Geochemical Characteristics of Cenozoic Jining Basalts of the Western North China Craton: Evidence for the Role of the Lower Crust, Lithosphere, and Asthenosphere in Petrogenesis

Abstract

The Jining volcanic field located in the southern margin of the Mongolian plateau and the western North China Block consists of four rock types: quartz tholeiite, olivine tholeiite, alkali olivine basalt and basanite. These rocks have a wide range of K-Ar ages from ~36 to < 0.2 Ma. The early volcanism was voluminous and dominated by flood-type fissure eruptions of tholeiites, whereas the later phase was represented by sparse eruptions of basanitic lavas. Thirty-six samples analyzed in this study show a wide range in SiO2 contents from 44% ~ 54%. They all are sodium-rich and high-Ti basalts that, however, show marked isotopic variations between two end-members: (1) tholeiites that have higher 87Sr/86Sr of 0.7048 ~ 0.7052, and lower £`Nd of -0.8 to -2.4 and Pb isotope ratios (206Pb/204Pb of 16.9 ~ 17.2, 207Pb/204Pb of 15.3 ~ 15.4 and 208Pb/204Pb of 37.1 ~ 37.7); and (2) basanites that have lower 87Sr/86Sr of 0.7035 ~ 0.7044, and higher £`Nd of +1.3 to +4.9 and Pb isotope ratios (206Pb/204Pb of 17.7 ~ 18.0, 207Pb/204Pb of 15.4 ~ 15.5 and 208Pb/204Pb of 37.8 ~ 38.2). Alkali olivine basalt that occurs as a subordinate rock type is geochemically similar to the basanites, but isotopically similar to the tholeiites, characterized by the highest 87Sr/86Sr ratio among the three basaltic suites, coupled with a low Nb/U value (~33).

Keywords

• K-Ar dating
• Sr-Nd-Pb isotope
• Petrogenesis
• Cenozoic Jining basalts
• Western North China Craton