Australian Heritage for the North Lhasa Terrane

The Precambrian history of the Lhasa terrane, southern Tibet is intensely debated, which hinders global plate tectonic reconstructions throughout the Proterozoic. Previous research on Precambrian basement has suggested that the Lhasa terrane originated from India or Africa, although the paucity of exposed pre-Neoproterozoic rocks in the North Lhasa terrane (NL) has led to significant uncertainty. We document newly identified Neoarchean granites and Mesoproterozoic Guomangtso Suite from the NL. These pre-Neoproterozoic rocks reveal a 2.62 Ga anorogenic rifting event and a 1.30–1.10 Ga transition from subduction to back-arc extension, related to the 2.7–2.6 Ga rifting of the Pilbara Craton and the Proterozoic assembly between the North and West Australian Cratons, respectively. However, these tectono-magmatic events have no equivalents in the South Lhasa terrane (SL). These observations suggest that the NL originated from Western Australia, and the NL and SL may have distinct origins.