Tethyan Oceanic Crust Research Articles

Late Cretaceous and early Miocene Andean-type plutonic activity in northern Makran and Central Iran

Two calc-alkaline plutonic complexes. Bazman and Natanz, intruded through the south-eastern active and south-western ancient continental margins of Central Iran, Have been dated by the Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron method at 74 ± 2 and 24 ± 4.5 Ma, respectively. Detailed trace element studies together with low 87 Sr/ 86 Sr initial ratios (<0.706) indicate that these complexes represent parts of an Andean-type magmatic are formed in response to subduction of Tethyan oceanic crust beneath Central Iran. Geochemical data on the igneous rocks at Bazman suggest that subduction of the Oman oceanic crust was well established by the late Cretaceous. On the evidence of the Natanz rocks, the Arabian-Central Iranian collision did not occur during the late Cretaceous, but took place during late Paleogene or early Neogene time. The Natanz low-Rb diorites and gabbros cannot be comagmatic with the more salic rocks, for they have distinctly lower 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios and the gabbros, at least, were intruded some 10 Ma earlier.

Magmatism and metamorphism in the Ladakh Himalayas (the Indus-Tsangpo suture zone)

Ladakh (India) provides a complete geological section through the northwestern part of the Himalayas from Kashmir to Tibet. Within this section the magmatic, metamorphic and geotectonic evolution of the northern Himalayan orogeny has been studied using petrographic, geochemical and isotope analytical techniques. The beginning of the Himalayan cycle was marked by large basaltic extrusions (Panjal Trap) of Permian to Lower Triassic age at the “northern” margin of the Gondwana continent (Indian Shield). These continental type tholeiitic basalts were followed by a more alkaline volcanism within the Triassic to Jurassic Lamayuru unit of the Gondwana continental margin. Lower Jurassic to Cretaceous oceanic crust and sediments (ophiolitic mélange s.s.) accompany the Triassic to Cretaceous flysch deposits within the Indus-Tsangpo suture zone, the major structural divide between the Indian Shield (High Himalaya) and the Tibetan Platform. So far, no relic of Paleozoic oceanic crust has been found. Subduction of the Tethyan oceanic crust during Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous time produced an island arc represented by tholeiitic and calc-alkaline volcanic rock series (Dras volcanics) and related intrusives accompanied by volcaniclastic flysch deposits towards the Tibetan continental margin. Subsequent to the subduction of oceanic crust, large volumes of calc-alkaline plutons (Trans-Himalayan or Kangdese plutons) intruded the Tibetan continental margin over a distance of 2000 km and partly the Dras island arc in the Ladakh region. The collision of the Indian Shield and Tibetan Platform started during the middle to upper Eocene and caused large-scale, still active intracrustal thrusting as well as the piling up of the Himalayan nappes. The tectonically highest of these nappes is built up of oceanic crust and huge slices of peridotitic oceanic mantle (Spongtang klippe). In the High Himalayas the tectonic activity was accompanied and outlasted by a Barrovian-type metamorphism that affected Triassic sediments of the Kashmir-Nun-Kun synclinorium up to kyanite/staurolite grade and the deeper-seated units up to sillimanite grade. Cooling ages of micas are around 20 m.y. (muscovite) and 13 m.y. (biotite). Towards the Indus-Tsangpo suture zone metamorphism decreases with no obvious discontinuity through greenschist, prehnite-pumpellyite to zeolite grade. Remnants of possibly an Eo-Himalayan blueschist metamorphism have been found within thrust zones accompanying ophiolitic mélange in the suture zone.

