This paper deals with the tectonic events that result in the accretion of mafic terranes in the fore-arc region and a close juxtaposition of ultramafic rocks, low grade and high-grade mafic terranes in many collisional orogens. The example is taken from New Caledonia where tectonic accretion, subduction, underplating and obduction of mafic terranes took place during the late Eocene in an intra-oceanic forearc setting. The late Eocene tectonic complex comprised three major terranes: an overlying ultramafic, mainly harzburgitic allochthon named the Ophiolitic Nappe, an intermediate mafic, mainly basaltic off-scraped melange, composed of kilometre-scale slices of oceanic upper crust, called the Poya Terrane, parts of which have been metamorphosed into an eclogite/blueschist facies complex, the Pouebo Terrane; and a lower, continental basement formed by the Norkolk Ridge terranes. Based upon exhaustive sampling of the mafic terranes and field surveys, our tectonic, micropaleontologic and geochemical data reveal that Poya and Pouebo terranes rocks originally formed within one single Campanian to late Paleocene oceanic basin, floored by tholeiitic basalt associated with some minor seamount-related intraplate alkali basalt. The tholeiitic basalt displays a continuous range of compositions spanning between “undepleted” and “depleted” end-members; the former being volumetrically predominant. The overall geochemical and isotopic features indicate an origin from a prominently heterogeneous mantle source during the opening of a marginal basin, the South Loyalty Basin, which almost completely disappeared during Eocene convergence. The opening of this basin originally located to the east of the Norfolk Ridge was synchronous with that of Tasman Sea basin as a consequence of oceanward migration of the west-dipping Pacific subduction zone. Establishing the origin of the ultramafic Ophiolitic Nappe is beyond the scope of this paper; however, it appears to be genetically unrelated to the mafic Poya and Pouebo terranes. Although it was located in the Late Eocene fore-arc, the Ophiolitic Nappe and the corresponding oceanic lithosphere originated before the Late Cretaceous, to the east of the South Loyalty Basin in a back-arc setting; or alternatively in a much older, trapped basin. For reasons that remain unclear, a new east-dipping subduction started in the Eocene and consumed most of the South Loyalty Basin, forming the intra-oceanic Loyalty Arc. Due to a changing subduction regime (underplating of the Diahot Terrane?), the mafic slices that now form the Poya Terrane were tectonically accreted in the Loyalty fore-arc region and remained under low pressure-low temperature conditions (possibly at the subsurface) until the Norfolk Ridge reached the subduction zone diachronously. This resulted in the final obduction of the fore-arc area. The two-step obduction involved first the mafic complex forming the Poya Terrane and thereafter the lithospheric mantle that now forms the Ophiolitic Nappe. In contrast, pieces of the accretionnary com...

International audienceThe Chinese Tianshan belt is a major part of the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt, extending westward to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Its Paleozoic tectonic evolution, crucial for understanding the amalgamation of Central Asia, comprises two stages of subduction-collision. The first collisional stage built the Eo-Tianshan Mountains, before a Visean unconformity, in which all structures are verging north. It implied a southward subduction of the Central Tianshan Ocean beneath the Tarim active margin, that induced the Ordovician-Early Devonian Central Tianshan arc, to the south of which the South Tianshan back-arc basin opened. During the Late Devonian, the closure of this ocean led to a collision between Central Tianshan arc and the Kazakhstan-Yili-North Tianshan Block, and subsequently closure of the South Tianhan back-arc basin, producing two suture zones, namely the Central Tianshan and South Tianshan suture zones where ophiolitic mélanges and HP metamorphic rocks were emplaced northward. The second stage included the Late Devonian-Carboniferous southward subduction of North Tianshan Ocean beneath the Eo-Tianshan active margin, underlined by the Yili-North Tianshan arc, leading to the collision between the Kazakhstan-Yili-NTS plate and an inferred Junggar Block at Late Carboniferous-Early Permian time. The North Tianshan Suture Zone underlines likely the last oceanic closure of Central Asia Orogenic Belt; all the oceanic domains were consumed before the Middle Permian. The amalgamated units were affected by a Permian major wrenching, dextral in the Tianshan. The correlation with the Kazakh and Kyrgyz Tianshan is clarified. The Kyrgyz South Tianshan is equivalent to the whole part of Chinese Tianshan (CTS and STS) located to the south of Narat Fault and Main Tianshan Shear Zone; the so-called Middle Tianshan thins out toward the east. The South Tianshan Suture of Kyrgyzstan correlates with the Central Tianshan Suture of Chinese Tianshan. The evolution of this southern domain remains similar from east (Gangou area) to west until the Talas-Ferghana Fault, which reflects the convergence history between the Kazakhstan and Tarim blocks

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