Early-Middle Ordovician intermediate-mafic and ultramafic rocks in central Jilin Province, NE China: geochronology, origin, and tectonic implications

Abstract

Magmatic and metasomatic rock suites can be commonly found in active convergent margins as the suprasubduction zone mantle wedge is usually impregnated by melts and fluids. Here we present petrologic, whole-rock geochemical and zircon U-Pb and Lu-Hf data from metamorphic intermediate-mafic and ultramafic rocks in central Jilin Province, NE China, to constrain the Early Paleozoic tectonic evolution of the southeastern margin of the Xing’an-Mongolia Orogenic Belt. Lithologically, the meta-igneous rocks are composed of plagioclase-actinolite, meta-allgovite, tremolitized pyroxenite, and serpentinized peridotite. Geochronological results indicate that the protoliths of the meta-igneous rocks formed during the Early–Middle Ordovician (474–466 Ma). Geochemical features suggest that the rocks are calc-alkaline and transitional-series rocks relatively enriched in large-ion lithophile and light rare earth elements and depleted in high field strength and heavy rare earth elements, implying that they formed in a supra-subduction zone environment. Additionally, the protoliths of the plagioclase-actinolites, which display an affinity for sanukites, resulted from an equilibrium reaction between mantle peridotite and slab melts derived from the partial melting of subducting sediments during early-stage subduction; the meta-allgovite rocks were likely derived from a juvenile depleted lithospheric mantle that was metasomatized by subduction-related fluids; the ultramafic rocks are magmatic cumulates formed in a suprasubduction zone mantle wedge. Furthermore, the meta-allgovite rocks display both arc-like and MORB-like geochemical characteristics, suggesting an intra-continental back-arc basin setting. These features, combined with the presence of the abundance of zircon xenocrysts with Neoproterozoic–Paleozoic ages, as well as the results of previous studies, reflect that a small-scale and limited back-arc basin, which was related to the northward subduction of the Paleo-Asian oceanic plate, probably existed close to the Songnen-Zhangguangcai Range Massif during the Early–Middle Ordovician.