Petrogenesis of the early Paleozoic strongly peraluminous granites in the Western South China Block and its tectonic implications

Abstract

Strongly peraluminous (SP) granites have A/CNK (molecular Al2O3/(CaO+Na2O+K2O)) ratios >1.1, indicating a predominant origin from the partial melting of metasedimentary rocks. However, an increasing number of studies have documented that mantle-derived magmas can also be involved in the petrogenesis of some SP granites. This is the case in the Dulong batholith in the southeastern Yunnan province, southwestern South China Block, which is typically composed of SP granitic rocks with high A/CNK values (>1.1). Zircon U–Pb dating of four samples from this batholith yielded consistent crystallization ages of ca. 430 Ma, synchronous with the widespread late-orogenic magmatism (including S- and I-type granites and mafic igneous rocks) in the Wuyi–Yunkai orogen, South China Block (SCB). All the granites have fractionated REE patterns ((La/Yb)N=1.28–12.3) and conspicuous negative Eu anomalies (Eu∗/Eu=0.07–0.43) with a similar depletion in HFSE (Nb, Zr, Hf), P, Ba and Sr, suggesting that these granitic magmas had a dominantly crustal source, likely the Neoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks (i.e., the Danzhou or Banxi groups) that are dominated by pelitic rocks with minor interlayered siltstones in the western Yangtze Block. However, their zircon Hf isotopic results also reveal an important input of the mantle-derived melts into their parental magma. Taken together, their geochemical and isotopic compositions reflect a derivation by magma mixing between the crust- and mantle-derived (∼10% in volume) magmas. Their chemical variations resulted from the fractionation process during the emplacement from the magma chamber after magmatic mixing.In conjunction with regional data within the SCB, it is most likely that the magmatism younger than 435 Ma was generated in a post-collisional extensional regime related to the partial delamination of an overthickened lithospheric mantle root without lower crust.