Cenozoic alkali basalts from Jingpohu, NE China: The role of lithosphere–asthenosphere interaction

Abstract

The geochemistry of Late Cenozoic volcanic rocks from Jingpohu, NE China, provides important constraints on the petrogenesis of continental alkali basalts and lithospheric evolution in the eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). Miocene–Pleistocene and Holocene basalts from Jingpohu show alkali affinities and are characterized by Ocean Island Basalt (OIB)-like REE and trace element patterns somehow resembling Holocene potassic rocks from Wudalianchi which are considered to be derived from ancient enriched lithospheric mantle. These basalts show depleted Sr–Nd isotopic compositions ( 87Sr/ 86Sr = 0.7039–0.7046, ε Nd = 1.3–6.0) and Dupal-like but unradiogenic Pb isotopic signatures ( 206Pb/ 204Pb = 17.54–17.94, 207Pb/ 204Pb = 15.45–15.54, 208Pb/ 204Pb = 37.71–38.07), comparable to the OIB. The combined geochemical and isotopic signatures are consistent with magma source mixing between a Focal Zone (FOZO)-like asthenospheric mantle component (characterized by enriched Pb and depleted Sr–Nd isotopic compositions) and an isotopically enriched EM1-type subcontinental lithospheric mantle component. Lithospheric thickness inferred from alkali basalts from different regions implies a progressive thinning from west to east in the CAOB, which may be caused by lithosphere–asthenosphere interaction. We propose that upwelling of the asthenosphere and subsequent mechanical and chemical erosion beneath lithospheric mantle induced by subduction of the Pacific plate might have been responsible for the lithospheric thinning in the eastern CAOB. The lithospheric thinning has proceeded in a dischronous way in the western North China Craton, near the Daxinganling-Taihangshan gravity lineament, but this event did not take place in the corresponding area of the CAOB. The lithospheric thinning shows different styles both spatially and temporally in the two tectonic units.