Geochronological and geochemical studies of mafic and intermediate dykes from the Khao Khwang Fold–Thrust Belt: Implications for petrogenesis and tectonic evolution
Graphical abstract
Introduction
The ‘Indosinian Orogeny’ broadly includes all the Late Palaeozoic to Early Mesozoic tectonic events related to closure of the eastern Paleo-Tethys Ocean (Cho et al., 2008). These events comprise collision of a succession of Gondwana-derived continental fragments, and volcanic arcs (Sone and Metcalfe, 2008, Metcalfe, 2013). In Thailand, the orogeny mainly developed during the Triassic and earliest Jurassic (Sone and Metcalfe, 2008, Metcalfe, 2011) and is the result of the collision between the Sibumasu, Sukhothai and Indochina Terranes (Fig. 1a). Models for the tectonic evolution of Thailand from the Indosinian Orogeny to the present have been defined using biostratigraphical, petrological, structural and geochronological data (Metcalfe and Sone, 2008, Sone and Metcalfe, 2008, Ridd and Morley, 2011, Morley et al., 2013, Arboit et al., 2014, Hansberry et al., 2014). However, a consensus on the location of the terrane boundaries, and nature and position of the relative suture zones has not been reached (Barr and Macdonald, 1991, Charusiri et al., 1994, 1997; Metcalfe, 2000). Volcanic rocks are an important tool able to provide fundamental information on the tectonic history of an area. Unfortunately, most of the volcanic and igneous rocks emplaced within central Thailand lack detailed petrochemical data and precise ages. This paper attempts to investigate the volcanic rocks and mafic dykes in the Saraburi area of central Thailand in order to understand the nature of the magma sources and the tectonic setting of their emplacement.
The igneous rocks studied are intruded within the Khao Khwang Fold–Thrust Belt (KKFTB) (Fig. 1b) and form a large igneous trend south of the KKFTB. This fold–thrust belt occupies an important position on the edge of the Nan-Sa Kaeo suture zone between Indochina and the Sukhothai volcanic arc, and are thought to correlate to the well documented volcanic bodies along the margin of these two terranes (Nakchaiya et al., 2008, Boonsoong et al., 2011) and in northern Thailand (Barr and Macdonald, 2000, 2006).
In this paper, we report new petrological data, 40Ar/39Ar mica and U–Pb zircon ages, along with both whole rock elemental and Sr–Nd isotopic data for representing dykes in the KKFTB with the aim to (1) establish an average crystallization age for the dykes, (2) unravel the origin and petrogenesis of the dykes, and, (3) constraining the compressional events affecting the Sukhothai and Indochina terranes and shed light on the tectonic evolution of the Triassic Indosinian Orogeny in central Thailand.
Section snippets
Regional setting
Ueno and Hisada (1999) and Ueno et al. (2012) proposed four geotectonic units for northern Thailand (from west to east): the Sibumasu, Inthanon, Sukhothai, and Indochina terranes, separated by the Changning–Menglian–Inthanon, and Jinghong, Nan and Sra Kaeo sutures respectively (Fig. 1a). However, the nature and the precise position of some the suture zones running through Thailand have been historically hampered by the lack of information from areas such as the western margin of the Indochina
Analytical methods
We undertook a range of geochemical and geochronological techniques to unravel the age and origin of the basaltic–andesite dyke complex and investigate the relative tectonic setting. These methods are detailed below.
Sample description and petrography
The dykes occur within the E–W to NW–SE trending hills of the KKFTB (Supplementary data-1). For this study, the freshest samples were selected for both geochemical and petrographical analyses. There are no previous studies on the igneous rocks that intruded the KKFTB, and the only geochronological constraints for this area were reported on the Late Permian early Triassic granodiorite east to the KKFTB in Morley et al. (2013). However, the ages of the igneous rocks have here been assumed on the
U/Pb dating
Rhyolitic sample T14_004 was selected for U/Pb dating. The sample consists of scattered plagioclase and feldspar phenocrysts and rare felsic and mafic clasts in a fine-grained quartzo-feldspathic groundmass. Sample T14_004 yielded zircons, which vary from fine- to coarse-grained, water-clear, colourless to pale pink or pale yellow, stubby euhedral grains. A few grains are large shard-like fragments, short or equant prisms with slightly irregular crystal faces. Thirty zircon spots were analysed,
SE Asia tectonic context
Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the Indosinian Orogeny in Thailand and Malaysia is the extensive, highly voluminous, nature of ‘I’ and ‘S’-type granites (Beckinsale, 1979) and Cobbing et al. (1986), with the Sibumasu granites west of the Raub–Bentong suture being predominantly ‘S-type’, while those east of the suture (Sukhothai-Indochina terrane) being predominantly ‘I-type’. Traditionally this division, following Chappell and White (1974), has been used to infer an Andean-type setting
Conclusions
Our new geochemical, geochronological, and isotopic data reported in this study together with the geometrical relationship between the igneous rocks and the hosting stratigraphy; provide information on the petrogenesis and mantle source origins of the rocks that intruded the KKFTB within the southwestern margin of the Indochina terrane:
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Chemically the volcanic suite can be divided into three sub-groups. They share the distributions of elements such as HFSE (Nb, Ti, P), Th, Hf, Ta, Zr, and Y
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project #DP 120101460. ASC is funded by the Australian Research Council grant #FT120100340. This is a contribution to IGCP projects #589 (Development of the Asian Tethyan Realm) and #628 (The Gondwana Map) and we gratefully acknowledge all the funding organizations. This publication forms TRaX Record #346.
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2020, Journal of Structural GeologyCitation Excerpt :The largest quarry complex (KK, Fig. 1B) in the area is 1.7 km (E-W) by 1 km (N-S), most quarries are smaller, and provide one main quarry face that is typically between 100 and 200 m long. A BSc project (Dew et al., 2018), two MSc projects (Morley et al., 2013), and a PhD project (Arboit et al., 2014, 2015, 2016a; b, 2017) have been conducted in the study area. The work has involved: 1) establishing formations ages using fusulinids (e.g. Ueno and Charoentitirat, 2011; Dew et al., 2018).