Late Cretaceous ophiolite obduction and Paleocene India-Asia collision in the westernmost Himalaya

Abstract

Collision of the Kohistan island arc with Asia at ~100 Ma resulted in N-S compression within the Neo-Tethys at a spreading center north of the Indo-Pakistani craton. Subsequent India-Asia convergence converted the Neo-Tethyan spreading center into a short-lived subduction zone. The hanging wall of the subduction zone became the Waziristan, Khost and Jalalabad igneous complexes. During the Santonian- Campanian (late Cretaceous), thrusting of the NW IndoPakistani craton beneath Albian oceanic crust and a Cenomanian volcano-sedimentary complex, generated an ophiolite-radiolarite belt. Ophiolite obduction resulted in tectonic loading and flexural subsidence of the NW Indian margin and sub-CCD deposition of shelf-derived olistostromes and turbidites in the foredeep. Campanian-Maastriehtian calci- clastic and siliciclastic sediment gravity flows derived from both margins filled the foredeep as a huge allochthon of Triassic-Jurassic rise and slope strata was thrust ahead of the ophiolites onto the Indo-Pakistani craton. Shallow to intermediate marine strata covered the foredeep during the late Maastrichtian. As ophiolite obduction neared completion during the Maastrichtian, the majority of India-Asia convergence was accommodated along the southern margin of Asia. During the Paleocene, India was thrust beneath a second allochthon that included open marine middle Maastrichtian colored mélange which represents the Asian Makran-Indus-Tsangpo accretionary prism. Latérites that formed on the eroded ophiolites and structurally higher colored mélange during the Paleocene wei’e unconformably overlapped by upper Paleocene and Middle Eocene shallow marine limestone and shale that delineate distinct episodes of Paleocene collisional and Early Eocene post-collisional deformation.     

中国西北盆山地区中-新生代古地理及地壳构造演化

中国西北地区的盆山地形和该地区地壳结构具有明显的一致性,反映了现代盆山构造的一个重要特征。文中讨论了中国西北盆山区在中-新生代不同时期的古地理面貌和它们的发展演化过程。本区在中-新生代不同时期具有不同的古地理面貌,而且随着地壳上地幔的构造演化而不断发展,盆山构造的形成受到了地壳活动和演化的控制。一般来说,中国西北的主要山系是古生代或早中生代的造山带,但它们形成现在这样巨大的山系主要发生在晚新生代。如天山山脉的构造演化,三叠纪天山曾经一度隆起成山,两侧的准噶尔和塔里木盆地中堆积了巨厚的磨拉石;侏罗纪时由于剥蚀夷平成为一个准平原,形成了广泛分布且可以对比的含煤岩系;从白垩纪到早新生代,它再度隆升,直至第四纪时形成雄伟的高大山系,两侧形成相应的大型沉积盆地。其他一些山脉,如祁连山和昆仑山,也具有类似的发展演化过程。最后,控制这一过程的根本原因则是地壳、甚至整个岩石圈的构造发展演化。     

印度与欧亚板块碰撞以来东喜马拉雅构造结的演化

在野外填图,构造观察及前人研究的基础上,本文识别并描述了东喜马拉雅构造结中的推覆断裂、正断裂及走滑断裂、背斜(形)和向斜(形)等构造类型,讨论了这些构造位置及与印度板块挤入,印支地块旋转的关系,还探讨了东喜马拉雅构造结对印度板块持续向北推挤下的特殊应变调节方式。在印度大陆部分,东喜马拉雅构造结由3个向外逐渐变新的构造结组成,即北东向的南迦巴瓦峰复式背斜、北西向的桑复式向斜及北东向的阿萨母复式向斜。上述3个构造结是协调印度板块的挤入、喜马拉雅弧的扩展及印支地块的旋转的构造。在欧亚大陆内部的冈底斯岛弧,在派区及阿尼桥走滑断裂协调下,高喜马拉雅结晶岩的基底挤入冈底斯岛弧内部,在大拐弯顶端形成向上的挤出构造。在南迦巴瓦峰构造结的北西侧,由于掀斜式抬升及重力滑动,使得冈底斯盖层与结晶基底脱耦,上盘盖层沿东久向北西方向滑动。在南迦巴瓦峰构造结北东侧,由于印支地块的挤出和旋转,形成一系列的北西向走滑断裂,如实皆断裂、嘉黎—高黎贡断裂、澜沧江断裂及红河断裂等。     

