Late Cretaceous magmatism in Mamba area, central Lhasa subterrane: Products of back-arc extension of Neo-Tethyan Ocean?

Abstract

Cretaceous magmatism in southern Lhasa subterrane, Tibetan plateau has been investigated for many years and a series of models have been proposed to illustrate their petrogenesis and geodynamic implications. But rare work has been done on the Cretaceous magmatism in central Lhasa subterrane. Here we report the petrology, zircon in situ U–Pb geochronology, Hf isotopes, trace element, and whole-rock elements and Sr–Nd isotopic geochemical data of the host granodiorites, and gabbroic and dioritic enclaves in Mamba area, central Lhasa subterrane. Zircon U–Pb dating for a Mamba host granodiorite yields a crystallization age of ~84Ma, with in situ Hf isotopic analyses for 18 spots of the same zircons of εHf (t) ranging from −7.5 to −0.3. A dioritic enclave (85.2Ma) is coeval with the host granodiorite and shows similar zircon Hf isotopic compositions (εHf (t)=−4.0 to +0.2). Mamba granodiorites (SiO2=66.6–67.5wt.%) and dioritic enclaves (SiO2=53.9–57.6wt.%) are high-K calc-alkaline, and a gabbroic enclave is shoshonitic (K2O=2.81%). All these samples are metaluminous, and enriched in large ion lithophile elements (LILEs, such as Rb, Ba, K, U, Th) and depleted in high field strength elements (HFSEs, e.g., Nb, Ta, Ti, and Zr). The host granodiorites are enriched in light rare earth elements (REEs), depleted in heavy REEs with weakly negative Eu anomalies (δEu=0.86–0.88), with high Al2O3 (15.0–15.7wt.%), high Sr/Y ratio (58.1–68.3) and Sr (680–755ppm), and low Y (10.8–13.0ppm) abundance, suggesting adakitic affinities. Mamba adakitic granodiorites, gabbroic and dioritic enclaves exhibit homogeneous Sr isotopes ((87Sr/86Sr)i=0.7066–0.7067, 0.7073, and 0.7067, respectively) and Nd isotopes (εNd(t)=−5.7 to −4.4, −4.0, and −3.6, respectively). These geochemical features allowed us to conclude that the adakitic host granodiorites and mafic (gabbroic–dioritic) enclaves were derived from magma mixing between ancient thickened lower crust and enriched fluid-metasomatized mantle. The distance between Mamba and the suture zone was more than 200km when the intrusives emplaced at ~85Ma, which implies that these rocks cannot be resulted from the mid-ocean ridge subduction. Combining of the intra-plate environment indicated by the gabbroic enclave of this study, the presence of the coeval bimodal igneous rocks in the similar latitude in central Lhasa subterrane, and other records in late Cretaceous sedimentary basin, the Mamba ~85Ma magmatism were attributed to the back-arc extension of Neo-Tethyan Ocean.