Discovery of Late Cretaceous basalts in the Asuo area, Central Tibet: Implications for orogenic root removal beneath the Lhasa-Qiangtang orogenic belt

Abstract

Post-collisional mafic rocks provide valuable insights into the mantle properties and evolution of orogenic belts. However, their origins remain unknown. In this study, comprehensive age, elemental, and zircon Lu–Hf isotopic data are presented for mafic dikes from the Asuo area of the Central Tibetan Plateau. The Asuo mafic dikes exhibit typical arc-related characteristics such as enrichment in large-ion lithophile elements and depletion in high-field-strength elements. This sodium-rich calc-alkaline mafic rocks has low K₂O contents (0.98–1.26 wt%) and high Na₂O/K₂O ratios (2.55–2.97). The presence of xenolith zircons and varying zircon Hf isotopic composition [ε_Hf(t): 1.33–8.32] indicate that the mafic magma assimilated juvenile crust. Zircon U-Pb dating results suggest that the Asuo mafic rocks were emplaced contemporaneously with the adakite-like rocks during ∼ 95–75 Ma. However, no genetic link between Asuo mafic rocks and the adakite-like rocks in the Lhasa–Qiangtang Orogenic belt was observed. The primary contribution of mantle-derived mafic magmas to the formation of coeval intermediate–felsic magmas is the provision of additional heat. The mass exchange between them may be limited. We suggest a geodynamic scenario in which the orogenic root may have been removed during the post-collisional period via repeated and localized lithospheric dripping. In this model, the formation of mafic and adakite-like intrusions occurred in two stages, that is, (1) partial melting of metasomatized lithospheric mantle generated mafic melts, and (2) underplating of these mafic melts beneath the thickened juvenile lower crust, which resulted in partial melting of the juvenile mafic lower crust and generation of adakite-like melts. Our results provide new insights into the magmatism in the terminal stage of an orogenic system.