Lower Permian limestone associated with ocean floor rocks in the Inthanon Zone of northern Thailand: new evidence for mélange

Abstract

Scattered outcrops of various lithologies such as limestone, chert, sandstone, mudstone or shale, and microgabbro have been recently exposed in the Hariphunchai Education Center of Chiang Mai University (HECCMU), the northern Lamphun area of the northern Thailand. The outcrops are located in the Inthanon Zone where Palaeo-Tethyan ocean plate stratigraphy is well known. Field and microfacies analysis of limestone blocks recognizes four microfacies interpreted as low-energy lagoon or platform interior and reef flank or shoal of fore-reef. Foraminiferas from the limestone are the Sakmarian (lower Cisuralian) to Kungurian (upper Cisuralian) of the early Permian in age. Field and petrographic analysis of co-occurring radiolarian chert, microgabbro, pelagic mudstone, and turbidites suggest that the limestone blocks were mid-oceanic carbonate build-ups on seamount which were chaotically mixed with oceanic rocks such as chert and gabbro and then embedded in shale matrix. It is concluded that the outcrops are part of mélange formed during the Palaeo-Tethys closure and are significant in representing the Cisuralian (lower Permian) carbonate remnant in the mélange of the Inthanon Zone.