An early aged ophiolite in the western Kunlun Mts., NW Tibetan Plateau and its tectonic implications

The early aged ophiolites have attracted attention of many geologists in recent decades, because the early aged ophiolites can provide the information about the ancient oceanic processes relevant to the evolution of plate tectonics in the early period of the earth, and also concern such problems as whether there existed a "Proto-Tethys" and the break-up and convergence of the Rodinian Supercontinent. This paper reveals a definite complete ophiolite of Neoproterozoic-Early Paleozoic, named Kuda ophiolite in the western Kunlun Mts., NW Tibetan Plateau, and reports the recent reasonable SHRIMP zircon U-Pb ages of 510 +/- 4 Ma, and 502 +/- 13 Ma for the cumulates of the Kuda ophiolite, using the most powerful dating tool, the SHRIMP-II. The geochemical and geochronology data integrating with the geological setting suggest that the Kuda ophiolite might have formed in an archipelago oceanic basin, not in a vast ocean, the so-called "Proto-Tethys", and was tectonically emplaced during the Early Paleozoic.