| Abstract: | Most carbonatites occur in relatively stable, intra\|plate areas but some are found to occur in near to plate margins and may be linked with plate separation (Woolley, 1989). Although many carbonatites have been discovered to occur in the orogenic belts in recent years, most of these rocks are related to post\|orogenic magmatism, that is, the rocks occur in the specially extensional setting. Therefore it is unusual that such magmatic rocks occur in the typical convergent environment. Here we report carbonatites and associated ultramafic and mafic rocks in the core of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis. The eastern Himalayan syntaxis consists of three tectonic units: the Gangdise, the Yarlung Zangbo, and the Himalayan units, each of which is bounded by faults (Liu & Zhong, 1997). The Himalayan unit, the northernmost exposed part of the Indian plate, is divided into two complexes, the amphibolite facies complex in the south and the granulite facies complex in the north. The granulite facies complex in the Himalayan unit have been argued to experience high\|pressure metamorphism and represent materials buried to upper\|mantle depths (Liu & Zhong, 1997). The carbonatites and associated ultramafic and mafic rocks only occur in the granulite facies rocks and are divided into two belts: northern and southern belts.The northern belt extends at least 30km, and is about 20km in width. The southern belt extends several kilometers, and is 3km or so in width. Each belt consists mainly of differently compositional dykes, extending parallel to gneissosity of granulite facies gneiss. Carbonatitic agglomerates are observed in the northern belt. From the center of carbonatite dykes to country rocks, five types of rock are observed: the center parts of carbonatites, the rim parts of carbonatites, ultramafic and mafic rocks, altered rocks and country rocks. The gneissosity of country rock was deformed by intrusion of dykes. |
