The Yarlung Zangbo Suture Zone ophiolitic mélange (southern Tibet): new insights from geochemistry of ultramafic rocks

Abstract

The southern contact of the Yarlung-Zangbo Suture Zone ophiolitic belt is marked by a highly sheared serpentinite mélange containing ultramafic blocks. These peridotites can be divided into three main groups. (1) Lherzolites and Cpx-harzburgites contain brownish spinel with Mg# of 0.7–0.75 and Cr# of 0.15–0.27. They resemble fertile abyssal peridotites with generally smooth LREE-depleted and fairly flat MREE–HREE profiles. (2) Transitional harzburgites contain reddish spinels with Mg# of 0.57–0.66 and Cr# of 0.35–0.46. They resemble depleted abyssal or supra-subduction zone peridotites in that MREE–HREE profiles have positive slopes indicative of high degrees of partial melting. LREE profiles vary from depleted to slightly enriched, consistent with some interacting melt. (3) Harzburgites and dunites contain dark reddish spinels with Mg# of 0.47–0.68 and Cr# of 0.40–0.63. They have U-shaped profiles characteristics of interaction between LREE-enriched melt and REE-depleted mantle residues. Fractional melting modelling indicates that Cpx-harburgites may be the residues from 5 to 15% melting, transitional harzburgites from 15 to 23% melting, and harzburgites and dunites from 22 to 29% melting. The South Sandwich arc-basin system is considered a modern analog of the initial geodynamic setting.