Eocene–Miocene tectonic reworking of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau: Geochronological and geochemical records from granitoids along the Ailao Shan–Red River Shear Zone

Abstract

The convergence of the Indian Plate and Eurasia shaped the Earth’s broadest and highest-elevation collisional system and topographic growth, which is not simply illustrated by ongoing contractional deformation. The Cenozoic magmatism along the Ailao Shan-Red River Shear Zone (ARSZ), linking surface geology with deep lithospheric processes, provides additional information regarding the age and progressive deformation of the India-Asia collision. In this study, we present new zircon U–Pb geochronological, elemental geochemical and zircon Hf isotopic data for the Eocene–Miocene granitoid to resolve the southeastern Tibetan Plateau deformation history. The Jinping granitoids in the southern ARSZ were dated at 37.5–33.6 Ma. They show similar geochemical characteristics (whole-rock major oxides, trace element, Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic and zircon in-situ Hf isotopic data) with respect to coeval potassic granitoids in NW Yunnan, suggesting their origination from partial melting of thickened lower crust with additional contribution from enriched mantle-derived magmas. Leucogranite samples within the ARSZ yielded distinctive zircon U–Pb ages of 28.3 Ma and 18.5 Ma. Geochemical features suggest that they were derived from a heterogeneous crustal source consisting of metasediments and metabasites. Our results, along with those previous studies, suggest that the widespread potassic magmatism in the central and southeastern Tibetan Plateau is related to lithospheric mantle upwelling, which resulted in the partial melting of the thickened lower crust and a short-lived crustal extension during a period of decreased convergence rate. Subsequently, the orogenic-scale sinistral strike-slip movement provided shearing heat for generating leucogranites within the shear zones during the late Oligocene–Miocene. The plateau-wide shift in stress reorganization and tectonic reworking led to the lateral extrusion of the SE Tibetan Plateau and its attainment of modern high elevation.