Timing and nature of the Xinlin–Xiguitu Ocean: constraints from ophiolitic gabbros in the northern Great Xing’an Range, eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt

Abstract

Jifeng ophiolitic melange (ultramafic rocks, meta-basalts and gabbros) crops out in the northern segment of the Great Xing’an Range, the eastern segment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, which marks the closure of the Xinlin–Xiguitu Ocean associated with the collision between the Erguna block and Xing’an block. In order to investigate the formation age and magma source of the Jifeng ophiolitic melange, the gabbros from newly discovered the Jifeng ophiolitic melange are studied with zircon U–Pb ages, whole-rock geochemistry and zircon Hf isotopes. Zircon U–Pb dating from the ophiolitic gabbros yields U–Pb age of 647 ± 5.3 Ma, which may represent the formation age of the ophiolitic melange. The gabbros display low SiO2, TiO2, K2O contents, high Na2O, LREE contents and indistinctive REE fractionation [(La/Yb)N = 1.97–2.98]. It shows an E-MORB-like affinity, while the element concentrations of the Jifeng samples are lower than that of E-MORB. More importantly, Nb displays negative anomaly in comparison with Th, which shows a transitional SSZ-type ophiolite signature. Moreover, the e Hf (t) values of ~647 Ma zircons in the gabbros range from +8.4 to +13.4, and the corresponding Hf single-stage ages (T DM1) are between 687 and 902 Ma, which is obviously older than the crystallization age of 647 Ma. These geochemical features can be explained as melts from the partial melting of a depleted mantle source meta-somatized by fluids derived from a subducted slab. Accordingly, we conclude that the Jifeng ophiolitic melange is probably related to transitional SSZ-type ophiolite and developed in an intra-oceanic subduction, which indicates that an ocean (the Xinlin–Xiguitu Ocean) existed between the Erguna block and Xing’an block. The Ocean’s formation might be no later than the Neoproterozoic (647 Ma), and it was closed in the Late Cambrian because of the collision between the Erguna block and Xing’an block.