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The Timing of the Paleo-Asian Oceanic Closure: Geochemical Constraints from the Jigede Gabbro in the Alxa Block

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This paper investigates the Jigede gabbros from the Shalazhashan tectonic belt, Alxa Block. Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) zircon U-Pb dating reveals that they were emplaced in the Middle Permian (ca. 262 Ma). All the gabbro samples collected from the intrusion exhibit low contents of TiO2 (0.24–0.37 wt %) and \({\text{F}}{{{\text{e}}}_{{\text{2}}}}{\text{O}}_{{\text{3}}}^{{\text{T}}}\) (4.87–5.41 wt %), but high levels of MgO (11.15–12.15 wt %), CaO (11.45–12.75 wt %), Al2O3 (14.18–17.08 wt %) and high Mg# (0.81–0.83). Relative to HREEs and LILEs, the gabbros are enriched in LREEs and depleted in Th, Nb, Ce, Zr, Hf, and Ti, with positive Eu, Sr and U anomalies. In contrast to MORB, the Jigede intrusion has higher initial 87Sr/86Sr values of 0.7046 to 0.7054 and lower εNd(T) of + 1.8 to + 4.8. Elemental and isotopic data suggest that the intrusion was likely to have been produced by partial melting of a shallow lithospheric mantle source modified by slab-derived fluids, with subsequent cumulation of plagioclase. Thus, the Jigede intrusion was emplaced in a back-arc setting, in response to the Paleo-Asian oceanic subduction. In addition, the final closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean did not occur prior to the Middle Permian.

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FUNDING

This study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 41703022), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2018-52), Plateau mountain ecology and Earth’s environment discipline construction project (grants C176240107), Joint Foundation Project between Yunnan Science and Technology Department and Yunnan University (grants C176240210019), and Geology Discipline Construction Project of Yunnan University (C176210227).

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  1. School of Resource Environment and Earth Science, Yunnan University, 650091, Kunming, China

    Zheng Liu, Shu-Cheng Tan & Xiao-Hu He

  2. College of Resources and Environmental Science, Ningxia University, 750000, Yinchuan, PR China

    Xin Zhang

  3. College of Earth Sciences, Guilin University of Technology, 541004, Guilin, PR China

    Xin Sha

  4. Chengdu Center, Chinese Geological Survey, 610081, Chengdu, PR China

    Qing Zhou

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Zheng Liu, Zhang, X., Tan, SC. et al. The Timing of the Paleo-Asian Oceanic Closure: Geochemical Constraints from the Jigede Gabbro in the Alxa Block. Petrology 27, 425–437 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0869591119040076

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