The Quxu (曲水) complex is a typical intrusive among the Gangdese batholiths. Two sets of samples collected from the Mianjiang (棉将) and Niedang (聂当) villages in Quxu County, including gabbro, mafic micro-enclaves (MME), and granodiorites in each set, were well dated in a previous SHRIMP zircon U-Pb analysis (47–51 Ma). In this article, the same zircons of the 6 samples were applied for LA ICP-MS Hf isotopic analysis. The total of 6 samples yields 176Hf/177Hf ratio ranging from 0.282 921 to 0.283 159, corresponding to εHf(t) values of 6.3–14.7. Their Hf depleted-mantle modal ages (TDM) are in the range of 137–555 Ma, and the zircon Hf isotope crustal model ages (TDMC) range from 178 to 718 Ma. The mantle-like high and positive εHf(t) values in these samples suggest a mantledominated input of the juvenile source regions from which the batholith originated. The large variations in εHf(t) values, up to 5-ε unit among zircons within a single rock and up to 15-ε unit among zircons from the 6 samples, further suggest the presence of a magma mixing event during the time of magma generation. We suggest that the crustal end-member involved in the magma mixing is likely from the ancient basement within the Lhasa terrane itself. The zircon Hf isotopic compositions further suggest that magma mixing and magma underplating at about 50 Ma may have played an important role in creating the crust of the southern Tibetan plateau.
Abundant mafic microgranular enclaves (MMEs) extensively distribute in granitoids in the Gangdise giant magmatic belt, within which the Qüxü batholith is the most typical MME-bearing pluton. Systematic sampling for granodioritic host rock, mafic microgranular enclaves and gabbro nearby at two locations in the Qüxü batholith, and subsequent zircon SHRIMP II U-Pb dating have been conducted. Two sets of isotopic ages for granodioritic host rock, mafic microgranular enclaves and gabbro are 50.4±1.3 Ma, 51.2±1.1 Ma, 47.0±l Ma and 49.3±1.7 Ma, 48.9±1.1 Ma, 49.9±1.7 Ma, respectively. It thus rules out the possibilities of mafic microgranular enclaves being refractory residues after partial melting of magma source region, or being xenoliths of country rocks or later intrusions.Therefore, it is believed that the three types of rocks mentioned above likely formed in the same magmatic event, i.e., they formed by magma mixing in the Eocene (c. 50 Ma). Compositionally, granitoid host rocks incline towards acidic end member involved in magma mixing, gabbros are akin to basic end member and mafic microgranular enclaves are the incompletely mixed basic magma clots trapped in acidic magma. The isotopic dating also suggested that huge-scale magma mixing in the Gangdise belt took place 15-20 million years after the initiation of the India-Asia continental collision, genetically related to the underplating of subduction-collision-induced basic magma at the base of the continental crust. Underplating and magma mixing were likely the main process of mass-energy exchange between the mantle and the crust during the continental collision, and greatly contributed to the accretion of the continental crust, the evolution of the lithosphere and related mineralization beneath the portion of the Tibetan Plateau to the north of the collision zone.
