Spatiotemporal Variation of the Cretaceous‐Eocene Arc Magmatism in Lhasa‐Tengchong Terrane.

It was recognized that two magmatic belts in the Lhasa‐Tengchong terrane formed due to the Mesozoic‐Cenozoic Tethyan evolution. Still, their spatiotemporal variations of magmatic flare‐ups/lulls are rarely discussed. Here we use the new U‐Pb and Lu‐Hf isotopic data of captured zircons and a comprehensive data set to show that the flare‐up of northern magmatic belt has peak ages of 110 Ma in central and northern Lhasa and 120 Ma in eastern Tengchong, possibly related to the tectonic transition from Meso‐ and Neo‐Tethyan double subduction to Neo‐Tethyan single subduction. For the southern magmatic belt, the flare‐ups at 100–85 Ma and 65–45 Ma in eastern southern Lhasa indicate obvious juvenile crustal growth, while flare‐ups at 75–45 Ma in western southern Lhasa and Tengchong record ancient crustal reworking. Such flare‐up variations in the southern magmatic belt possibly resulted from asynchronous changes in the Neo‐Tethyan slab dip. Plain Language Summary: The Tethyan slab subduction and following collision of India and Asia produced two magmatic belts in the Lhasa‐Tengchong terrane. How did the magmatic flare‐ups or high‐flux episodes and sources spatiotemporally vary? We combine the new U‐Pb and Lu‐Hf isotopic data of captured zircons (xenocrystic zircons caught by volcanics from country rocks) and a comprehensive data set to show that the peak ages of early Cretaceous flare‐up of the northern magmatic belt are ca.10 Ma younger in central and northern Lhasa than in eastern Tengchong, possibly related to the diachronous closure of the Meso‐Tethys and flat subduction of the Neo‐Tethys. The southern magmatic belt in Tengchong and western southern Lhasa exhibit 75–45 Ma flare‐ups featured by the reworking of ancient crust, different from the eastern southern Lhasa with the flare‐ups at 100–85 Ma and 65–45 Ma which are dominated by the juvenile crustal growth. Such flare‐up variations may be related to changes of the Neo‐Tethyan slab dip. Key Points: The Neo‐Tethyan arc has asynchronous magmatic flare‐ups and diverse magmatic sourcesThe spatiotemporal changes of slab dip triggered the asynchronous flare‐ups of the Neo‐Tethyan arc [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]