Cretaceous crustal melting records of tectonic transition from subduction to slab rollback of the Paleo-Pacific Plate in SE China

Abstract

The Mesozoic geology of SE China has been widely considered to relate to subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate beneath the Eurasia, accompanied with extensive felsic magmatism. However, the relationship between the origin of the voluminous crust-derived magmatism and the Paleo-Pacific slab subduction remains unclear. Here we present petrology, zircon U-Pb-Hf isotope data, and whole-rock geochemical and isotopic compositions of two episodes of Cretaceous silicic volcanic rocks (~114–113 Ma for Group 1 and ~ 100–93 Ma for Group 2) from southeastern Zhejiang Province in SE China, to provide new constraints on the geodynamic transition of the Paleo-Pacific slab subduction. Both volcanic groups show similarly unradiogenic whole-rock εNd(t) and zircon εHf(t) values (εNd(t) = −8.6 to −6.4 and εHf(t) = −8.5 to −0.7 for Group 1, and εNd(t) = −7.1 to −6.1 and εHf(t) = −7.8 to −2.2 for Group 2). The limited emplacement of coeval mafic magmas and absence of mafic microgranular enclave and intermediate lavas suggest an insignificant role of mantle-derived melt either as a parental magma for differentiation or a mafic component during magma mixing. Instead, the low MgO and high concentrations of SiO2 and incompatible elements and the evolved Nd and Hf isotopic compositions indicate derivation of these two groups of silicic magmas from similar hybrid crustal sources containing the metasedimentary rocks of Cathaysia basement and the newly accreted arc crust. Group 1 rocks contain a higher proportion of hydrous minerals (e.g., biotite) and Sr/Y and La/YbCN ratios but lower zircon saturation temperature than Group 2. Such variations in mineral and geochemical compositions could be mainly attributed to the change of melting conditions from a relatively deeper, colder and water-fluxed crust to a shallower, hotter and less hydrous state. By combining our new results and previous studies of the late Mesozoic volcanic rocks in SE China, we propose that a geodynamic transition from subduction to slab rollback of the Paleo-Pacific Plate was responsible for such P-T-H2O variations of the crustal source.