoleptus in a shallow water, near-shore, molluscan association, at the top of the South African marine Devonian sequence, is similar to its occurrence in Bolivia, and suggests a common Malvinokaffric Realm history of shallowing, prior to later Devonian or early Carboniferous non-marine sedimentation. It is noteworthy that Tropidoleptus is now known to occur in ecologically suitable environments around the Atlantic, but is absent from these same environments in Asia and Australia. Tropidoleptus is an excellent example of dispersal in geological time — first appearing in northern Europe and Nova Scotia, then elsewhere in eastern North America and North Africa, followed by South America and South Africa, while continuing in North America.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1202-1213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Carroll

The origin of tetrapods from sarcopterygian fish in the Late Devonian is one of the best known major transitions in the history of vertebrates. Unfortunately, extensive gaps in the fossil record of the Lower Carboniferous and Triassic make it very difficult to establish the nature of relationships among Paleozoic tetrapods, or their specific affinities with modern amphibians. The major lineages of Paleozoic labyrinthodonts and lepospondyls are not adequately known until after a 20–30 m.y. gap in the Early Carboniferous fossil record, by which time they were highly divergent in anatomy, ways of life, and patterns of development. An even wider temporal and morphological gap separates modern amphibians from any plausible Permo-Carboniferous ancestors. The oldest known caecilian shows numerous synapomorphies with the lepospondyl microsaur Rhynchonkos. Adult anatomy and patterns of development in frogs and salamanders support their origin from different families of dissorophoid labyrinthodonts. The ancestry of amniotes apparently lies among very early anthracosaurs.


1989 ◽  
Vol 143 ◽  
pp. 21-45
Author(s):  
L Stemmerik ◽  
E Håkansson

A lithostratigraphic scheme is erected for the Lower Carboniferous to Triassic sediments of the Wandel Sea Basin, from Lockwood Ø in the west to Holm Land in the east. The scheme is based on the subdivision into the Upper Carboniferous - Lower Permian Mallemuk Mountain Group and the Upper Permian - Triassic Trolle Land Group. In addition the Upper Carboniferous Sortebakker Formation and the Upper Permian Kap Kraka Formation are defined. Three formations and four members are included in the Mallemuk Mountain Group. Lithostratigraphic units include: Kap Jungersen Formation (new) composed of interbedded limestones, sandstones and shales with minor gypsum - early Moscovian; Foldedal Formation composed of interbedded limestones and sandstones -late Moseovian to late Gzhelian; Kim Fjelde Formation composed of well bedded Iimestones - late Gzhelian to Kungurian. The Trolle Land Group includes three formations: Midnatfjeld Formation composed of dark shales, sandstones and limestones - Late Permian; Parish Bjerg Formation composed of a basal conglomeratic sandstone overlain by shales and sandstones - ?Early Triassic (Scythian); Dunken Formation composed of dark shales and sandstones - Triassic (Scythian-Anisian). The Sortebakker Formation (new) is composed of interbedded sandstones, shales and minor coal of floodplain origin. The age is Early Carboniferous. The Kap Kraka Formation (new) includes poorly known hematitic sandstones, conglomerates and shales of Late Permian age.


Author(s):  
Jian-Wei Zi ◽  
Stephen Sheppard ◽  
Janet R. Muhling ◽  
Birger Rasmussen

An enduring problem in the assembly of Laurentia is uncertainty about the nature and timing of magmatism, deformation, and metamorphism in the Paleoproterozoic Wisconsin magmatic terranes, which have been variously interpreted as an intra-oceanic arc, foredeep or continental back-arc. Resolving these competing models is difficult due in part to a lack of a robust time-frame for magmatism in the terranes. The northeast part of the terranes in northern Wisconsin (USA) comprise mafic and felsic volcanic rocks and syn-volcanic granites thought to have been emplaced and metamorphosed during the 1890−1830 Ma Penokean orogeny. New in situ U-Pb geochronology of igneous zircon from the volcanic rocks (Beecher Formation), and from two tonalitic plutons (the Dunbar Gneiss and Newingham Tonalite) intruding the volcanic rocks, yielded crystallization ages ranging from 1847 ± 10 Ma to 1842 ± 7 Ma (95% confidence). Thus, these rocks record a magmatic episode that is synchronous with bimodal volcanism in the Wausau domain and Marshfield terrane farther south. Our results, integrated with published data into a time-space diagram, highlight two bimodal magmatic cycles, the first at 1890−1860 Ma and the second at 1845−1830 Ma, developed on extended crust of the Superior Craton. The magmatic episodes are broadly synchronous with volcanogenic massive sulfide mineralization and deposition of Lake Superior banded iron formations. Our data and interpretation are consistent with the Penokean orogeny marking west Pacific-style accretionary orogenesis involving lithospheric extension of the continental margin, punctuated by transient crustal shortening that was accommodated by folding and thrusting of the arc-back-arc system. The model explains the shared magmatic history of the Pembine-Wausau and Marshfield terranes. Our study also reveals an overprinting metamorphic event recorded by reset zircon and new monazite growth dated at 1775 ± 10 Ma suggesting that the main metamorphic event in the terranes is related to the Yavapai-interval accretion rather than the Penokean orogeny.


Author(s):  
Feng Huang ◽  
Tyrone O. Rooney ◽  
Ji-Feng Xu ◽  
Yun-Chuan Zeng

The Lhasa Terrane in southern Tibet is the leading edge of the Tibet-Himalaya Orogen and represents a fragmentary record of terminal oceanic subduction. Thus, it is an ideal region for studying magmatism and geodynamic processes that occurred during the transition from oceanic subduction to continental collision and/or oceanic slab breakoff. Here we examine a suite of early Cenozoic mafic rocks (ca. 57 Ma) within the central part of Lhasa Terrane, southern Tibet, which erupted during a transitional phase between the onset of India-Asia continental collision and Neo-Tethyan slab breakoff. These rocks display a geochemical affinity with magmas produced by fluid-fluxed melting of the mantle wedge within a subduction zone environment. The whole-rock element and Sr-Nd isotope compositions of these mafic rocks are similar to those of Cretaceous subduction-related magmatism in southern Tibet, demonstrating the sustained influence of the Neo-Tethys Ocean slab on the mantle wedge during the onset of the collision of India and Asia. The results of our geochemical forward modeling constrain the conditions of melt generation at depths of 1.3−1.5 GPa with significant fluid additions from the Neo-Tethyan slab. These results provide the first petrological and geochemical evidence that slab flux-related magmatism continued despite the commencement of continental collision. While existing studies have suggested that magmas were derived from melting of the Neo-Tethyan slab during this period, our new results suggest that additional magma generation mechanisms were active during this transitional phase.


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