Two-stage Mesozoic oceanic subduction and related mantle metasomatism beneath the South Qiangtang terrane with implications for post-collisional magmatism

Abstract

Subduction-related metasomatism at convergent margins is a crucial process for the lithosphere evolution of the overriding plate. In the central Tibetan Plateau, tectonic transitions and related mantle metasomatism history of the oceanic subduction beneath the South Qiangtang terrane (SQT) remain ambiguous, which impeded understanding the geological evolution of the SQT during the Mesozoic and interpreting the geodynamic process responsible for the Cenozoic post-collisional magmatism. This paper integrated the new and published geochronological and geochemical data from the Jurassic-Cretaceous magmatic rocks in the western part of the SQT to explore the variations of magmatism and processes of mantle modifications. The Jurassic arc magmatism is characterized by the southward younging migration with increasing zircon εHf (t) values and the east–west linear distribution of ca. 155–150 Ma slab-derived adakites. After a magmatic gap at ca. 145–130 Ma, the Early Cretaceous magmatism (130–100 Ma) with distinct juvenile isotopic compositions reinitiated firstly in the south of the Jurassic magmatic belt. In comparison, a younger phase of felsic rocks (120–100 Ma) spatially and geochemically overlaps the northern Jurassic granitoids with ancient crustal sources. These spatial–temporal-geochemical covariations of magmatism could be best explained by the southward transference of oceanic subduction at the earliest Cretaceous that was induced by the Jurassic accretion of an oceanic plateau onto the SQT. Under such subduction regimes, several high-Nb mafic rocks in the northern and southern magmatic belts which were formed by partial melting of the slab-melts-metasomatized lithospheric mantle respectively recorded the Jurassic and Cretaceous mantle metasomatism beneath the SQT, based on their spatial and geochemical relationships with two phases of the adakites. Combined with other geological evidence, these results contribute to elucidating the Mesozoic geodynamic evolution of the oceanic subduction beneath the SQT, which further has implications on the deep dynamic processes responsible for post-collisional magmatism.