Plume-orogenic lithosphere interaction recorded in the Haladala layered intrusion in the Southwest Tianshan Orogen, NW China

摘要

The plume-orogenic lithosphere interaction may be common and important for the generation of large igneous provinces. The information regarding such a process is recorded by the Haladala gabbroic intrusion (similar to 300Ma), the largest layered ultramafic-mafic intrusion hosting V-Ti magnetite deposits in the Southwest Tianshan Orogen, NW China. The Haladala gabbros exhibit unfractionated chondrite-normalized rare earth element patterns with negative Nb and Ta anomalies and positive Pb anomaly on the primitive mantle-normalized multielement variation diagram. They are characterized by low initial Sr isotopes, slightly decoupled but high positive bulk rock epsilon(Nd)(t) and epsilon(Hf)(t), and high Pb-207/Pb-204 and Pb-208/Pb-204 relative to Pb-206/Pb-204, delineating a DUPAL signature in the sources. The Haladala gabbros cannot be arc or postcollisional magmatism, given the lack of hydrous minerals and low K contents, respectively. This is further supported by the relatively low oxygen fugacity required for the gradual enrichment of V-Ti magnetite during the magma fractionation and by an overall anhydrous mantle source suggested by troctolite mineral assemblage (olivine+plagioclase). The emplacement age of the Haladala gabbros is identical to that of the Wajilitag kimberlites in the Tarim's interior, which have been interpreted as the first magmatic expression of the Tarim mantle plume. We thus propose that the Haladala gabbroic intrusion was generated in a hybrid geodynamic setting in which the Southwest Tianshan Orogen was impacted by an upwelling mantle plume. In this sense, the Haladala layered gabbroic intrusion records the early phase of magmatism of the Tarim plume, which was preferentially emplaced in a lithospheric weak zone.