Detrital Mineral Record of the Central Myanmar Basin and implications for the evolution of the eastern Himalayan margin

Abstract:

Single grain detrital thermochronology (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar white mica, zircon fission track and Lu-Hf analysis) of Eocene, Oligocene and Miocene sedimentary rocks from the Central Myanmar Basin permits the identification of tectonothermal events in the source areas, and an understanding of how exhumation histories and changing provenance are related to the palaeogeography of the West Burma block during India-Asia collision. Robinson et al. (2014) used detrital zircon U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopic analysis to show that Eocene and Oligocene sedimentary rocks were primarily sourced from the Gangdese magmatic arc that lies exclusively within the southern Lhasa terrane, and that the Yarlung Tsangpo and Irrawaddy River were connected at this time. Detrital thermochronology reveal these Paleogene deposits contain broadly distributed, mainly pre-Himalayan ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar white mica cooling ages, reflecting the contribution from multiple source areas with a cooling history that is similar to the Lhasa terrane. A distinct change in provenance to a single, sustained source area during deposition of the Miocene units is recorded by a white mica ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar cooling age peak of 37 Ma and a lesser peak of 17 – 21 Ma that is also observed in detrital zircon fission track age data. These two age peaks, 37 Ma and 17 – 21 Ma, likely reflect an initial period of crustal thickening, metamorphism and exhumation in the southern Mogok Metamorphic Belt, and a later phase of exhumation associated with deformation in the eastern syntaxis and the onset of extension in Myanmar and other parts of SE Asia. The latter events are also associated with the disconnection of the Yarlung Tsangpo from the Irrawaddy River around 18 Ma (Robinson et al., 2014). The combined dataset provides constraints on the position and movement of the West Burma block from the Late Eocene to Early Miocene, supports an Oligocene (~37 Ma) age for the timing of India-West Burma-Sibumasu coupling, and an Early Miocene age for extension-related exhumation associated with deformation in the eastern Himalayan region.

Robinson, RAJ, Brezina, CA, Parrish, RR, Horstwood, MSA, Nay Win, O, Bird, MI, Myint, T, Walters, AS, Oliver, GJH, and Khin, Z, (2014) Large rivers and orogens: The evolution of the Yarlung Tsangpo–Irrawaddy system and the eastern Himalayan syntaxis: Gondwana Research, 26, 112-121.