Origin and evolution of Suru Valley ophiolite peridotite slice along Indus suture zone, Ladakh Himalaya, India: Implications on melt-rock interaction in a subduction-zone environment

Alteration of primary Cr-spinel mineral composition from the Suru Valley ophiolitic peridotites, Ladakh Himalaya: Their low-temperature metamorphic implications

“…The serpentine pseudomorph after olivine is mainly chrysotile and/ or lizardite in studied serpentinised peridotites (figure 2a). The presence of the bastite pseudomorph after orthopyroxene reflects harzburgite as protolith (Arai et al 2006) which is also confirmed by their major and trace element geochemistry (Bhat et al 2019a). Also the anhedral shape of the Cr-spinel and the stout shape of bastites reflect proto-granular texture of the protolith.…”

“…The regional geology of the study area is described in detail in our published papers (Bhat et al 2017a(Bhat et al , b, 2018(Bhat et al , 2019a and references therein), here we explain the geological setup of the Suru Valley ophiolitic slice. The present peridotite samples were obtained from the Suru Valley ophiolitic slice along ISZ, outcropped at Trespone village of Kargil district Ladakh Himalaya (figure 1).…”

“…The Neo-Tethys Ocean once separating Indian and Eurasian landmasses during Mesozoic start closing by the initiation of intraoceanic island arcs thereby collision between continental margins and created suture zones outlined by ophiolites (Gansser 1980;Searle et al 1987;Aitchison et al 2000Aitchison et al , 2002Aitchison et al , 2007Clift et al 2002;Maheo et al 2004Maheo et al , 2006Ahmad et al 2008;Buckman et al 2018). These ophiolite slices are distributed along the Indus Suture Zone (ISZ) as dismembered ophiolite slices and from south-east to north-west are Nidar ophiolite sequence (Maheo et al 2004;Ahmad et al 2008), Spongtang ophiolite (Clift et al 2002;Maheo et al 2004;Buckman et al 2018 and reference therein), Shergol ophiolitic slice (Honegger et al 1989;Mishra 1992, 1994;Maheo et al 2006;Bhat et al 2017aBhat et al , b, 2018, Suru Valley ophiolitic slice (Reuber 1989;Robertson 2000;Bhat et al 2019a) and Dras ophiolite (Radhakrishna et al 1984(Radhakrishna et al , 1987. The Indus ophiolite belt extends westward to Pakistan, Iraq, Iran up to Turkey and eastward to Tibet, Nagaland-Manipur up to Indonesia (Hall 1997;Bortolotti and Principi 2005;Dilek and Furnes 2009) and these ophiolites are classified as Tethyan type ophiolites by Moores et al (2000).…”

“…Based on the radiometric age data and fossil record these ophiolitic slices are Mesozoic in age (Reuber et al 1990;Aitchison et al 2000;Maheo et al 2004;Ahmad et al 2008;Buckman et al 2018). A supra-subduction zone setting of these ophiolites is commonly recognised based on the bulk rock geochemistry and mineral chemistry (Robertson 2000;Sachan 2001;Maheo et al 2004Maheo et al , 2006Ahmad et al 2008;Buckman et al 2018;Bhat et al 2019a).…”

“…The present peridotite samples were obtained from the Suru Valley ophiolitic slice along ISZ, outcropped at Trespone village of Kargil district Ladakh Himalaya (figure 1). The Suru Valley ophiolitic slice is mainly composed of peridotite of mantle origin serpentinised to various degrees and shows affinity towards alpinetype peridotites as compared to layered-igneous complexes (Bhat et al 2019a).…”