Chronology and geochemistry of metavolcanic rocks from Heigouxia Valley in the Mian-Lue tectonic zone, South Qinling——Evidence for a Paleozoic oceanic basin and its close time

Abstract

The metavolcanic rocks of greenschist fades developed at Heigouxia Valley in the Mian-Lue tectonic zone, South Qinling orogenic belt is a bimodal volcanic series. It is composed of K-poor, Na-rich tholeiite and dacite-rhyolite. The trace elements characteristics with flat REE pattern of these tholeiites are similar to those of MORB. The Sm-Nd whole rock isochron age of(242±21) Ma and Rb-Sr whole rock isochron age of (221±13) Ma of this metavolcanic series consistently indicate their rnetamorphic time. Their relatively high initial eNd value of +6.1 at the rnetamorphic age (242 Ma) suggest that the volcanic rocks were derived from a depleted MORB type mantle source. Their trace elements and Nd isotope compositions suggest an oceanic basin developed from a rift on the continental margin of the Yangtze Block during the late Paleozoic and closed in the Triassic, This is the first case clearly showing the existence of relict of late Paleozoic oceanic crust in Fast Qinling belt, which provides important evidence for the Mian-Lue tectonic zone as a structure zone.