Tectonic setting for ophiolite obduction in Oman

The Samail ophiolite is part of an elongate belt in the Middle East that forms an integral part of the Alpine mountain chains that make up the northern boundary of the Arabian‐African plate. The Samail ophiolite represents a portion of the Tethyan ocean crust formed at a spreading center of Middle Cretaceous age (Cenomanian). During the Cretaceous spreading of the Tethyan Sea, Gondwana Land continued its dispersal, and the Arabian‐African plate drifted northward about 10°. These events combined with the opposite rotation of Eurasia and Africa initiated the closing of the Tethyan during the Late Cretaceous. At the early stages of closure, downwarping of the Arabian continental margin combined with the compressional forces of closure from the Eurasian plate initiated obduction of the Tethyan oceanic crust along preexisting transform faults, and still hot oceanic crust was detached along oblique northeast dipping thrust faults. Amphibolites developed at the base of the detached hot peridotite as it was thrust southward over oceanic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Plate configurations combined with palinspastic reconstructions show that subduction and attendant large‐scale island arc volcanism did not commence until after the Tethyan sea began to close and after the Samail ophiolite was emplaced southward across the Arabian continental margin. The Samail ophiolite nappe now rests upon a melange consisting mainly of pelagic sediments, volcanics, and detached fragments of the basal amphibolites which in turn rest on autochthonous shelf carbonates of the Arabian platform. Laterites and conglomerates with reworked laterites on the eroded upper surface of the ophiolite indicate a period of emergence prior to the deposition of shallow water Maestrichtian carbonates. Following emplacement (Eocene) of the Samail ophiolite, the Tethyan oceanic crust began northward subduction, and active arc volcanism started just north of the present Jaz Murian depression in Iran.

K‐Ar ages of metamorphic rocks at the base of the Samail Ophiolite, Oman

Hornblendes from amphibolites in the sheet of metamorphic rocks beneath the peridotite member of the Samail ophiolite and phyllites farther from the peridotite contact have weighted mean 40Ar/39Ar total fusion ages of 90.0 ± 3.0 m.y. and 79.5 ± 3.0 m.y., respectively. The amphibolites represent the first tectonic slice welded to the base of the Samail ophiolite after it was detached from the Tethyan oceanic crust. Formation of the amphibolites occurred no more than 3 to 7 m.y. after crystallization of plagiogranite in the ophiolite. The phyllites represent another tectonic slice of ocean floor sediments welded to the ophiolite as it was transported further from the Tethyan spreading axis. The K‐Ar ages suggest, assuming a half‐spreading rate of 2 to 5 cm/yr, that detachment of the Samail ophiolite and formation of amphibolite facies rocks occurred no more than 60 to 350 km from the spreading center. Using the same spreading rate, one can calculate a minimum half width of 300 to 750 km for the Tethyan Ocean during the Late Cretaceous.

Age of emplacement of the schistes lustres nappe, Alpine Corsica

Structural studies in the Schistes lustrés nappe west of Bastia, Corsica, demonstrate the existence of a tectonic mélange in which km-scale blocks and smaller lozenges of basement granite gneiss, thick-layered marble and dismembered Mesozoic ophiolite are enveloped in a matrix of calc-schist and blueschist. The main ( S 1) foliation is developed in both block and matrix and is concordant with lithologie contacts. Blueschist facies metamorphism was syn-kinematic with the main foliation. The S 1 in the Schistes lustrés was refolded about ENE-WSW trending, tight similar and monoclinal fold axes ( F 2). These second folds verge to the southeast and show km-scale axial culminations and depressions that are reflected by topography and residual Bouguer gravity anomalies. Parautochthonous Hercynian basement (Tenda-Corte complex) beneath the western edge of the Schistes lustrés nappe contains a mylonitic foliation which is concordant with the main foliation in the Schistes lustrés. The intensity of deformation in the basement decreases away from this contact and undeformed granites are found 3 km to the west. Whole rock samples of the deformed basement immediately beneath the Schistes lustrés yield an Rb-Sr isochron diagram ( n = 4) which has an age of 105 ± 8 Ma (1σ) and initial 87Sr 86Sr ratio of 0.7228 ± 0.0005 (1σ). This result is more precise than our preliminary age and initial ratio estimate of 98 ± 14 and 0.7296 ± 0.0068, respectively (Cohen et al., 1979). It is similar to a recently published mid-Cretaceous (90 Ma) 40Ar- 39Ar age from glaucophane mineral separates. We interpret this date as the age of a metamorphic overprint related to the emplacement of the Schistes lustrés nappe and associated ophiolites, the formation of the main foliation and blueschist facies metamorphism. These results indicate that the mid-Cretaceous blueschist facies metamorphism documented in the Western Alps formerly extended farther south of its present terminus. The data are consistent with mid-Cretaceous obduction of Tethyan oceanic crust onto the present-day eastern continental margin of Corsica. We postulate that during Eocene—early Oligocene time a polarity flip occurred outboard of the obducted crust and a new, southfacing subduction zone developed. This change in polarity was responsible for the development of southeast-vergent second folds and for the resetting of 40Ar− 39Ar and K-Ar geochronologic clocks described in the literature.

