Miocene initiation and acceleration of extension in the South Lunggar rift, western Tibet: Evolution of an active detachment system from structural mapping and (U‐Th)/He thermochronology

Abstract

Ongoing extension in Tibet may have begun in the middle to late Miocene, but there are few robust estimates of the rates, timing, or magnitude of Neogene deformation within the Tibetan plateau. We present a comprehensive study of the seismically active South Lunggar rift in southwestern Tibet incorporating mapping, U‐Pb geochronology and zircon (U‐Th)/He thermochronology. The South Lunggar rift is the southern continuation of the North Lunggar rift and comprises a ~50 km N‐S central horst bound by two major normal faults, the west‐dipping South Lunggar detachment and the east‐dipping Palung Co fault. The SLD dips at the rangefront ~20°W and exhumes a well‐developed mylonite zone in its footwall displaying fabrics indicative of normal‐sense shear. The range is composed of felsic orthogneiss, mafic amphibolite, and leucogranite intrusions dated at ~16 and 63 Ma. Zircon (U‐Th)/He cooling ages are Oligocene through late Pliocene, with the youngest ages observed in the footwall of the SLD. We tested ~25,000 unique thermokinematic forward models in Pecube against the structural and (U‐Th)/He data to fully bracket the allowable ranges in fault initiations, accelerations, and slip rates. We find that normal faulting in the SLR began in the middle Miocene with horizontal extension rates of ~1 mm a−1, and in the north accelerated at 8 Ma to 2.5–3.0 mm a−1 as faulting commenced on the SLD. Cumulative horizontal extension across the SLR ranges from <10 km in the south to 19–21 km in the north.