The Bangong Lake ophiolite is located in the westernmost part of the Bangong Lake-Nujiang River suture zone. It is a tectonic mélange consisting of numerous individual blocks of peridotite, pillowed and massive lavas and mafic dykes with SSZ-type ophiolitic geochemical affinity formed at the end of a Wilson circle. The SHRIMP U-Pb ages of the co-magmatic zircon domains from one gabbroic dyke (Sample 01Y-155) range from 162.5±8.6 Ma to 177.1±1.4 Ma with an average of 167.0±1.4 Ma (n = 12, MSWD = 1.2), suggesting that the subduction of the Bangong Lake Neo-Tethyan Ocean started before the Middle Jurassic. It is inferred that the tectonic transform from spreading to subduction of the Neo-Tethyan Ocean began before the Middle Jurassic in the Bangong Lake area.
SHI RenDeng1,2 1 School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
