Reconstructing in space and time the closure of the middle and western segments of the Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan Ocean in the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

When and how the Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan Ocean closed is a highly controversial subject. In this paper, we present a detailed study and review of the Cretaceous ophiolites, ocean islands, and flysch deposits in the middle and western segments of the Bangong–Nujiang suture zone (BNSZ), and the Cretaceous volcanic rocks, late Mesozoic sediments, and unconformities within the BNSZ and surrounding areas. Our aim was to reconstruct the spatial–temporal patterns of the closing of the middle and western segments of the Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan Ocean. Our conclusion is that the closure of the ocean started during the Late Jurassic and was mainly complete by the end of the Early Cretaceous. The closure of the ocean involved both “longitudinal diachronous closure” from north to south and “transverse diachronous closure” from east to west. The spatial–temporal patterns of the closure process can be summarized as follows: the development of the Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan oceanic lithosphere and its subduction started before the Late Jurassic; after the Late Jurassic, the ocean began to close because of the compressional regime surrounding the BNSZ; along the northern margin of the Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan Ocean, collisions involving the arcs, back-arc basins, and marginal basins of a multi-arc basin system first took place during the Late Jurassic–early Early Cretaceous, resulting in regional uplift and the regional unconformity along the northern margin of the ocean and in the Southern Qiangtang Terrane on the northern side of the ocean. However, the closure of the Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan Ocean cannot be attributed to these arc–arc and arc–continent collisions, because subduction and the development of the Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan oceanic lithosphere continued until the late Early Cretaceous. The gradual closure of the middle and western segments of Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan Ocean was diachronous from east to west, starting in the east in the middle Early Cretaceous, and being mainly complete by the end of the Early Cretaceous. The BNSZ and its surrounding areas underwent orogenic uplift during the Late Cretaceous.