Early Paleozoic back-arc basin in the East Kunlun Orogen, northern Tibetan Plateau: Insight from the Wutumeiren ophiolitic mélange

Abstract

The Early Paleozoic tectonic architecture of East Kunlun Orogen in the northern Tibetan Plateau is crucial to deciphering the tectonic evolution of the Proto-Tethys ocean. The Wutumeiren ophiolitic mélange located in the Qimantagh-Xiangride suture between the North Qimantagh and Central Kunlun belts represents essential records of the Proto-Tethyan tectonic domain. It comprises serpentinite, dolerite, basalt and black chert with minor siltstone. The serpentinites possess high MgO, low SiO2 and ΣREE contents, and are characterized by slight depletion of mid-REE, showing ophiolitic ultramafic affinities. Both dolerites and basalts exhibit tholeiitic compositions with high Mg# numbers, low (Na2O + K2O)/SiO2 ratios and ΣREE contents. In comparison, the dolerites show flat patterns of REE, while the basalts display slight enrichment of LREE. All these features suggest they were generated from an E-MORB-type mantle source by different degrees of partial melting. The cherts exhibit distinctive high SiO2 and low ΣREE contents, and show depletion of LREE with negative Ce anomalies and high Y/Ho rations, indicating they are typical abyssal cherts. Together with the comparable basements on both sides of the suture, a back-arc basin setting is suggested for these ophiolitic components. The SHRIMP zircon U–Pb age of 416 ± 34 Ma for the basalt, and the youngest age of 490.6 ± 6.6 Ma for the black siltstones interbedded with cherts signal the back-arc basin from ca. 490–416 Ma. We thus infer a west-Pacific-type active continental margin in the East Kunlun Orogen associated with the northward subduction of the Proto-Tethys oceanic crust in the Early Paleozoic.