Discovery of the Paleo-Tethys residual peridotites along the Anyemaqen–KunLun suture zone (North Tibet)

The spinel peridotite from the Anyemaqen suture contains ⩾5% residual clinopyroxene and is characterized by a high abundance of the magmaphile elements Fe, Al and Ti in the primary mineral phases. Our data demonstrate that this rock represents residual mantle material, which has been affected by less than 10% partial melting prior to its emplacement. Its textural features indicate that the rock has been plastically deformed in a non-coaxial regime under lithospheric physical conditions at a relatively cool thermal regime below solidus temperature. We suggest that the peridotites from the Anyemaqen suture represent mantle material, which was either emplaced during incipient rifting on the Palaeozoic passive margin of Asia, or uplifted at slow spreading ridge setting in Paleo-Tethyan Ocean. Further researches are needed to make a definite choice between these two alternatives. To cite this article: E.A. Konstantinovskaia et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).