Late Permian-Middle Triassic intermediate-acid intrusive rocks in the Eastern Kunlun Orogenic Belt, NW China: Petrogenesis and implications for geodynamic evolution

Abstract

ABSTRACT Large areas of intermediate-acid intrusive rocks are widely exposed in the Eastern Kunlun Orogenic Belt (EKOB), which is an ideal place to study crustal reworking and growth and the tectonic setting and evolution of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. Petrographic research shows that intermediate-acid intrusive rocks are mainly composed of diorite, diorite porphyry, granodiorite, and monzogranite, and their zircon U-Pb ages are 260.8 ± 1.5 Ma, 250.7 ± 1.8 Ma, 242.6 ± 0.7 Ma, 239.8 ± 1.2 Ma, 235.2 ± 0.9 Ma, and 230.2 ± 1.0 Ma. They are generally divided into granite, quartz monzonite and monzodiorite series in the QAP diagram. The granite series (HRGLG and LMR monzogranites and BLGX granodiorite) has high SiO2 contents and calc-alkaline features; it has low P2O5 and Zr+Nb+Ce+Y (75–267 ppm) contents, showing affinities to I-type granite, which reflects reworking of Mesoproterozoic lower crust. The quartz monzonite series (KEQK and DDKD diorites) has medium SiO2 and lower MgO contents (1.63–2.59 wt.%) than mantle-derived magmas and has crustal Nb/U and Ce/Pb ratios but mantle-like Nb/Ta ratios. Their geochemistry with binary properties related to both crust and mantle indicate that they probably originated from an AFC process involving mantle-derived melts and provide an important growth model of the continental crust in the EKOB. The monzodiorite series (BLGX diorite porphyry) has medium SiO2 and high MgO contents and Mg# values (59–61) and contains high-Mg diorites. They are enriched in LILEs and depleted in HFSEs; furthermore, strikingly high enrichments in Rb/Y ratios and Ba contents but a narrow range of Nb/Y ratios suggest that they originated from partial melting of hydrous mantle peridotites affected by fluids from the subducted slab. In conclusion, we suggest that the 261–235 Ma intermediate-acid intrusions represent the sustained subduction of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean slab and that the 230 Ma BLGX diorite porphyry records the breakoff of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean slab.