Geology and tectono‐metamorphic evolution of the Himalayan metamorphic core: insights from the Mugu Karnali transect,Western Nepal (Central Himalaya)

New structural and tectono‐metamorphic data are presented from a geological transect along the Mugu Karnali valley, in Western Nepal (Central Himalaya), where an almost continuous cross‐section from the Lesser Himalaya Sequence to the Everest Series through the medium‐high‐grade Greater Himalayan Sequence (GHS) is exposed. Detailed meso‐ and micro‐structural analyses were carried out along the transect. Pressure (P)–temperature (T) conditions and P–T–deformation paths for samples from different structural units were derived by calculating pseudosections in the MnNKCFMASHT system. Systematic increase of P–T conditions, from ~0.75 GPa to 560 °C up to ≥1.0 GPa–750 °C, has been detected starting from the garnet zone up to the K‐feldspar + aluminosilicate zone. Our investigation reveals how these units are characterized by different P–T evolutions and well‐developed tectonic boundaries. Integrating our meso‐ and micro‐structural data with those of metamorphism and geochronology, a diachronism in deformation and metamorphism can be highlighted along the transect, where different crustal slices were underthrust, metamorphosed and exhumed at different times. The GHS is not a single tectonic unit, but it is composed of (at least) three different crustal slices, in agreement with a model of in‐sequence shearing by accretion of material from the Indian plate, where coeval activity of basal thrusting at the bottom with normal shearing at the top of the GHS is not strictly required for its exhumation.     

An evaluation of the inverted metamorphic gradient at Langtang National Park, Central Nepal Himalaya

Abstract The crystalline core of the Himalayan orogen in the Langtang area of Nepal, located between the Annapurna-Manaslu region and the Everest region, contains middle to upper amphibolite grade pelitic gneisses and schists. These rocks are intimately associated with the Main Central Thrust (MCT), one of the major compressional structures in the northern Indian plate, which forms a 3.7-km-wide zone containing rocks of both footwall and hangingwall affinity. An inverted metamorphic gradient is noticeable from upper footwall through hangingwall rocks, where metamorphic conditions increase from garnet grade near the MCT zone to sillimanite + K-feldspar grade in the upper hangingwall. Petrographic data distinguish two metamorphic episodes that have affected the area: a high-pressure, moderate-temperature episode (M1) and a moderate-pressure, high-temperature episode (M2). Comparison with appropriate reaction boundaries suggests that conditions for M1 in the hangingwall were approximately 900–1200 MPa and 425–525°C. Thermobarometric results for 24 samples from the footwall, MCT zone and hangingwall reflect P-T conditions during the M2 phase of 400–1200 MPa and 490–660° C. The decrease in estimated palaeopressures from footwall to hangingwall approximate a lithostatic gradient of 27 MPa km^-1, with slight fluctuations in the MCT zone reflecting structural discontinuities. In contrast to the palaeopressures, palaeotemperatures are indistinguishable across the entire area sampled. Although field evidence suggests the presence of the inverted palaeothermal gradient well known in the Himalaya, quantitative thermobarometry indicates that temperatures of final equilibration were all within error of each other across 17 km of section. At Langtang, change in pressure is responsible for the presence of the sequence of index minerals through the section. I interpret these data to reflect diachronous attainment of equilibrium temperature conditions in a lithostatic palaeopressure profile after ductile faulting of the sequence.     

Ages of internal granitoids in the Southern Cross region,Yilgarn Craton,Western Australia,and their crustal evolution and tectonic implications

