Abstract: Well exposed in the Tethys Himalaya of southern Tibet, China, the Jurassic is important for studying the evolution of paleo-ocean, paleoenvironment and paleogeography in the eastern Tethys. It is also important for us to understand the interaction between Gondwana rifting, mid-ocean ridge expansion, large igneous province, and Earth’s greenhouse climate. The Lower-Middle Jurassic in Tingri and Nyalam is dominated by carbonate rocks, together with siliciclastic and mixed carbonate-siliciclastic rocks. It consists of the Zhamure, Pupuga, and Niexiongla formations from bottom to top. To date, the Jurassic in southern Tibet remains less understood. Due to repeated and incomplete stratigraphic records, it is still difficult to accurately identify the strata through comparison of their lithologic units. This study was initiated to better serve future research on, for example, accurate regional stratigraphic comparison, and to avoid repetitive petrological work. Micrographs of 494 thin sections were collected from the Wölong (Tingri) and Nianduo (Nyalam) sections using microscopes under single polarized and orthogonal light, respectively. This dataset includes such information as tectonic setting, paleo-geographic location, sampling sites, stratigraphic age, and rock name of these two sections. It can be used to support geological research and to improve the work efficiency. When integrated with other data at the deep-time digital earth (DDE) platform, the dataset has the potential to help unpack major scientific issues on a wider space and time scale. In addition, it can also be used for mine and oil exploration, construction, teaching and general science popularization.
Keywords: thin section; polarized photomicrograph; Tethys Himalaya; Jurassic; carbonate rocks