Archean‐Paleoproterozoic Lithospheric Mantle at the Northern Margin of the North China Craton Represented by Tectonically Exhumed Peridotites

Abstract

AbstractTectonically emplaced peridotites from North Hebei Province, North China Craton, have retained an original harzburgite mineral assemblage of olivine (54%–58%) + orthopyroxene (40%–46%) +minor clinopyroxene (<1%)+spinel. Samples with boninite‐like chemical compositions also coexist with these peridotites. The spinels within the peridotites have high‐Al end‐members with Al2O3 content of 30 wt%–50 wt%, typical of mantle spinels. When compared with experimentally determined melt extraction trajectories, the harzburgites display a high degree of melting and enrichment of SiO2, which is typical of cratonic mantle peridotites. The peridotites display variably enriched light rare earth elements (REEs), relatively depleted middle REEs and weakly fractionated heavy REEs, which suggest a melt extraction of over 25% in the spinel stability field. The occurrence of arc‐ and SSZ‐type chromian spinels in the peridotites suggests that melt extraction and metasomatism occurred mostly in a subduction‐related setting. This is also supported by the geochemical data of the coexisting boninite‐like samples. The peridotites have 187Os/188Os ratios ranging from 0.113–0.122, which is typical of cratonic lithospheric mantle. These 187Os/188Os ratios yield model melt extraction ages (TRD) ranging from 981 Ma to 2054 Ma, which may represent the minimum estimation of the melt extraction age. The Al2O3–187Os/188Os‐proxy isochron ages of 2.4 Ga‐2.7 Ga suggest a mantle melt depletion age between the Late Achaean and Early Paleoproterozoic. Both the peridotites and boninite‐like rocks are therefore interpreted as tectonically exhumed continental lithospheric mantle of the North China Craton, which has experienced mantle melt depletion and subduction‐related mantle metasomatism during the Neoarchean‐ Paleoproterozoic.