Southern Cross, where gold deposits are sited in narrow greenstone belts surrounding granitoid domes, was one of the earliest gold mining centres in Western Australia. SHRIMP U–Pb zircon and Pb‐isotope studies of the largest granitoid dome, the Ghooli Dome (80 × 40 km), provide important constraints on the crustal evolution and structural history of the central part of the Archaean Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, which includes Southern Cross. The north‐northwest‐south‐southeast‐oriented ovoid Ghooli Dome has a broadly concentric foliation that is subhorizontal or gently dipping in its central parts and subvertical along its margins. Foliated granitoids in the dome are dated at ca 2724 ± 5 and 2688 ± 3 Ma using the SHRIMP U–Pb zircon and Pb–Pb isochron methods, respectively. These new data, together with the published SHRIMP U–Pb zircon age of 2691 ± 7 Ma at another locality, 20 km from the centre of the Koolyanobbing Shear Zone, suggest that the Ghooli Dome was emplaced at ca 2.72–2.69 Ga. Because the Ghooli Dome and the other domes, which are enveloped by narrow greenstone belts, are cut by the >650 km‐long and 6–15 km‐wide Koolyanobbing Shear Zone, the ca 2.69 Ga age is interpreted as the maximum age of the last major movement on this structure. The pre‐2.69 Ga history, if any, of the shear zone remains unknown. The shear zone is intruded by an undeformed porphyritic granitoid which has a SHRIMP U–Pb zircon age of 2656 ± 4 Ma. This age is, thus, the minimum age of major movement along this shear zone. Post‐gold mineralisation pegmatitic‐leucogranite from the Nevoria gold mine has a SHRIMP U–Pb zircon age of 2634 ± 4 Ma, with xenocrystic zircon cores of ca 2893 ± 6 Ma, constraining the minimum age of gold mineralisation there to ca 2.63 Ga. The ca 2.72–2.69 Ga granitoids also contain ca 2.98 and 2.78 Ga xenocrystic zircon cores, suggesting an extensive crustal prehistory for their source. Whereas there is a general temporal relationship between the periods of older (ca 3.0 Ga) and younger (ca 2.80 and 2.73 Ga) volcanism and the older (2.98, 2.78 and 2.72–2.69 Ga) granitoid intrusions, there is no known volcanism temporally associated with the 2.65–2.63 Ga granitoid intrusions in the Yilgarn Craton. Other heat sources and/or tectonic processes, required for the generation of these intrusions, are interpreted to be related to a lithospheric delamination event related to continental collision.     

Structure and metamorphism of the Karakorum gneisses in the Braldu-Baltoro Valley (North Pakistan)

Abstract

The Karakorum gneisses outcrop north of the complex suture separating the Indian-Pakistan plate from the Europe-Asia block; they grade to deformed earlier members of the Karakorum batholith ranging in age from Cretaceous to Miocene and are cross-cut by its later members. The main interest of the region lies in the fact that very young high-grade gneisses (Miocene), outline the southern edge of the Europe-Asia Plate. The tectonic and metamorpic evolution of the Braldu-Baltoro region is interpreted here as resulting from a poly phased history. The following structural sequence has been defined : - (1) A Dl isoclinal folding was accompanied by subparallel healed shear zones and by intense boudinage, and cross-cut by a dense net of post-Dl hetero-geneous leucogranitic veins and stocks; - (2) a major phase of EW trending recumbent folds (D2), is followed by (3) large open D3 folds generating EW trending domai structures (Dassu and Panmah domes); and (4) a late set of brittle to locally more ductile structures such as the southern thrust contact of the Karakorum gneisses with the Shyok suture zone. The sequence proposed here differs from other interpretations (Rex et al. 1988). We consider that the Dl event only may be attributed to the main India-Asia collision and that the D2-D3 events, interpreted as having occurred in a continuum, correspond to a late reactivation of the major thrusts and sutures related to continuing continental subduction.

A Dl-related intermediate pressure assemblage is preserved (Grt-St-Ky) in the upper levels of the tectonic pile; the estimated PT conditions determined are 10-4 Kb and 700°--525°C. In the core of the large D3 domes, late granoblastic recrystallization is widespread together with almost complete S1-S2 transposition, incipient melting and development of a low-pressure sillimanite-bearing assemblage where relicts of higher pressure minerals are locally preserved. Corresponding PT conditions are 650°-550°C and a lower pressure (5.5 to 2.5 Kb). As most of the observed structures at the lower levels (mineral lineations, boudinage) are clearly associated with (or reworked by) D2 and accentuated by D3 which was accompagnied by partial melting, D2 and D3 are interpreted as representing a continuum developed in the same PT field. It can be assumed also that the Baltoro granite was emplaced by the end of this combined D2-D3 event. From the Miocene ages published for the Baltoro granite (20 Ma to 8 Ma), the low-pressure evolution of the Karakorum gneisses may represent a very young high-grade assemblage. The age of Dl is less defined but at least older than 36 Ma old leucogranites.

