Melting conditions in the modern Tibetan crust since the Miocene

Jinyu Chen; Fabrice Gaillard; Arnaud Villaros; Xiaosong Yang; Mickael Laumonier; Laurent Jolivet; Martyn Unsworth; Leïla Hashim; Bruno Scaillet; Guillaume Richard

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05934-7

Melting conditions in the modern Tibetan crust since the Miocene

Jinyu Chen, Fabrice Gaillard, Arnaud Villaros, Xiaosong Yang, Mickael Laumonier, Laurent Jolivet, Martyn Unsworth, Leïla Hashim, Bruno Scaillet, Guillaume Richard

Earth and Environmental Sciences-Twin Cities

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

47 Scopus citations

Abstract

Abundant granitic rocks exposed in ancient mountain belts suggest that crustal melting plays a major role in orogenic processes. However, complex field relations and superposition of multiple tectonic events make it difficult to determine the role of melting in orogenesis. In contrast, geophysical measurements image present-day crustal conditions but cannot discriminate between partial melt and aqueous fluids. Here we connect pressure–temperature paths of Himalayan Miocene crustal rocks to the present-day conditions beneath the Tibetan plateau imaged with geophysical data. We use measurements of electrical conductivity to show that 4–16% water-rich melt is required to explain the crustal conductivity in the north-western Himalaya. In southern Tibet, higher melt fractions >30% reflect a crust that is either fluid-enriched (+1% H₂O) or hotter (+100 °C) compared to the Miocene crust. These melt fractions are high enough for the partially molten rocks to be significantly weaker than the solid crust.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	3515
Journal	Nature communications
Volume	9
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05934-7
State	Published - Dec 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Part of this study was financially supported by the Special Fund for Earthquake-Scientific Research in the Public Interest (Grant no. 20150818), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 41372202 and 41672197), while the experimental work was supported by the European Research Council (Grant no. 279790). J.C. acknowledges the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for a visiting scholarship to Université d’Orléans, Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans (ISTO). A.V. acknowledges funding from Labex VOLTAIRE (ANR-10-LABX-100-01) and the ANR program VARPEG (ANR-15-CE01-0001). We thank Qingbao Duan and Lining Cheng for providing us samples of leucogranitic bulk rocks and the thin sections of gneisses from Purang county and Nyalam county in Tibet of China P.R., David Sifré for helping us with the experiments of electrical conductivity measurements, and Giada Iacono Marziano and Ida Di Carlo for analytical assistance.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).

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title = "Melting conditions in the modern Tibetan crust since the Miocene",

abstract = "Abundant granitic rocks exposed in ancient mountain belts suggest that crustal melting plays a major role in orogenic processes. However, complex field relations and superposition of multiple tectonic events make it difficult to determine the role of melting in orogenesis. In contrast, geophysical measurements image present-day crustal conditions but cannot discriminate between partial melt and aqueous fluids. Here we connect pressure–temperature paths of Himalayan Miocene crustal rocks to the present-day conditions beneath the Tibetan plateau imaged with geophysical data. We use measurements of electrical conductivity to show that 4–16% water-rich melt is required to explain the crustal conductivity in the north-western Himalaya. In southern Tibet, higher melt fractions >30% reflect a crust that is either fluid-enriched (+1% H2O) or hotter (+100 °C) compared to the Miocene crust. These melt fractions are high enough for the partially molten rocks to be significantly weaker than the solid crust.",

author = "Jinyu Chen and Fabrice Gaillard and Arnaud Villaros and Xiaosong Yang and Mickael Laumonier and Laurent Jolivet and Martyn Unsworth and Le{\"i}la Hashim and Bruno Scaillet and Guillaume Richard",

note = "Funding Information: Part of this study was financially supported by the Special Fund for Earthquake-Scientific Research in the Public Interest (Grant no. 20150818), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 41372202 and 41672197), while the experimental work was supported by the European Research Council (Grant no. 279790). J.C. acknowledges the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for a visiting scholarship to Universit{\'e} d{\textquoteright}Orl{\'e}ans, Institut des Sciences de la Terre d{\textquoteright}Orl{\'e}ans (ISTO). A.V. acknowledges funding from Labex VOLTAIRE (ANR-10-LABX-100-01) and the ANR program VARPEG (ANR-15-CE01-0001). We thank Qingbao Duan and Lining Cheng for providing us samples of leucogranitic bulk rocks and the thin sections of gneisses from Purang county and Nyalam county in Tibet of China P.R., David Sifr{\'e} for helping us with the experiments of electrical conductivity measurements, and Giada Iacono Marziano and Ida Di Carlo for analytical assistance. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018, The Author(s).",

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AU - Gaillard, Fabrice

AU - Villaros, Arnaud

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AU - Jolivet, Laurent

AU - Unsworth, Martyn

AU - Hashim, Leïla

AU - Scaillet, Bruno

AU - Richard, Guillaume

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N2 - Abundant granitic rocks exposed in ancient mountain belts suggest that crustal melting plays a major role in orogenic processes. However, complex field relations and superposition of multiple tectonic events make it difficult to determine the role of melting in orogenesis. In contrast, geophysical measurements image present-day crustal conditions but cannot discriminate between partial melt and aqueous fluids. Here we connect pressure–temperature paths of Himalayan Miocene crustal rocks to the present-day conditions beneath the Tibetan plateau imaged with geophysical data. We use measurements of electrical conductivity to show that 4–16% water-rich melt is required to explain the crustal conductivity in the north-western Himalaya. In southern Tibet, higher melt fractions >30% reflect a crust that is either fluid-enriched (+1% H2O) or hotter (+100 °C) compared to the Miocene crust. These melt fractions are high enough for the partially molten rocks to be significantly weaker than the solid crust.

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Melting conditions in the modern Tibetan crust since the Miocene

Abstract

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