Geochronology and geochemistry of late Cenozoic basalts from the Leiqiong area, southern China

The Leiqiong area, which includes the Leizhou Peninsula and the northern part of the Hainan Island, is the largest province of exposed basalts in southern China. Ar-Ar and K-Ar dating indicates that incipient volcanism in the Leiqiong area may have taken place in late Oligocene time and gradually increased in tempo toward the Miocene and Pliocene Epoch. Volcanic activities were most extensive during Pleistocene, and declined and ended in Holocene. Based on radiometric age dating and geographic distribution, Pliocene and Quaternary volcanism in Hainan Island can be grouped into two stages and six eruptive regions. The early volcanism is dominated by flood type fissure eruption of quartz tholeiites and olivine tholeiites whereas the later phase is dominated by central type eruption of alkali olivine basalts and olivine tholeiites. The systematic decrease of MgO, Sigma FeO and TiO2 with increasing SiO2 content for basalts from Hainan Island indicates that fractional crystallization of olivine, clinopyroxene and Ti-bearing opaques may have occurred during magmatic evolution. From coexisting Fe-Ti oxide minerals, it is estimated that the equilibrium temperatures range from 895-986 degrees C and oxygen fugacities range from 10(-13.4) to 10(-10.7) atmospheres in the basaltic magmas. The incompatible element ratios and the chondrite-normalized REE patterns of basalts from the Leiqiong area are generally similar to OIB. The Nb/U ratios (less than 37) in most of the tholeiitic rocks and the negative Nb anomaly observed in the spidergram of some basalts indicated that the influence of a paleo-subduction zone derived component can not be excluded in considering the genesis of the basalts from the Leiqiong area. The tholeiites in the Leiqiong area may have mixed with a more enriched lithospheric mantle component as well as undergone relatively larger percentages of partial melting than the alkali basalts. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.