Earth Science Frontiers ›› 2020, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (4): 17-32.DOI: 10.13745/j.esf.sf.2020.4.27

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Continued subduction of the Yangtze Plate in the Middle Neoproterozoic: new evidence based on the geochronology and petro-geochemistry of island arc volcanic rocks in the Nanhua Period

ZHU Qiang1(), SHI Ke1, WU Libin1, JIANG Laili1, HU Zhaoqi1, XU Shengfa2, WENG Wangfei2   

  1. 1. Geological Survey of Anhui Province, Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration of Anhui Province, Hefei 230001, China
    2. No.332 Geological Party, Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration of Anhui Province, Huangshan 245000, China
  • Received:2019-03-11 Revised:2019-12-20 Online:2020-07-25 Published:2020-07-25

Abstract:

The Puling Formation in the northern Qimen area on the southeastern margin of the Yangtze Plate, and the Xileng Formation in the Zhangbaling area on the northeastern margin of the Yangtze Plate, each developed a suite of volcanic rocks. The former is continental volcanic rocks with basalt-andesite series, and the latter is marine volcanic rocks with spilite-keratophyre series. The volcanic rocks are unconformities covered with sand mudstone sedimentary. The LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb age of basalt-andesite from the Puling Formation is 765±15 Ma, while quartz keratophyre from the Xileng Formation is 726.8±1.4 Ma, indicating they are formed in the Nanhua Period (Middle Neoproterozoic) after the disappearance of the “trench-arc-basin system” formed by the subduction of the Cathaysian to the Yangtze Plate in the Neoproterozoic. The whole rock geochemical analysis showed that the major elemental contents of the two volcanic rocks were quite different, but they all belonged to calc-alkaline series, and with similar trace elemental characteristics: they were enriched in LREE and large ion lithophile elements (e.g., Ba, Th, U), strongly depleted in high field strength elements (e.g., Nb, Ta, Ti), with inconspicuous δEu, Zr and Hf anomalies. These features suggest that they are similar to island arc volcanic rocks and possibly formed by the mixing of the depleted mantle wedges metasomatized by subduction-related fluids and melt of new crust. Combined with previous research results, we consider the deep subduction in the Jinning period might have lasted until ca. 700 Ma, affected by a multi-island arc collage process in the Middle Neoproterozoic, and then this area entered an intra-plate extension stage until the late Nanhua Period.

Key words: Nanhua Period, island arc volcanic rocks, subduction, multi-island arc, Yangtze Plate

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