Abstract. We present a database of cosmogenic radionuclide and luminescence measurements in fluvial sediment. With support from the Australian National Data Service (ANDS) we have built infrastructure for hosting and maintaining the data at the University of Wollongong and making this available to the research community via an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)-compliant web service. The cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN) part of the database consists of 10Be and 26Al measurements in modern fluvial sediment samples from across the globe, along with ancillary geospatial vector and raster layers, including sample site, basin outline, digital elevation model, gradient raster, flow-direction and flow-accumulation rasters, atmospheric pressure raster, and CRN production scaling and topographic shielding factor rasters. Sample metadata are comprehensive and include all necessary information for the recalculation of denudation rates using CAIRN, an open-source program for calculating basin-wide denudation rates from 10Be and 26Al data. Further all data have been recalculated and harmonised using the same program. The luminescence part of the database consists of thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements in fluvial sediment samples from stratigraphic sections and sediment cores from across the Australian continent and includes ancillary vector and raster geospatial data. The database can be interrogated and downloaded via a custom-built web map service. More advanced interrogation and exporting to various data formats, including the ESRI Shapefile and Google Earth's KML, is also possible via the Web Feature Service (WFS) capability running on the OCTOPUS server. Use of open standards also ensures that data layers are visible to other OGC-compliant data-sharing services. OCTOPUS and its associated data curation framework provide the opportunity for researchers to reuse previously published but otherwise unusable CRN and luminescence data. This delivers the potential to harness old but valuable data that would otherwise be lost to the research community. OCTOPUS can be accessed at https://earth.uow.edu.au (last access: 28 November 2018). The individual data collections can also be accessed via the following DOIs: https://doi.org/10.4225/48/5a8367feac9b2 (CRN International), https://doi.org/10.4225/48/5a836cdfac9b5 (CRN Australia), and https://doi.org/10.4225/48/5a836db1ac9b6 (OSL & TL Australia).

The Spongtang Massif is a remnant of Neotethyan ocean crust emplaced onto the Indian passive margin along the Indus-Yarlung-Tsangpo Suture in the NW Himalayan region of Ladakh. The age, tectonic evolution and timing of ophiolite obduction are critical to our understanding of the mechanisms via which entire oceans are formed, consumed and partly preserved before the onset of terminal continentcontinent collisions. Geochemistry of the gabbro and basaltic units suggest the presence of both MORBtype and primitive arc-related mafic rocks. Zircons extracted from the Spongtang Massif gabbros yield U-Pb (SHRIMP) ages of 136-133 Ma with initial εHfvalues of +14 to +16, indicating Early Cretaceous juvenile, depleted mantle sources devoid of contamination by older continental crust. Previously, Middle Jurassic (~177 Ma) zircon ages were obtained from gabbro and we suggest these represent MORB-type Neotethyan oceanic crust through which a younger intra-oceanic island-arc (Spong arc) developed in response to subduction initiation during the Early Cretaceous (~136 Ma). Our zircon ages are consistent with Early Cretaceous ages obtained for radiolarian cherts within the Spong Arc complex. Subduction beneath the Spong Arc continued until its collision with the northern Indian continental margin during the early Eocene. We suggest that the Spongtang Massif is equivalent to the nearby Dras island arc terrane. Intra-oceanic subduction beneath this system was possibly initiated along NNE-SSW trending transform faults in the Neotethyan Ocean, along which different ages of ocean crust was juxtaposed, thereby development of the Early Cretaceous Spong Arc is superimposed on the older Jurassic Spongtang N-MORB crust. The juvenile ɛHfsignature indicates the subduction system that spawned the Spong island arc was not related to the coeval Trans-Himalayan (Ladakh-Gangdese) arc that developed along the southern margin of Eurasia. The age, composition and nature of geological relationships with the underlying Indian rocks indicate the Spong Arc was a juvenile, intra-oceanic terrane that first collided with India before the onset of final continent-continent collision. Therefore, final late Eocene Neotethys closure was between the Kohistan-Ladakh (Eurasian) continental arc and the already inactive Indian + Spongtang margin.

sharing services. Thus, OCTOPUS will turn data that was previously invisible to those not within the CRN and luminescence research communities into a findable resource. This aspect is of importance to industry or local government who are yet to 15 discover the value of geochronological data in, amongst others, placing human impacts on the environment into context. The availability of the repository and its associated data curation framework will provide the opportunity for researchers to store, curate, recalculate and re-use previously published but otherwise unusable CRN and luminescence data. This delivers the potential to harness old but valuable data that would otherwise be 'lost' to the research community. The streamlined repository and transparent data re-analysis framework will also reduce research time and avoid duplication of effort, which will be highly 20 attractive to other researchers. OCTOPUS can be accessed at https://earth.uow.edu.au. The data collections can also be ac-1 Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi

The Gubaoquan eclogite occurs in the Paleozoic Beishan Orogen of NW China. Previously it has been interpreted as a fragment of subducted oceanic crust that was emplaced as a mélange within continental rocks. Contrary to this, we demonstrate that the Gubaoquan eclogite protolith was a Neoproterozoic basic dyke/sill which intruded into Proterozoic continental rocks. The SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating of the metamorphic rims of the Gubaoquan eclogite yields an age 466 ± 27 Ma. Subdued heavy rare earth element abundances and lack of negative Eu anomalies of the metamorphic zircon domains confirm that this age represents eclogite facies metamorphism. The host augen orthogneiss has a U-Pb zircon age of 920 ± 14 Ma, representing the timing of crystallization of the granitic protolith. A leucogranitic vein which intrudes the eclogite has a U-Pb zircon age of 424 ± 8.6 Ma. This granitic vein marks the end of high-grade metamorphism in this area. The overcomplication of tectonic history of the Beishan Orogen is partially caused by inconsistent classifications and nomenclature of the same rock units and arbitrary subdivisions of Precambrian blocks as individual microcontinents. In an attempt to resolve this, we propose a simpler model that involves the partial subduction of the northern passive margin of the

The Shyok Suture in western Himalaya preserves a record of the opening and closure of the Mesotethys Ocean between the Shyok ophiolite and Karakoram terrane prior to the India–Eurasia collision. The formation age of the Shyok ophiolite was unknown, which impeded correlation with similar rocks along the Shyok Suture in Pakistan and corresponding sutures in Tibet. We report the first zircon U–Pb ages of a newly documented suite, here named the Changmar Complex. The Changmar Complex gabbronorite and plagiogranite yielded SHRIMP U–Pb zircon Late Jurassic ages of 159.4 ± 0.9 Ma and 151.9 ± 1.5 Ma. Their highly positive initial εHf values (+14.9 to +16.9) indicate a juvenile mantle origin, without continental crust influence on the magma source. The Shyok ophiolite represents either: (1) a separate island arc that preceded formation of the Cretaceous–Eocene Ladakh Arc; or (2) the oldest magmatism and early stage of the Ladakh Arc. Intrusive and extrusive mafic rocks from the Shyok Suture analysed in this study have typical supra-subduction zone enrichment characteristics in their geochemistry and are classified as part of the volcanic-arc ophiolite. The U–Pb age and Hf isotopic signatures for the Shyok ophiolite are similar to the Late Jurassic Matum Das tonalite within the Kohistan Arc; we therefore suggest that they are part of the same intra-oceanic island-arc system that formed in the Mesotethys Ocean prior to Late Jurassic time.