Crustal structure beneath the middle–lower Yangtze metallogenic belt in East China: Constraints from passive source seismic experiment on the Mesozoic intra-continental mineralization

Abstract

To understand the formation and the tectonic process of the Mesozoic middle–lower Yangtze metallogenic belt (YMB), the SinoProbe program deployed a quasi-linear passive source seismic array across the belt. We performed receiver function profiling and measurement of shear-wave splitting parameters with the collected data. Our results show that the Moho depth varies significantly along the profile and that a “mantle uplift” exists right beneath the YMB. We also found that the lower crust of the YMB is different from that of its adjacent areas in structure on the receiver function profile. It possesses seismic anisotropy with direction roughly parallel to the belt. Our SKS/SKKS shear-wave splitting results also show similar belt-parallel azimuthal anisotropy right beneath the YMB. We interpret the seismic anisotropy in the lower crust of the YMB as the result of mineral crystal alignment caused by melting and belt-parallel flow in the Mesozoic ore-forming process. Besides, we observed a nearly south-dipping converter extending from shallow to lower crust beneath the Hefei Basin, which most possibly resulted from the Mesozoic crustal extension. We interpret the “mantle uplift” and the crustal extensional structures to be consequences of asthenospheric upwelling during the Mesozoic ore-forming process. Our results suggest that the lower crust of the YMB was most likely one part of the multi-level metallogenic magma system in the Mesozoic magmatism and mineralization processes, and the formation of the metallogenic belt to be a result much similar to the MASH (Melting, Assimilation, Storage and Homogenization; cf. Hildreth and Moorbath, 1988, Richards, 2003) process. First, the asthenospheric upwelling resulted in a crustal extensional environment; then the melts from the upwelling asthenosphere intruded into the lower crust of the YMB, and assimilation occurred when they mixed with in situ lower crustal materials, which led to the formation of adakitic-like magma; the adakitic-like magma rose up along extensional structures, and reacted with country rocks to form mineral deposits.