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Issue: Vol. 1 No. 3: September 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-09-27
DOI: 10.11646/mesozoic.1.3.13
Page range: 331–339
Abstract views: 54
PDF downloaded: 38

An Early Cretaceous radiolarian assemblage from the strata south to the Zhongba microterrane in the Zhongba area, southern Tibet

State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 10084 China
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 China
State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 10084 China
School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024 China
Yarlung-Tsangpo suture zone radiolarians Early Cretaceous Zhongba microterrane

Abstract

The presence of the Zhongba microterrane causes the Yarlung–Tsangpo suture zone to be bifurcated into two parts in its western segment: the Northern Ophiolitic Belt and Southern Ophiolitic Belt. This indicates that the evolution of the Neo-Tethys Ocean in the western segment is more complex than previous interpretation. Between the Southern Ophiolitic Belt and the Zhongba microterrane, there exists a successive stratigraphic sequence. In this study, a total of 15 genera belonging to 20 species of radiolarians were identified from the siliceous strata of the Dangxin Formation within this sequence, constraining the age of the Dangxin Formation to the Barremian, Early Cretaceous. Additionally, a stratigraphic column was constructed based on the basic understanding of this stratigraphic sequence from regional geological surveys, and it was compared with deep-water sediments in the Tethyan Himalaya. The results show that this sequence can be correlated with the Rilang, Duobeng, Chuangde, and Zongzhuo formations, which were deposited on the passive margin of the Indian plate.

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