Initial opening of the Neotethyan Ocean in SE Asia: Constraints from Triassic magmatism and sedimentation

Abstract

How the Neotethyan Ocean evolved and extended southwards into Southeast Asia remains controversial. The paleographical correlation between India and the SE Asian blocks and/or terranes before the opening of the Neotethys and the initial opening time of the Neotethys is still unknown. The lack of this knowledge hampers our further understanding of the tectonic evolution of global Neotethys. Here we present a combined study on Triassic magmatism in the Tengchong Block and Triassic sedimentation in the Myitkyina area, located on the two sides of the Tagaung-Myitkyina Ophiolite Belt of northern Myanmar. Our results coupled with previous data demonstrate that a Triassic continental magmatic arc developed in the Tengchong Block and that the Triassic Myitkyina sedimentary sequence was part of the Tethyan Himalayan Langjiexue Group in northern India. Moreover, the Tengchong Triassic magmatic arc provided important detrital inputs to the whole Langjiexue Group of northern India. Such a provenance is the best explanation for the Permian−Triassic detrital zircons of the Langjuexue Group. Together, we propose that the Tagaung-Myitkyina Ophiolites in northern Myanmar are the relics of the Neotethyan Ocean rather than the Mesotethyan Ocean (Bangong-Nujiang Ocean) in SE Asia, and that the initial opening time of the Neotethys was the Early Jurassic of 200−190 Ma. Then, the earliest (185−165 Ma) intra-oceanic arc akin to the Izu-Bonin-Mariana arc in the West Pacific, developed soon after the Late Triassic opening of the Neotethys.