Origin of Permian extremely high Ti/Y mafic lavas and dykes from Western Guangxi, SW China: Implications for the Emeishan mantle plume magmatism

摘要

Late Permian mafic flows and dikes are prominent features in and around the Western Guangxi region in southern China. Based on petrographic, geochemical and Sr-Nd isotopic data, the western Guangxi mafic rocks are geochemically akin to the Emeishan large igneous province (ELIP) high-Ti basalts, except that they possess extremely elevated Ti/Y ratios (750-2000). The Dy/Yb and Ti/Y vs. Dy/Dy* covariations of the mafic rocks indicate a garnet-controlled magmatic differentiation of a mafic melt at relatively great depth. The limited epsilon(Nd)(t) range from +0.41 to +1.81 also suggests minimal crustal contamination of such a melt. Geochemical modeling using TiO2/Yb vs. Nb/Yb and Zr/Y vs. Nb/Y projections indicate that the parental melts of the western Guangxi mafic rocks formed at a low degree (<5%) of partial melting at or over 3.5 GPa, consistent with a deep mantle plume source under a thick continental lithosphere. Thus, the Guangxi extremely high Ti/Y mafic rocks most likely represent a part of outer zone of the ELIP plume magmatism. Results of this study reinforce the previously proposed temporal and spatial distribution of the ELIP. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.