Paleogene syn-collisional leucogranite with rutile exsolution in garnet,
southern Tibet
Abstract
The Gangdese arc magmatism was active in response to the Mesozoic
subduction of the Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere and the Cenozoic
collision between the Indian and Asian continents. The Paleocene
Gangdese batholith in southern Tibet is intruded by several voluminous
peraluminous leucogranites, with the origin of these leucogranites
remaining controversial. In this study, we investigate a small
garnet-bearing leucogranite intrusion in the Nyingchi Complex that
represents the exposed lower crust of the Lhasa Terrane and underwent
multi-stages of amphibolite- to granulite-facies metamorphism since the
Cretaceous. Bulk-rock mineralogy and geochemistry display S-type granite
signatures, indicating its anatexic origin. The center of the
~300 m-wide pluton contains abundant garnet in a
perthite-quartz matrix. The garnets, from core to rim, display stepwise
concentrations of major and rare earth elements, indicating multiple
stages of growth. The cores are featured by three groups of oriented
needles of rutile, which are regarded as products of exsolution due to
rapid decompression or cooling and have been found almost exclusively in
extreme temperature and/or pressure conditions. The Ti-in-rutile
temperatures range from 900 to 850 oC, consistent with the temperatures
derived from the ternary feldspar thermometer. These rutile-rich garnet
cores were likely seeded from the lower crustal resitites and
incorporated in an upwelling of hot mantle-derived magma. The peritectic
garnet mantle continued to grow in the melt at 800-650 oC, as suggested
by the Zircon saturation temperature and the Ti-in-zircon thermometer.
The diffusion profiles between the Ti-rich core and mantle yield a short
~25 kyr duration of cooling from 870 °C to 700 °C, when
the leucogranite magma migrated and emplaced. Zircons from the granite
show complex textures; most of the cores and magmatic mantles yield U-Pb
ages between 60 and 50 Ma, suggesting a syn-collisional origin of the
melt. We speculate that the Paleogene slab roll-back and slab break-off
would have resulted in enhanced asthenospheric corner flow and upwells,
supplying a long-lived heat source for coeval crustal anatexis and
metamorphism in southern Lhasa during the early phase of continental
collision.