Suturing of the Proto- and Paleo-Tethys oceans in the western Kunlun (Xinjiang, China) |
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Authors: | F. Mattern W. Schneider |
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Affiliation: | 1. Key Lab of Submarine Geosciences and Prospecting Techniques, Ministry of Education, and College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China;2. Laboratory for Marine Geology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266237, China;3. UCD School of Earth Sciences, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland;1. Xinjiang Research Center for Mineral Resources, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China;2. School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;3. State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China;4. Department of Geology, The University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK;5. Xi''an Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, Xi''an 710054, China |
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Abstract: | The Proto-Tethys Ocean between the North and South Kunlun began to form during the Sinian. Remnants of this ocean are preserved at the Oytag-Kudi suture. The presence of Paleozoic arc batholiths in the northern South Kunlun and their absence in the North Kunlun indicates southward subduction of the Proto-Tethys Ocean beneath the South Kunlun. Opposite subduction polarity can be demonstrated for the Late Paleozoic to mid-Mesozoic when the southerly located Paleo-Tethys Ocean was consumed beneath the South Kunlun and generated a Late Carboniferous to mid-Jurassic magmatic arc in the southern South Kunlun. Arc magmatism affected the southern South Kunlun and the large Kara-Kunlun accretionary prism (a suture sensu lato) which formed as a result of Paleo-Tethys’ consumption. The dextral shear sense of ductile faults which are located at the margins of the arc batholiths, and which parallel the South Kunlun/Kara-Kunlun boundary, suggests oblique plate convergence with a dextral component. Different lines of evidence encourage us to interpret the Proto-Tethys ophiolites of the Oytag-Kudi zone as at least partly derived from an oceanic back-arc basin. In contrast, we assume that Paleo-Tethys was a large ocean basin which was eliminated directly at the southern margin of the South Kunlun where no oceanic back-arc region existed. |
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