ALBERT

Beschreibung: In Southeast Asia, the Jinshajiang−Ailaoshan suture in Southwest China and the Song Ma zone in Vietnam were generally accepted as the amalgamation boundary of the South China and Simao/Indochina blocks. However, the tectonic location of the Paleotethyan suture in North Laos and its tectonic affinity remain ambiguous. To address this issue, we present the geochemical and geochronological data of a set of mafic and plagiogranitic rocks along the Song Ma suture zone in North Laos. Three groups of rocks with distinctive petrological, geochronological, and geochemical signatures were identified. The ca. 370 Ma Group 1 plagioclase amphibolite was preserved as xenoliths in the ca. 260 Ma granitoids. It exhibits a normal mid−oceanic−ridge basalt (N−MORB)-like, multi-elemental pattern with highly positive εNd(t) (+3.3 to +10.7) and εHf(t) (+6.68 to +7.41) values and low δ18O values (5.3‰−5.5‰), that are interpreted as products of the Late Devonian−earliest Carboniferous continental rift setting. The ca. 270 Ma Group 2 gabbro/diabase−diorite exhibits arc-like geochemical affinity with the εNd(t), εHf(t), and δ18O values of −5.85 to −3.76, −3.8 to +3.2, and 6.6‰−7.6 ‰, respectively. It is derived from the metasomatized wedge. The ca. 260 Ma Group 3 plagiogranite shows Nb-Ta and Ti negative anomalies and positive εNd(t) (+3.21 to +4.21), εHf(t) (+8.4 to +13.6), and δ18O (5.9‰−6.8‰) values, which are indicative of its derivation from mafic oceanic crust in a subduction setting. In combination with the published data, these results support the development of the Carboniferous−Permian Paleotethyan branch in North Laos, which represents the tectonic location of the Song Ma suture zone that spatially connects the Jinshajiang−Ailaoshan suture zone in Southwest China and the Chenxing−Bangxi suture zone in Hainan Island, South China.

Beschreibung: In order to verify the early Paleozoic accretionary assemblage in the Indochina interior and constrain the Prototethyan tectonic evolution in Southeast Asia, this study presents a set of new U-Pb geochronological, elemental, and Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf-O isotopic data for the fifty-two representative granitoids in South Laos. The granitoids from the Kontum terrane, Tam Ky-Phuoc Son tectonic zone, and southern Truong Son igneous zone in South Laos yield the crystallization ages of 464−485 Ma, 455−471 Ma, and 427−446 Ma, respectively, with a northerly younging trend within the Indochina interior. They are mainly monzogranite with A/CNK = 0.96−1.99 and K2O〉Na2O, which are marked by enrichment in large-ion lithophile elements and depletion in high field strength elements with remarkable Nb-Ta, Sr-P, and Ti negative anomalies. Their initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios range from 0.70510 to 0.71559, εNd(t) from −9.5 to −3.0, (206Pb/204Pb)i from 18.65 to 19.72, (207Pb/204Pb)i from 15.66 to 15.80, and (208Pb/ 204Pb)i from 38.84 to 39.79. The corresponding zircon ɛHf(t) and δ18O values are in the range of −10.6 to +1.0 and 6.88‰ to 8.94‰, respectively. In addition, their Sr-Nd-Pb and Hf-O isotopic compositions are generally similar with those of time-equivalent granitoids in South Tibet and SW Yunnan, China, and synchronous mafic-intermediate igneous rocks in South Laos, but distinctive from those of the supracrustal sedimentary-derived South China Paleozoic granite and Lincang-Sukhothai S-type granite. The early Paleozoic granitoids in South Laos might have originated from a mixed source of the wedge-derived juvenile crust coupled with supracrustal materials. All these data synthetically suggest the southward subduction of the Tam Ky-Phuoc Son Ocean and the northerly on-growing Ordo-Silurian accretionary orogenesis within the previously defined “single-ancient” Indochina block. The assemblage of the Indochina block might initiate at ca. 430 Ma in the Silurian and terminate in the Early-Middle Devonian.