The Oligocene-Miocene Kailas Formation is exposed along strike for ~1300 km within the southernmost Lhasa terrane. In this study, we documented the sedimentology, structure, and age of this unit exposed between 87°E and 90°E. Within this region, the Kailas Formation is composed of continental deposits dominated by conglomerate and sandstone, with lesser volumes of siltstone and paleosols. These rocks were deposited nonconformably on Gangdese Batholith and related volcanic rocks along their northern boundary, whereas to the south, the south-dipping Great Counter Thrust places them in contact with Xigaze forearc and mélange units. We interpret the Kailas Formation to have been deposited in alluvial-fan and fluvial environments with sediment principally derived from the north. Based on sedimentology and structural relationships, we interpret these rocks to have formed in a northsouth extensional setting. New zircon U-Pb ages from volcanic tuffs and flows show that Kailas Formation deposition is younger to the east: Deposition occurred between 26 Ma and 24 Ma in western Tibet (81°E), at 25-23 Ma north of Lazi (87.8°E), at 23-22 Ma near Dazhuka (89.8°E), and as late as 18 Ma southwest of Lhasa (92°E). Overall, basin development propagated eastward at a rate of ~300 mm/yr. This pattern and rate of propagation are similar to that of the temporal-spatial distribution of adakitic and ultrapotassic magmatism within the Lhasa terrane to the north, which has been interpreted as a record of slab breakoff. Magmatism lags several million years behind Kailas basin development at most locations. We interpret the Kailas basin to have formed as the result of Indian slab shearing and breakoff, which began in western Tibet around 26 Ma and reached eastern Tibet by ca. 18 Ma.
The Liuqu basin formed during the early Miocene between ophiolitic mélanges (to the south) and uplifted Cretaceous forearc deposits (to the north) along a central, 150-km-long segment of the India-Asia suture zone in southern Tibet. Sedimentological analysis shows the Liuqu Conglomerate to be composed of mixed fluvial and sediment-gravity flow lithofacies assemblages locally interbedded with mature paleosols. We interpret the Liuqu Conglomerate as coarse-grained fluvial and alluvial-fan deposits. Structural analysis indicates that the Liuqu Conglomerate was deposited in a contractional setting. Paleocurrent and provenance data demonstrate that sediment was transported northnorthwest from the hanging wall of a coeval thrust fault system along the southern limit of Liuqu outcrops. Detrital zircon U-Pb ages (and Hf[t] isotope ratios) cluster around 80-110 Ma (ε Hf[t] = −23.5-14.6), 120-135 Ma (ε Hf[t] = −12.6-13.1), 150-170 Ma (ε Hf[t] = −14.1-14.7), 500-600 Ma (ε Hf[t] = −26-3.4), and 1100-1200 Ma (ε Hf[t] = −27.6-2.9), requiring input from both Gangdese and mélange sources. Asian zircons were recycled northward after being incorporated into accretionary mélanges along the southern Asian margin prior to India-Asia collision. The age of the Liuqu Conglomerate is still somewhat uncertain, but new chronologic data, including biotite 40 Ar/ 39 Ar data, detrital zircon fission-track analyses, and d 13 C compositions of soil carbonates, all converge on ca. 20-19 Ma as the most probable age. Together, these results indicate that part of the north-to-south sediment transport system that existed prior to India-Asia collision and into the Eocene was reversed by ca. 20 Ma. The Liuqu Conglomerate may represent deposits associated with the paleo-Yarlung River.
The Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau is Earth's highest topographic feature, and formed largely during Cenozoic time as India collided with and subducted beneath southern Asia. The >1300 km long, late Oligocene-early Miocene Kailas basin formed within the collisional suture zone more than 35 Ma after the onset of collision, and provides a detailed picture of surface environments, processes and possible geodynamic mechanisms operating within the suture zone during the ongoing convergence of India and Asia. We present new geochronological, sedimentological, organic geochemical and palaeontological data from a previously undocumented 400 km long portion of the Kailas basin. The new data demonstrate that this part of the basin was partly occupied by large, deep, probably meromictic lakes surrounded by coal-forming swamps. Lacustrine facies include coarse-and finegrained turbidites, profundal black shales and marginal Gilbert-type deltas. Organic geochemical temperature proxies suggest that palaeolake water was warmer than 25°C, and cyprinid fish fossils indicate an ecology capable of supporting large fish. Our findings demonstrate a brief period of low elevation in the suture zone during Oligocene-Miocene time (26-21 Ma) and call for a geodynamic mechanism capable of producing a long (>1000 km) and narrow basin along the southern edge of the upper, Asian plate, long after the onset of intercontinental collision. Kailas basin deposits presently are exposed at elevations >6000 m, requiring dramatic elevation gain in the region after Kailas deposition, without strongly shortening the upper crust. Episodic Indian slab rollback, followed by break-off and subsequent renewal of flat-slab subduction, can account for features of the Kailas basin.
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