The sharp contact along the Shyok Suture zone, interpreted as a large thrust (Main Karakorum Thrust - MKT) of this young high-grade metamorphic terrene against the older (older than 30-45 Ma from late undeformed intrusives) Kohistan-Ladakh island-arc domain, is interpreted, following Mattauer (1985), as resulting from the interaction between the still-ongoing northward movement of the Indo-Pakistan plate and an opposite southward continental subduction, seismically active, operating in Pamir.     

松辽盆地南部喜山期构造演化与铀成矿

分析了松辽盆地在喜山旋回中所处的应力场、喜山期构造运动及所产生的地貌环境,认为喜山期构造运动为松辽盆地砂岩型铀矿形成创造了有利的构造地貌条件,主要成矿时间为始新世、上新世。松辽盆地南部盆缘剥蚀天窗区构造发育,成矿作用明显,是寻找地浸砂岩型铀矿的有利地段。     

喜马拉雅造山带东段错那地区高喜马拉雅结晶岩系的变质作用与构造意义

位于造山带核部的高喜马拉雅结晶岩系是由印度大陆俯冲到亚洲大陆之下经历变质作用的产物,是研究喜马拉雅造山带形成与演化过程的理想载体。本文对造山带东段错那地区高喜马拉雅结晶岩系上部构造层位的正片麻岩进行了岩石学、相平衡模拟,锆石与独居石U-Pb年代学研究。研究结果表明这些岩石的峰期矿物组合为石榴石+斜长石+钾长石+黑云母+白云母+石英+钛铁矿,保留有深熔作用的结构特征。岩石中的石榴石具有生长成分环带。相平衡模拟表明,岩石的峰期变质条件为710~750℃和9.0~10.5kbar,具有一个顺时针型变质作用P-T轨迹,其进变质过程以升温、升压和部分熔融为特征,退变质作用为降温、降压过程。锆石与独居石U-Pb定年表明,这些正片麻岩具有510~490Ma的原岩年龄,和27~11Ma的退变质时间。本研究表明高喜马拉雅结晶岩系的上部构造层位经历了高角闪岩相变质作用与部分熔融,为造山带的构造演化提供了重要信息。     

东喜马拉雅构造结大陆碰撞以来构造年代学框架及其与哀牢山-红河构造带的对比

东喜马拉雅构造结经历了前期楔入和后期垮塌变形.楔入事件发生于～60Ma、～23Ma和～13 Ma,垮塌开始于6～7Ma.哀牢山红河构造带同样经历早期走滑和后期正断,走滑年代分别为58～56Ma、23Ma和13Ma,后期正断开始于5.5 Ma.上述年龄的意义在于～60Ma的变形代表印度与欧亚大陆的初期碰撞;2 Ma为青藏高原及邻区的主变形期;13Ma的变形也代表一次汇聚事件,并形成青藏高原的东西向伸展.6～7Ma以后的垮塌作用代表了青藏高原的快速隆升.     

Active tectonics of the Himalaya

The Himalayan mountains are a product of the collision between India and Eurasia which began in the Eocene. In the early stage of continental collision the development of a suture zone between two colliding plates took place. The continued convergence is accommodated along the suture zone and in the back-arc region. Further convergence results in intracrustal megathrust within the leading edge of the advancing Indian plate. In the Himalaya this stage is characterized by the intense uplift of the High Himalaya, the development of the Tibetan Plateau and the breaking-up of the central and eastern Asian continent. Although numerous models for the evolution of the Himalaya have been proposed, the available geological and geophysical data are consistent with an underthrusting model in which the Indian continental lithosphere underthrusts beneath the Himalaya and southern Tibet. Reflection profiles across the entire Himalaya and Tibet are needed to prove the existence of such underthrusting. Geodetic surveys across the High Himalaya are needed to determine the present state of the MCT as well as the rate of uplift and shortening within the Himalaya. Paleoseismicity studies are necessary to resolve the temporal and spatial patterns of major earthquake faulting along the segmented Himalayan mountains.     

