Oligo-Miocene shearing along the Ailao Shan–Red River shear zone: Constraints from structural analysis and zircon U/Pb geochronology of magmatic rocks in the Diancang Shan massif, SE Tibet, China

The left-lateral strike-slip shearing along the Ailao Shan–Red River (ASRR) shear zone in the Southeastern Tibet, China, has been widely advocated to be a result of the Indian–Eurasian plate collision and post-collisional processes. The Diancang Shan (DCS) massif, which occurs at the northwestern extension of the Ailao Shan massif, is a typical high-grade metamorphic complex aligned along the ASRR tectonic belt. Structural and microstructural analysis of the plutonic intrusions in the DCS revealed different types of granitic intrusions spatially confined to the shear zone and temporally related to the left-lateral shearing along the ASRR shear zone in the DCS massif. The combined structural and geochronological results of SHRIMP-II and LA-ICP-MS zircon U/Pb isotopic dating have revealed successive magmatic intrusions and crystallization related to the Oligo-Miocene shearing in the DCS massif. The pre-, early- and syn-kinematic emplacements are linked to regional high-temperature deformation (lower amphibolite facies) at relatively deep crustal levels. The zircon U/Pb geochronological results suggest that the left-lateral ductile shearing along the ASRR shear zone was initiated at ca. 31 Ma, culminated between ca. 27 and 21 Ma resulting in high-temperature metamorphic conditions and slowed down at ca. 20 Ma at relatively low-temperatures.

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► Three successive magmatic-tectonic deformation phases along the ASRR shear zone have been constrained by U/Pb dating of magmatic zircons from the DCS metamorphic massif.
► The pre-kinematic (early), syn-kinematic and post-kinematic (late) intrusions record regional high-temperature plastic deformation, subsolidus deformation and ductile shearing, respectively.
► The left-lateral ductile shearing started at ca. 31 Ma, peaked at 27–21 Ma (high temperature slow cooling) and terminated at ca. 20 Ma (low temperature rapid cooling).