Late Cretaceous charnockite with adakitic affinities from the Gangdese batholith, southeastern Tibet: Evidence for Neo-Tethyan mid-ocean ridge subduction?

The Gangdese batholith emplaced during the time span of Cretaceous to Neogene in the southern Lhasa terrane of Tibet has been considered as a major constituent of an Andean-type convergent margin derived from the northward subduction of the Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere under Asia. Whereas previous studies assigned the Gangdese granitoids to be comprised predominantly of calc-alkaline rocks, here we report a suite of charnockites from the eastern part of the belt and characterize their petrology, geochemistry and age. These rocks possess an assemblage of andesine, enstatite, diopside, calcic amphibole, Ti-rich biotite, quartz and minor K-feldspar. Geochemically, they are characterized by intermediate SiO2 (54–63 wt.%), relatively high Al2O3 (15.9–18.9 wt.%), REE (55.7–89.4 ppm) and Sr (419.6–619.4 ppm), and low Y (11.3–17.2 ppm) and Yb (1.2–1.8 ppm) concentrations. The rocks display geochemical affinities similar to those of adakites derived from the partial melting of a subducted slab, and also can be compared to magnesian charnockites formed within a continental magmatic arc. The crystallization conditions of the charnockites were estimated at 900 °C and 1.0 GPa. LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb analyses of eleven samples yield consistent 206Pb/238U weighted mean ages of 86 to 90 Ma, indicating that the charnockites were emplaced in the Late Cretaceous. Considering the coeval calc-alkaline magmatism and high-temperature granulite-facies metamorphism, we propose that such high-temperature and low-H2O activity charnockites were derived through Neo-Tethyan mid-ocean ridge subduction before the collision of India with the Asian continent.