喜马拉雅造山带东段错那洞片麻岩穹窿的变质作用及构造意义

错那洞穹窿是喜马拉雅造山带北部发育的一系列片麻岩穹窿之一,因其赋存有超大型稀有金属矿床而倍受关注。本文对错那洞穹窿核部产出的石榴石十字石蓝晶石白云母片岩进行了岩石学、相平衡模拟和锆石U-Pb年代学研究,为揭示穹窿的成因和成矿作用提供了重要限定。岩石学研究表明,石榴石蓝晶石十字石白云母片岩的共生矿物组合是石榴石+蓝晶石+十字石+白云母+斜长石+石英+钛铁矿+金红石,为典型的中压角闪岩相变质岩。相平衡模拟表明岩石的变质温压条件为670℃和9. 0kbar,并未经历部分熔融。锆石U-Pb定年结果表明,片岩的变质作用发生在47～29Ma,即经历了一个较长期(～20Myr)的变质演化过程。结合现有研究成果,我们认为错那洞片麻岩穹窿具有与喜马拉雅造山带北部发育的其它片麻岩穹窿相同的成因,穹窿核部的中级变质岩为高喜马拉雅结晶岩系的上部构造层位,其变质作用发生在印度大陆向拉萨地体之下低角度俯冲过程中;穹窿核部淡色花岗岩是高分异的异地花岗岩,是高喜马拉雅结晶岩系下部高温高压麻粒岩部分熔融所形成的熔体经历高程度分离结晶产物。此外,本文研究成果为印度与亚洲大陆的碰撞时间和性质提供了进一步约束。     

Multiphase salt tectonic evolution in NW Germany: seismic interpretation and retro-deformation

The Central European Basin is a classic area of salt tectonics, characterized by heterogeneous structural evolution and complex salt movement history. We studied an area on its SW margin, based on prestack depth-migrated 2D and 3D seismic data. We use seismic interpretation and retro-deformation to obtain a better understanding of salt tectonics, structural control, and sedimentary response in this region. The first phase of salt tectonic evolution started with two main events of NW–SE extension and rafting in the Triassic before the Upper Bunter and before the Upper Muschelkalk. Rafting was accompanied by first salt diapirism and an increased sedimentary thickness adjacent to the salt structure. After salt supply ceased updip to the salt structure, a mini-basin grew in the intra-raft area. This sedimentary differential loading caused salt movement and growth of a pillow structure basinward. The second phase of salt movement was initiated by the formation of a NNW–SSE striking basement graben in the Middle Keuper that triggered reactive diapirism, the breakthrough of the pillow’s roof and salt extrusion. The following downbuilding process was characterized by sedimentary wedges with basal unconformities, onlap structures and salt extrusions that ceased in the Jurassic. The third and latest phase of salt tectonic evolution was activated in the Late Cretaceous to Lower Tertiary by compressional tectonics indicated by salt rise and a small horizontal shortening of the diapir. The interpreted salt tectonic processes and the resulting geometries can now be better tied in with the regional heterogeneous framework of the basin. Unfortunately, the entire article was originally published Online First with errors. The publishers wish to apologize for this mistake. The correct article is shown here. The online version of the original article can be found at     

Miocene Crustal Anatexis of Paleozoic Orthogneiss in the Zhada Area, Western Himalaya

