Structures, uplift, and magmatism of the Western Myanmar Arc: Constraints to mid-Cretaceous-Paleogene tectonic evolution of the western Myanmar continental margin

Abstract

Knowledge of Trans-Himalayan tectono-magmatic evolution is critical to understanding the complex pre-collisional history of southern Eurasia active continental margin. It has been proposed that magmatic rocks of the Trans-Himalayan batholith, extending from southern Tibet to Southeast Asia, are now exposed as the Western Myanmar Arc and Central Granite Belt in Myanmar, yet origin, emplacement, and relationships of the two juxtaposed belts remain poorly constrained. In this study, 2D seismic and drilling data for the Western Myanmar Arc, zircon U-Pb age and Hf isotope and whole-rock geochemical data for magmatic rocks from the arc have been applied. Our seismic profiles, borehole stratigraphic sequences and zircon U-Pb data show that a typical arc-basin system was well developed along the western Myanmar continental margin. The magmatic arc has experienced at least three igneous events in the mid-Cretaceous (110–90Ma), latest Cretaceous-Early Paleocene (69–64.5Ma) and Eocene (53–38Ma), as well as three associated uplift processes in the Late Cretaceous, Eocene and Late Oligocene. Whole-rock geochemical characteristics and zircons showing variable but predominately positive εHf(t) values, suggest a significant juvenile mantle source involving a proportion of ancient subducted sediments and juvenile crustal materials for these typical arc-related magmatic rocks. The identification of mid-Cretaceous to Paleogene magmatic rocks having positive εHf(t) values from the Western Myanmar Arc: 1) indicates that the magmatism can be correlated with the Gangdese arc within the Lhasa terrane of the southern Tibetan Plateau; 2) provides evidence for the proximal-derived model that Paleogene sediments in the Central Myanmar Basin were from the Western Myanmar Arc, but were not delivered by the paleo-Yarlung Tsangpo-Irrawaddy river system from the Gangdese arc; and 3) enables a model of eastward subduction of the Neo-Tethyan/Indian oceanic crust to reflect onset of the magmatism at the mid-Cretaceous and a long-existed back-arc extension in western Myanmar.