Fractional crystallization and magma mixing: evidence from porphyritic diorite-granodiorite dykes and mafic microgranular enclaves within the Zhoukoudian pluton, Beijing

Abstract

The Zhoukoudian pluton in the North China craton is a circular granodiorite intrusion containing porphyritic diorite dykes (PDDs), porphyritic granodiorite dykes (PGDs) and abundant mafic microgranular enclaves (MMEs), which provide an excellent opportunity to study fractional crystallization and magma mixing. The PDDs and PGDs are located in the western part of the pluton with the PDDs intruded by the PGDs. The dykes have similar mineral assemblages although plagioclase in the PDDs has higher anorthite content than the PGDs. Linear relationships between the SiO2 and most major and trace element contents, as well as a positive trend of initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios and a negative trend of epsilon Nd values with increasing SiO2 contents for the dykes suggest that both types were formed by assimilation and fractional crystallization of a common parental magma. Major oxide mass balance and trace element Rayleigh fractionation modeling points to early separation of garnet (11 %), clinopyroxene (27 %), orthopyroxene (16 %), plagioclase (25 %), biotite (19 %), and apatite (2 %) and late fractionation of hornblende (25 %), plagioclase (46 %), biotite (25 %), apatite (1 %), and magnetite (3 %). Most MMEs occur within the transitional granodiorite of the Zhoukoudian pluton. Zoned MMEs, dyke-like MME swarms, local presence of concave margins, veins and enclaves of host granodiorite within some MMEs, and several MMEs surrounded by the biotite-rich granodiorite support their formation by multiple magma mixing events, which finally resulted in different whole-rock major oxides and compatible elements, but homogeneous mineral major oxides (except zoned plagioclase), whole-rock incompatible elements and Sr-Nd isotopes between the MMEs and their host granodiorite. We suggest that multiple magma mixing events might also cause complexly zoned plagioclase in the Zhoukoudian pluton. Relative calcic, irregular or patchy cores and dusty zoned mantles from the zoned plagioclase crystals and their relatively low anorthite content indicate multiple mixing events between mafic/intermediate and felsic magmas. The mafic/intermediate end-members could be represented by the diabase dykes and the PDDs. Therefore, the dykes and MMEs in the Zhoukoudian pluton are genetically linked.