Granitic gneiss (orthogneiss) and Himalayan leucogranite are widely distributed in the Himalayan orogen, but whether or not the granitic gneiss made a contribution to the Himalayan leucogranite remains unclear. In this study, we present the petrological, geochronological and geochemical results for orthogneisses and leucogranites from the Zhada area, Western Himalayas. Zhada orthogneiss is composed mainly of quartz, plagioclase, K-feldspar, biotite and muscovite, with accessory zircon and apatite. Orthogneiss zircon cathodoluminescence (CL) images show that most grains contain a core with oscillatory zoning, which indicates an igneous origin. Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U-Pb dating of the zircon cores in the orthogneiss shows a weighted 206Pb/238U age of 515 ± 4 Ma (early Paleozoic), with sponge-like zircon rims of 17.9 ± 0.5 Ma (Miocene). Zhada leucogranite shows 206Pb/238U ages ranging from 19.0 ± 0.4 Ma to 12.4 ± 0.2 Ma, the weighted average age being 16.2 ± 0.4 Ma. The leucogranites have a low Ca content (<1 wt%), FeOt content (<1 wt%), Rb content (67.0–402 ppm), Sr content (<56.6 ppm), Ba content (3.35–238 ppm) and Rb/Sr ratio (0.5–14.7), which are similar to the geochemical characteristics of the Himalayan leucogranite derived from muscovite dehydration partial melting of metasediments and representative of most Himalayan leucogranites. The highly variable Na2O + K2O (4.33 wt%–9.13 wt%), Al2O3 (8.44 wt%–13.51 wt%), ∑REE (40.2–191.0 ppm), Rb (67.0–402 ppm) and Nb (8.23–26.4 ppm) contents, 87Sr/86Sr(t) ratios (0.7445–0.8605) and εNd(t) values (?3.6 to ?8.2) indicate that the leucogranite is derived from a heterogenetic source. The nonradiogenic Nd isotope values of the studied Zhada leucogranite and orthogneiss range from ?8.2 to ?3.6 and from ?8.7 to ?4.1, respectively. Therefore, the general mixing equation was used to perform the Sr and Nd isotope mixing calculations. The results indicate that the heterogenetic source was the Tethyan Himalayan Sequence (THS)/Higher Himalayan Crystalline (HHC) metasediments and Zhada orthogneiss. The Zhada area experienced crustal anatexis during the Miocene and the heterogenetic source of the orthogneiss and metasediment may have experienced crustal anatexis controlled by muscovite dehydration. The Zhada leucogranite inherited not only the geochemical characteristics of the Himalayan metasediment (muscovite dehydration melting), but also the trace elements and Sr-Nd isotopic characteristics of the Zhada orthogneiss. These results indicate that the Paleozoic Zhada orthogneiss was involved in crustal anatexis at 17.9 ± 0.5 Ma (Miocene) and that the muscovite dehydration of the metasediments in the heterogenetic source produced fluid, which may have caused the orthogneiss solidus lines to decline, triggering a partial melting of the Zhada orthogneiss. It is therefore proposed that Himalayan leucogranite is a crust-derived granite rather than a S-type granite, as previously hypothesized.     

北喜马拉雅及藏南伸展构造综述

印度与欧亚大陆碰撞发生于65Ma左右,造山作用则开始于中新世初期,该造山运动形成南喜马拉雅的逆冲推覆体系,导致喜马拉雅山脉的隆起。然而,与造山作用的同时,北喜马拉雅及藏南地区却经历了广泛的伸展作用,所形成的伸展构造包括:①北喜马拉雅地区,开始于24Ma左右的藏南拆离系(STDS);②北喜马拉雅及藏南地区,开始于14Ma左右的南北向裂谷;③北喜马拉雅穹隆带,形成时间大致与南北向裂谷相同;④广布于青藏高原、开始于中新世末期、随机分布的高角度正断层。上述不同阶段的伸展构造形成于不同机制,并在喜马拉雅造山带的发展过程中起着不同的地质作用。其中,北喜马拉雅穹隆是一种特殊的伸展构造,并可能形成于多种机制。     

印度-亚洲大陆碰撞的时限

印度-亚洲大陆碰撞的起始时间是国际地学界争论的热点,至今尚无一致的认识,从主张晚白垩世(约70Ma)到主张始新世/渐新世之交(约34Ma)等各种观点都有。根据主碰撞带中具同碰撞性质的林子宗火山岩(40.84～64.47Ma)、南冈底斯花岗岩(47～52.5Ma,峰值50Ma左右)、白云母型强过铝花岗岩(56～50Ma),以及沉积学和地层学的综合证据,特别是横贯整个冈底斯带延伸达1500km的巨大区域性角度不整合的时间(约65Ma),认为印度-亚洲大陆开始碰撞的时间在西藏为65Ma左右,完成碰撞的时间在40/45Ma左右。     

Anticlockwise evolution of ultrahigh-temperature granulites within continental collision zone in southern India

