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Age and tectonic setting of the East Taiwan Ophiolite: implications for the growth and development of the South China Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

ROBERT B.-J. HSIEH ,
J. GREGORY SHELLNUTT  and
MENG-WAN YEH
ROBERT B.-J. HSIEH
Affiliation:
National Taiwan Normal University, Department of Earth Sciences, 88 Tingzhou Road Section 4, Taipei 11677, Taiwan
J. GREGORY SHELLNUTT*
Affiliation:
National Taiwan Normal University, Department of Earth Sciences, 88 Tingzhou Road Section 4, Taipei 11677, Taiwan
MENG-WAN YEH
Affiliation:
National Taiwan Normal University, Department of Earth Sciences, 88 Tingzhou Road Section 4, Taipei 11677, Taiwan
*
*Author for correspondence: jgshelln@ntnu.edu.tw
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Abstract

The South China Sea is one of the youngest marginal seas and understanding its development is important for reconstructing the tectonic evolution of Southeast Asia. The South China Sea is thought to have been actively spreading between 32 Ma and 15.5 Ma. The East Taiwan Ophiolite (ETO) is one of the few preserved remnants of the South China Sea on land and provides an opportunity to investigate the age and the tectonic setting of the accreted easternmost portion. The age of the ETO was obtained by LA-ICP-MS in situ zircon U–Pb methods and yielded a mean 206Pb–238U age of 14.1±0.4 Ma, suggesting that magmatic activity in the South China Sea continued ~1.5 million years beyond current estimates. Cr-spinel data (Cr no. = 42–54) and depleted εNd(t) values (i.e. +9.1 to +11.4) from the serpentinized peridotites and gabbros and the light rare earth element depleted patterns (La/Yb ≤ 1) of the ETO mafic rocks are consistent with a ridge setting (i.e. N-MORB composition). Therefore, the ETO likely represents the terminal portion of the South China Sea spreading ridge that was sheared off during the northward translation of the Luzon arc.

Keywords

South China SeaEast Taiwan OphioliteCr-spinelmid-ocean ridgeserpentinized peridotite
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 154 , Issue 3 , May 2017 , pp. 441 - 455
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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