Mesozoic to Cenozoic magmatic history of the Pamir

New geochronologic, geochemical, and isotopic data for Mesozoic to Cenozoic igneous rocks and detrital minerals from the Pamir Mountains help to distinguish major regional magmatic episodes and constrain the tectonic evolution of the Pamir orogenic system. After final accretion of the Central and South Pamir terranes during the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic, the P amir was largely amagmatic until the emplacement of the intermediate (SiO2 > 60 wt.%), talc-alkaline, and isotopically evolved (-13 to -5 zircon epsilon Hf-(t)) South Pamir batholith between 120-100 Ma, which is the most volumetrically significant magmatic complex in the Pamir and includes a high flux magmatic event at similar to 105 Ma. The South Pamir batholith is interpreted as the northern (inboard) equivalent of the Cretaceous Karakoram batholith and the along-strike equivalent of an Early Cretaceous magmatic belt in the northern Lhasa terrane in Tibet. The northern Lhasa terrane is characterized by a similar high-flux event at similar to 110 Ma. Migration of continental arc magmatism into the South Pamir terrane during the mid-Cretaceous is interpreted to reflect northward directed, low-angle to flat-slab subduction of the Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere. Late Cretaceous magmatism (80-70 Ma) in the Pamir is scarce, but concentrated in the Central and northern South Pamir terranes where it is comparatively more mafic (SiO2 2500 km across the Pamir and northern Qiangtang terrane in Tibet. All of these complexes are located directly south of the Tanymas-Jinsha suture zone, an important lithospheric and rheological boundary that focused mantle lithosphere deformation after India-Asia collision. Miocene magmatism (20-10 Ma) in the Pamir includes: 1) isotopically evolved migmatite and leucogranite related to crustal anataxis and decompression melting within extensional gneiss domes, and; 2) localized intra-continental magmatism in the Dunkeldik/Taxkorgan complex. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.NSF [EAR-1419748, EAR-1450899, EAR-1338583]; Romanian Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation [PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0127]; EarthScope Award for Geochronology Student Research24 month embargo; published online: 16 November 2017This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu