Age and composition of dikes in Southern Tibet: new constraints on the timing of east-west extension and its relationship to postcollisional volcanism

Controversy exists over whether east-west extension in southern Tibet is related to plateau uplift or to the accomodation of plate boundary forces. Relationships between the onset of extension, plateau uplift, and the thermal state of the lithosphere are critical to this debate. We present new data on postcollisional, north-south-trending dikes in southern Tibet. Their ages range from 18.3 ± 2.7 Ma to 13.3 ± 0.8 Ma, and define the onset of regional east-west extension in southern Tibet. Dikes are compositionally indistinguishable from postcollisional lavas in southern Tibet, being either ultrapotassic, having a source in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle, or calc-alkaline with a dominantly crustal origin. The ultrapotassic dikes demonstrate that east-west extension and subcontinental lithospheric mantle-derived magmatism were temporally and spatially linked, supporting models that relate the latest phase of plateau uplift to subcontinental lithospheric mantle thinning. Thus, the onset of extension by 18.3 ± 2.7 Ma represents the time at which the potential energy of the plateau exceeded convergent boundary forces. This places a new age limitation on the attainment of high elevation in southern Tibet, with implications for models that relate Cenozoic monsoon intensification to plateau uplift.