Interplay between oceanic subduction and continental collision in building continental crust

Di-Cheng Zhu (), Qing Wang, Roberto F. Weinberg, Peter A. Cawood, Sun-Lin Chung, Yong-Fei Zheng, Zhidan Zhao, Zeng-Qian Hou and Xuan-Xue Mo
Additional contact information
Di-Cheng Zhu: China University of Geosciences
Qing Wang: China University of Geosciences
Roberto F. Weinberg: Monash University
Peter A. Cawood: Monash University
Sun-Lin Chung: National Taiwan University
Yong-Fei Zheng: University of Science and Technology of China
Zhidan Zhao: China University of Geosciences
Zeng-Qian Hou: Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences
Xuan-Xue Mo: China University of Geosciences

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Generation of continental crust in collision zones reflect the interplay between oceanic subduction and continental collision. The Gangdese continental crust in southern Tibet developed during subduction of the Neo-Tethyan oceanic slab in the Mesozoic prior to reworking during the India-Asia collision in the Cenozoic. Here we show that continental arc magmatism started with fractional crystallization to form cumulates and associated medium-K calc-alkaline suites. This was followed by a period commencing at ~70 Ma dominated by remelting of pre-existing lower crust, producing more potassic compositions. The increased importance of remelting coincides with an acceleration in the convergence rate between India and Asia leading to higher basaltic flow into the Asian lithosphere, followed by convergence deceleration due to slab breakoff, enabling high heat flow and melting of the base of the arc. This two-stage process of accumulation and remelting leads to the chemical maturation of juvenile continental crust in collision zones, strengthening crustal stratification.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34826-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-34826-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34826-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().