Elemental and Nd-Sr isotopic geochemistry of granitoids from the West Junggar foldbelt (NW China), with implications for Phanerozoic continental growth

We report elemental and Nd-Sr isotopic data for two coeval postcollisional magmatic suites (similar to 300 Ma), the Miaogou and Karamay suites, from West Junggar foldbelt (NW China), aiming to determine their source regions and implications for continental growth. The Miaogou rocks, monzonitic to granitic in composition, show low Mg# (< 0.30) and depletion of HFSE, and are highly depleted in isotopic compositions, with I-Sr ranging from 0.7035 to 0.7045, epsilon(Nd)(300 Ma) from + 8.4 to + 6.6 and young Nd model ages (0.37-0.70 Ga) that coincide with the ages of the ophiolites in the area. These features suggest that the Miaogou rocks were derived essentially by partial melting of a juvenile basaltic lower crust formed in the early to middle Palaeozoic. The Karamay suite contains a variety of rock types from gabbroic diorite to granite. These rocks show enrichment of LREE and LILE and depletion of HFSE, and have chemical composition (e.g., Mg# = 0.63-0.41) rather different from the Miaogou suite, though isotopically they are indistinguishable. This suggests that the parental magma of the Karamay suite originated from melting of a young lithospheric mantle that had previously been metasomatized during the Palaeozoic subduction. The West Junggar magmatic rocks represent production of juvenile continental crust in the Phanerozoic, triggered by upwelling of asthenophere in an extensional regime. The basement beneath the area is dominated by "trapped" Palaeozoic arc series and oceanic crust. Copyright (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd.