Early Ordovician strongly peraluminous granite in the middle section of the Yarlung Zangbo junction zone and its geological significance

Abstract

LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb isotopic dating and rock geochemical analysis were done of the Xarru granite in the middle section of the Yarlung Zangbo junction zone. Zircon 206Pb/238U weighted mean ages of 474.9±2.3 and 478.3±1.7 Ma have been obtained for two gneiss granite samples respectively, which represent the formation age of the granite. This is the first discovery of the Early Ordovician magmatism in the Yarlung Zangbo junction zone. The rocks are high-K calcic-alkalic granite, contain tourmaline but not hornblende, with aluminum saturation index (ASI) of A/CNK>1.1 (1.10–1.20), and are enriched in Rb, Th and U and relatively depleted in Ba, Nb, Sr, Zr, Ti and Eu. They are strongly peraluminous S-type granite, resulting from partial melting of argillaceous components in the crust in a syn-collisional setting. According to previous studies as well as the analysis in this paper, the formation of the Xarru granite is probably related to the Andean-type orogeny in the process of subduction of the Proto-Tethys Ocean towards the Gondwanaland, and it is a product of partial melting of the thickened upper crust as a result of collision between blocks or micro-blocks in the northern margin of the Gondwana supercontinent in the process of oceanic subduction. The Xarru granite is identified as the Early Ordovician granite, indicating that the wall rocks had probably formed in the Cambrian or Precambrian. A crustal basement may exist in the Xarru region.