Petrology and geochemistry of peridotites in the Zhongba ophiolite, Yarlung Zangbo Suture Zone: Implications for the Early Cretaceous intra-oceanic subduction zone within the Neo-Tethys

The Zhongba ophiolite is located in the western part of the Yarlung Zangbo Suture Zone (YZSZ) separating Eurasia to the north from the Indian plate to the south. This ophiolite comprises a well-preserved mantle sequence dominated by harzburgites with minor dunites. Highly depleted modal, mineral and bulk rock compositions of the harzburgites indicate that they are residues after moderate to high degrees of partial melting (13–24%) mainly in the spinel-stability field. These rocks display typical U-shaped chondrite-normalized Rare Earth Element (REE) patterns and fractionated chondrite-normalized Platinum Group Element (PGE) patterns. These characteristics, in combination with their hybrid mineral and whole-rock compositions intermediate between those of abyssal and forearc peridotites, indicate melt-rock interaction resulting in the selective enrichment of LREE and Pd. We propose a two-stage model to explain the generation of the Zhongba harzburgites: 1) original generation from a MORB-source upper mantle, and 2) subsequent trapping as part of a mantle wedge above a subduction zone. Comparable observations from the ophiolitic massifs along the whole YZSZ allow us to propose that a ca. 2500-km long complex subduction system was active between India and the Lhasa terrane, Burma, and the Karakoram microcontinent within the Neo-Tethys during the Early Cretaceous, similar to the modern active intra-oceanic subduction systems in the Western Pacific.

► The Zhongba peridotites display typical U-shaped REE and fractionated PGE patterns.
► They have hybrid mineral and whole-rock compositions.
► They display evidence for melt-rock interaction.
► An intra-oceanic subduction system was active within the Neo-Tethys during the Cretaceous.