Abstract:Before the continental collision between India and Asia, there existed widespread Early Jurassic to Eocene arc magmatism in the Lhasa Block of southern Tibet, which resulted from the northward subduction of the Tethyan oceanic lithosphere beneath Asia. This paper has reported geochronological (40Ar/39Ar dating), major and trace elements and Sr-Nd-O isotopic data of the Cretaceous volcanic rocks widely exposed in the north of the Lhasa Block and tried to investigate the tectonic evolution of the Gangdise Arc. 40Ar/39Ar geochronolo gical data indicate that these Cretaceous volcanic rocks could be divided into two groups, namely Early Cretaceous (140~110 Ma) and Late Cretaceous (100~80 Ma). Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks refer to the interbeds in Zenong Group and Duoni Formation, which are mainly distributed in such central-northern areas of the Lhasa Block as Taruoco, Coqên, Dangruoyongco and Xainza and consist of basalt, basaltic andesite, andesite, dacite and rhyolite (mostly divided into high-K and shoshonitic series and subordinately into medium-K series). The authors focused their study on the basalt and basaltic andesite of Zenong Group (SiO2=47.76%~56.25%,high-K calc-alkaline and shoshonitic series in SiO2-K2O diagram), which are characterized by relative enrichment of light rare earth elements and large-ion lithophile elements, negative Eu anomaly (δEu=0.77~0.95), negative Nb, Ta, Ti anomalies, and relatively high initial (87Sr/86Sr)t (0.7063~0.7072), low 143Nd/144Nd (0.5124~0.5126) ratios and εNd(t) (-5.4~-1.5), and high δ18OV_SMOW (7.2‰~9.8‰), indicating that the magma source was the lithospheric mantle wedge metasomatized by the fluid/melts from the oceanic sediments or/and the oceanic crust. Late Cretaceous volcanic rocks mainly consist of intermediate-basic volcanic rocks in calc-alkaline (low-K tholeiitic and medium-K calc-alkaline, SiO2=50.91%~70.45%) series, sparsely exposed inthe north of the Lhasa Block and south of the Qiangtang Block. Compared with Zenong Group volcanic rocks, these volcanic rocks are characterized by younger ages, high Mg (Mg#=59) and compatible elements (Cr=162×10-6, V=216×10-6, and Ni=80×10-6) content, relatively primitive Sr-Nd isotopic composition (87Sr/86Sr)t=0.7041~0.7049; 143Nd/144Nd=0.5125~0.5128; εNd(t)=-3.5~2.2), suggesting that the magma source might have been the metasomatized lithospheric mantle wedge subsequently metasomatized by the melts from asthenospheric mantle. Such volcanic rocks are named Nima Group volcanic rocks in this study. The temporal-spatial distribution of Mesozoic-Paleogene volcanic rocks of the Lhasa Block implies that Gangdise Arc volcanic rocks have undergone two times of spatial migration. One is the northward migration, i.e., from Yeba Formation (193~174 Ma) and Sangri Group (J3—K1) in the southernmost area through Zenong Group/Duoni Formation in the north (140~110 Ma) to Nima Group in the northernmost area (100~80 Ma). The other is the migration from north (Nima Group volcanic rocks, 100~80 Ma) to south (Linzizong Group volcanic rocks, 70~40 Ma). The temporal-spatial distribution and geochemical characteristics of volcanic rocks reveal the north-dipping subduction history of the Neo-Tethys oceanic lithosphere, i.e., the evolution from low-angle and north-dipping subduction in the early stage through high-angle roll-back to final detachment.