The Middle Triassic evolution of the Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan Ocean: evidence from analyses of OIB-type basalts and OIB-derived phonolites in northern Tibet

Abstract

In this paper, we present new major and trace element chemical data for the basalts and phonolites of the Nare ocean island fragment (NaOI), as well as zircon U–Pb age data and Hf isotope compositions for the NaOI phonolites in the middle segment of the Bangong–Nujiang Suture Zone, northern Tibet. Our aim is to assess the genesis of these rocks and to reconstruct the Middle Triassic evolution of the Bangong–Nujiang Tethyan Ocean (BNTO). The NaOI retains an ocean island-type double-layered structure comprising a basaltic basement and an oceanic sedimentary cover sequence (conglomerate and limestone, the latter accompanied by layers of erupted phonolite near the top of the sequence). The basalts in the NaOI are enriched in light rare earth elements and high field strength elements (Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, and Ti), and they exhibit chondrite-normalized REE patterns and primitive mantle-normalized trace element patterns similar to those of ocean island basalts. Taking into consideration their high Dy/Yb, Sm/Yb, and La/Sm ratios, we conclude that the NaOI basalts were derived from the partial melting of garnet peridotite in the mantle. The NaOI phonolites have LREE-enriched chondrite-normalized REE patterns with negative Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 0.41–0.43) and primitive mantle-normalized trace element patterns with enrichments in Nb, Ta, Zr, and Hf, and depletions in Ba, U, Sr, P, and Ti. Given the high contents of Nb (172–256 ppm), Ta (11.8–16.0 ppm), Zr (927–1117 ppm), and Hf (20.8–26.9 ppm), and the very low contents of MgO (0.11–0.25 wt%), the very low Mg# values (5–10), and the near-zero contents of Cr (1.27–7.59 ppm), Ni (0.43–7.19 ppm), and Co (0.11–0.38 ppm), and the small and homogeneously positive e Hf(t) values (+ 4.9 to + 9.5), we infer that the NaOI phonolites were formed by the fractional crystallization of an OIB-derived mafic parent magma. The phonolites of the NaOI contain zircons that yielded U–Pb ages of 239 and 242 Ma, indicating that the NaOI formed during the Middle Triassic. These data, combined with data from modern ocean islands (e.g., Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Fernando de Noronha, Tristan da Cunha, and Gough in the Atlantic Ocean, and Society and Austral–Cook in the Pacific Ocean), lead us to infer that the BNTO was open for a long time before the Middle Triassic, and that the ocean had already developed into a mature ocean with a thick oceanic lithosphere by at least the Middle Triassic.