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The Wenquan ultramafic rocks in the Central East Kunlun Fault zone, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau—crustal relics of the Paleo-Tethys ocean

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Abstract

The Wenquan ultramafic rocks, located in the East Kunlun Orogenic belt in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, consist of dunite, wehrlite, olivine-clinopyroxenite and clinopyroxenite, and exhibit cumulate textures. Olivine from dunite has high Fo (forsterite, 90.0–91.8 wt%) and NiO content (0.15–0.42 wt%). Cr-spinels from all of the rocks in this suite are characterized by high Cr# (100×[Cr/(Cr + Al)], 67–91), low Mg# (100×[Mg/(Mg + Fe2+)], 17–35) and low TiO2 contents (mostly < 0.5 wt%). Clinopyroxene displays high Mg# (92–98) and low TiO2 content (0.002–0.099 wt%), similar to those in ophiolitic cumulates. Geochemically, the Wenquan ultramafic rocks show enrichment of LILE, Sr, and Ba, and depletion of Nb and Th. High-Mg# (mostly > 80) and low-CaO (< 0.08 wt%) olivine, high-Cr# (up to 91) spinel, and low Ti contents of clinopyroxene and Cr-spinel indicate that the Wenquan cumulates were generated by high-degree partial melting of a depleted oceanic lithosphere mantle. The ultramafic intrusion most likely evolved from high-Mg basaltic magmas (Mg# = 77.5) that underwent fractional crystallization and crustal contamination. Zircon grains from clinopyroxenites yield a U–Pb weighted mean age of 331 ± 2 Ma, which is nearly coeval with the formation age of the A’nyemaqen ophiolites. The Wenquan Carboniferous ophiolites are confirmed to exist in the Central East Kunlun Fault zone, whereas previous studies have considered them to be the Proterozoic ophiolites. The Wenquan ophiolite might be a relict of the Paleotethyan ocean, indicating that there were two cycles of oceanic–continental evolution along the Central East Kunlun Fault zone.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank He Rong for assistance with EPMA at the State Key Laboratory Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS), and Jianzhen Geng for assistance with LA–ICP–MS analyses of zircons at the Isotopic Laboratory, Tianjin Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, and also thank National Research Center for Geoanalysis for major and trace elements analyses. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions, resulting in substantial improvements to the manuscript, and to Editors Maarten A.T.M. Broekmans, Lutz Nasdala, and Xisheng Xu for constructive comments and editorial guidance. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41272052) and China Geological Survey projects (1212010918003, 1212011120158, 12120114080101).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences Beijing, 29 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

    Lihui Jia & Huibin Feng

  2. Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, 100037, China

    Fancong Meng

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  1. Lihui Jia
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  2. Fancong Meng
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Correspondence to Fancong Meng.

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Jia, L., Meng, F. & Feng, H. The Wenquan ultramafic rocks in the Central East Kunlun Fault zone, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau—crustal relics of the Paleo-Tethys ocean. Miner Petrol 112, 317–339 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-017-0544-9

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