The Upper Triassic deposits of the west Bangong-Nujiang suture zone and their paleogeographic implications

Abstract

The Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone (BNSZ) of Tibet (Xizang) has been interpreted to represent a relic of the Bangong-Nujiang Ocean. However, the existence of this ocean during Triassic time remains a point of contention. A sedimentary succession spanning the Upper Permian through Triassic described from the central BNSZ suggests that the Lhasa and South Qiangtang terranes were contiguous thus negating the existence of a terrane-separating ocean during Triassic time. However, the apparent lack of Triassic deposits in the west BNSZ has called into question the existence of Triassic deposits in the central region of the BNSZ. Our biostratigraphic work in the Wuga Formation of the Gaize area has yielded abundant Norian conodonts thus confirming the existence of Upper Triassic deposits in the west BNSZ. The clastic deposits of the Wuga Formation are herein interpreted to be of Rhaetian age. Moreover, intercalated limestone and chert are termed the Dongnale Formation of Norian age. The Norian to Rhaetian succession can be correlated with strata of the central BNSZ as well as with deposits of the Lhasa Terrane and the South Qiangtang Terrane. Similar stratigraphies among these regions through the Late Triassic suggests a shared depositional setting and that the BNSZ was not an ocean in Norian and Rhaetian time.

Discovery of Late Triassic bivalves from Jurassic deep-water deposits in Riganpeicuo area, Tibet and their geological significance

“…The Bangong-Nujiang suture zone (BNS), which lies between the Qiangtang block and the Lhasa block, is a relic of the closure and cessation of the Bangong-Nujiang Meso-Tethys Ocean (BNMO). This zone has great geological significance for studying major geological processes, such as the tectonic evolution of the BNMO, the initiation of rifting of the northern margin of Gondwana and the development of the Asian plate 1 – 4 .…”