Geochemistry of middle-late Mesozoic mafic intrusions in the eastern North China Craton: New insights on lithospheric thinning and decratonization

Abstract

We present detailed geochronological, geochemical and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic data for late Mesozoic mafic intrusions in the Taili region (western Liaodong Province) of the eastern North China Craton (NCC). We obtained laser-ablation inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry U-Pb zircon ages from lamprophyres with ages ranging from 139 to 162 Ma and diorites with clusters of ages at 226 ± 11 Ma, 165 ± 5.8 Ma and 140 ± 4.8 Ma. We interpret the Triassic zircons in diorites to be inherited from the Paleo-Asian Ocean slab. Both the lamprophyres and diorites contain abundant inherited grains (2644–2456 Ma) that were likely derived from the ancient NCC basement, reflecting a contribution from old lower crustal material. Like contemporaneous late Mesozoic mafic rocks in the Jiaodong and Liaodong Peninsula areas of the NCC, the Taili lamprophyres reveal a strong subduction signature in their normalized trace element patterns, including depletion of high field strength elements and enrichment of large ion lithophile elements. The rare-earth element patterns of the Taili intermediate-mafic intrusions are best explained if they were principally derived from partial melting of amphibole-bearing lherzolite in the spinel-garnet transition zone. Slab-derived melts likely contributed to the formation of late Mesozoic mafic rocks along three margins of the craton: due to accretion of the Yangtze Block along the southern margin of the craton, subduction of the Paleo-Asian Ocean along the northern margin, and subduction of the Paleo-Pacific oceanic plate along the eastern margin of NCC. We present a synthesis of the geochemical, spatial, and temporal patterns of magmatic rocks and periods of deformation that contributed to decratonization of the NCC in response to the Mesozoic tectonic evolution of adjacent plates along its northern, southern, and eastern margins.