Petrological and Re-Os isotopic constraints on the origin and tectonic setting of the Cuobuzha peridotite, Yarlung Zangbo suture zone, southwest Tibet, China

Abstract

The upper mantle section of the Cuobuzha ophiolite in the northern subbelt of the Yarlung Zangbo suture zone in southwest Tibet comprises mainly clinopyroxene (cpx)-rich and depleted harzburgites. Spinels in the cpx-harzburgites show lower Cr# values (12.6–15.1) than the spinels in the harzburgites (26.1–34.5), and the cpx-harzburgites display higher heavy rare earth element concentrations than the depleted harzburgites. The harzburgites have subchondritic Os isotopic compositions (0.11624–0.11699), whereas the cpx-harzburgites have suprachondritic 187 Os/ 188 Os ratios (0.12831–0.13125) with higher Re concentrations (0.380–0.575 ppb). Although these geochemical and isotopic signatures suggest that both peridotite types in the ophiolite represent mid-oceanic ridge–type upper mantle units, their melt evolution trends reflect different mantle processes. The cpx-harzburgites formed from low-degree partial melting of a primitive mantle source, and they were subsequently modified by melt-rock interactions in a mid-oceanic ridge environment. The depleted harzburgites, however, were produced by remelting of the cpx-harzburgites, which later interacted with mid-oceanic ridge basalt– or island-arc tholeiite–like melts, possibly in a trench–distal backarc spreading center. Our new isotopic and geochemical data from the Cuobuzha peridotites confirm that the Neo-Tethyan upper mantle had highly heterogeneous Os isotopic compositions as a result of multiple melt production and melt extraction events during its seafloor spreading evolution.