Geology of Nepal and its regional frame

Geology of Nepal and its regional frame

Ophiolites du nord-ouest syrien et evolution de la croute oceanique tethysienne au cours du mesozoique

The Baër-Bassit area of northwestern Syria is composed of an ophiolite suite and a Triassic to Lower Cretaceous volcano-sedimentary formation. This area is believed to represent the front of sheets overthrust in the Maestrichtian on the Arabian Platform. The roots of the sheets are found to the north, in Turkey. The Baër-Bassit area could thus correspond to the southern margin of the northern part of the obducted Tethyan oceanic crust. Formation of the ocean started in the Late Triassic or at the beginning of the Jurassic. The subduction of Tethyan crust under the northern oceanic margin would have led to a change in the magmatic processes which would have produced the upper levels of hypertholeiitic pillow lavas on the southern rim of the northern district. In fact, those lavas are present all around the Arabian Platform, in the most ‘meridional’ ophiolitic complexes: Cyprus, Baër-Bassit and Oman. The change in magmatism would by definition occur in a relatively narrow zone; this would explain the differences observed when comparing the lavas and the sheeted intrusive complex on both the ‘meridional’ ophiolites and the more ‘internal’ Turkish massifs. Although belonging to the same oceanic crust, the differences in the ophiolitic assemblages would correspond to a different stage of its formation; the Turkish one would probably be a portion of oceanic crust formed at an earlier stage. Moreover, the volcano-sedimentary series associated with the ophiolites of Cyprus and Baër-Bassit would have been formed at the southern margin of the Tethyan region. A part of the volcano-sedimentary sequence has been subducted and metamorphosed. Amphibolites formed in this way would have been extracted from the subduction zone during the last movements when oceanic crust overthrust the Arabian—African Platform. The unmetamorphosed volcano-sedimentary series would have been folded and thrust towards the obducted oceanic crust during the same period. However, whereas the volcano-sedimentary formation of Syria is tectonically overthrust by the ophiolite, it is possible that the similar formation in Cyprus has been deposited from the south over the Troodos Massif.

The Canadian Cordillera, the Hellenides, and the Sea-Floor Spreading Theory

The theory of plate tectonics is applied to the tectonic evolution of the Hellenides and the Canadian Cordillera. In the Hellenides a Tethyan zone of sea-floor spreading developed within the continental crust during Triassic time and functioned until the end of the Middle Jurassic. It led to the formation of two plates, each with continental and oceanic segments, that were separated in some places by accreting plate margins and in others by transform faults. In Late Jurassic time the mid-Tethyan ridge became inactive as new ridges developed in the Atlantic Ocean. From Late Jurassic to Recent time, Tethyan oceanic crust largely disappeared under one of the cratons. The chronology of tectonic events in the Hellenides corresponds well with that of sea-floor spreading in the Atlantic.Four periods of sea-floor spreading were involved in the formation of the Canadian Cordillera: (1) a Silurian? to Early Devonian period when an Archeo-Pacific Ocean separated the Canadian craton with a stable sedimentary margin from a volcanic archipelago; (2) a Middle Devonian to Permian period when the extinct volcanic archipelago was bounded to the west by a spreading Paleo-Pacific Ocean, and to the east by a tectonic contact which was consuming Archeo-Pacific oceanic crust; part of this crust was obducted over the continental margin; (3) a Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic period when a second volcanic archipelago separated a spreading Neo-Pacific Ocean from the continental margin; and (4) a Late Jurassic to Recent period where spreading occurred in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, subjecting the second volcanic archipelago and the continental margin to major tectonism; since the Paleocene, the Cordillera has slid towards the NNW along transform faults.