We report three new localities of corundum and sapphirine-bearing hyper aluminous Mg-rich and silica-poor ultrahigh-temperature granulites formed during Late Neoproterozoic-Cambrian times within the Palghat–Cauvery Shear Zone system in southern India. From petrologic characteristics, mineral chemistry and petrogenetic grid considerations, the peak metamorphic conditions of these rocks are inferred to lie around 950–1000 °C (as suggested by Al in orthopyroxene thermometer) at pressures above 10 kbar (as indicated by the equilibrium orthopyroxene–sillimanite–gedrite ± quartz assemblage). These rocks preserve several remarkable reaction textures, the most prominent among which is the triple corona of spinel–sapphirine–cordierite on corundum, with the whole textural assembly embedded within the matrix of gedrite, suggesting the reaction: Ged + Crn = Spl + Spr + Crd. The formation of sapphirine–sillimanite assemblage/symplectite associated with relict corundum and porphyroblasitc cordierite is explained by the reaction: Crd + Crn = Spr + Sil. The association of sapphirine cordierite symplectite with gedrite–sillimanite assemblage as well as with aluminosilicate boundaries indicates the gedrite consuming reaction: Ged + Sil = Spr + Crd. Extensive growth of sapphirine–cordierite observed on the rim of gedrite porphyroblasts with spinel occurring as relict inclusions within the sapphirine indicates the reaction: Ged + Spl = Spr + Crd. The pressure–temperature (P–T) path defined from the observed mineral assemblages and reaction texture is characterized by anticlockwise trajectory, with a prograde segment of initial heating and subsequent deep burial, followed by retrograde near-isothermal decompression. Such an anticlockwise trajectory is being reported for the first time from southern India and has important tectonic implications since these rocks were developed at the leading edge of the crustal block that was involved in collisional orogeny and subsequent extension during the final phase of assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent. We propose that the rocks were subjected to deep subduction and rapid exhumation, and the extreme thermal conditions were attained either through input from underplated mantle-derived magmas, or convective thinning or detachment of the lithospheric thermal boundary layer during or after crustal thickening.     

华南构造演化的基本特征

华南至少经历了4期区域规模的大陆动力学过程,除新元古代和晚中生代具有活动陆缘背景外,均在板块内部发生并完成。华夏块体是一个以新元古代岩石为主体构成的前南华纪基底,不是稳定的克拉通古陆,经历了聚合-裂解-再聚合的复杂构造演化。志留纪发生的板内碰撞-拼合事件使华夏块体与扬子块体再次缝合,形成真正统一的中国南方大陆。在震旦纪—早侏罗世期间,整个华南基本处于陆内滨海-浅海-斜坡环境, 内部没有切穿岩石圈的断层,没有大规模幔源岩浆和火山喷发的记录,多次构造变形与岩浆活动均在统一的华南岩石圈之上进行。经过早—中侏罗世的构造体制转换,才演化成为晚中生代西太平洋活动大陆边缘的一部分。从早到晚,华南岩石圈经历了多期、幕式的生长,以侧向增生为主(块体拼合),垂向生长为辅(岩浆上侵)。到晚中生代,在古太平洋板块俯冲和陆内伸展的背景下,形成了独特的华南盆岭构造。长期的板内构造演化和多期的花岗岩浆活动使华南具有很好的成矿条件,成为各种矿产与资源的富集区。新元古代南华纪和晚中生代晚侏罗世—早白垩世是华南最有利的成矿期,尤以后者矿种最多、储量最大。     

华南构造演化的基本特征

华南至少经历了4期区域规模的大陆动力学过程,除新元古代和晚中生代具有活动陆缘背景外,均在板块内部发生并完成。华夏块体是一个以新元古代岩石为主体构成的前南华纪基底,不是稳定的克拉通古陆,经历了聚合-裂解-再聚合的复杂构造演化。志留纪发生的板内碰撞-拼合事件使华夏块体与扬子块体再次缝合,形成真正统一的中国南方大陆。在震旦纪—早侏罗世期间,整个华南基本处于陆内滨海-浅海-斜坡环境,内部没有切穿岩石圈的断层,没有大规模幔源岩浆和火山喷发的记录,多次构造变形与岩浆活动均在统一的华南岩石圈之上进行。经过早—中侏罗世的构造体制转换,才演化成为晚中生代西太平洋活动大陆边缘的一部分。从早到晚,华南岩石圈经历了多期、幕式的生长,以侧向增生为主(块体拼合),垂向生长为辅(岩浆上侵)。到晚中生代,在古太平洋板块俯冲和陆内伸展的背景下,形成了独特的华南盆岭构造。长期的板内构造演化和多期的花岗岩浆活动使华南具有很好的成矿条件,成为各种矿产与资源的富集区。新元古代南华纪和晚中生代晚侏罗世—早白垩世是华南最有利的成矿期,尤以后者矿种最多、储量最大。