Potassium isotopic evidence for the petrogenesis of Precambrian granitoids and implications for early crustal evolution of the accretionary orogen

Abstract

Stable potassium (K) isotopes are emerging as a novel geochemical tracer for investigating magmatic differentiation and source characteristics. This study presents the K isotopic analyses of Neoarchean-Paleoproterozoic granitoids from the Xing’an Massif, a key microcontinent within the eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), providing new insights into the granitoid petrogenesis and early crustal evolution of this accretionary orogen. The 2568 Ma peraluminous A-type monzogranite exhibits significantly heavier δ⁴¹K values (− 0.22 ‰ to − 0.05 ‰) compared to the range of the upper continental crust. Subduction zones can effectively transfer heavy K isotopic signature to the mantle wedge through slab-derived fluids/melts. The monzogranite could be formed through co-melting and mixing of previously metasomatized mantle materials and recycled supracrustal metapelites, followed by high degree of fractional crystallization in a post-collisional extensional setting. Although both the 1881 Ma monzogranite and 1843 Ma syenogranite share geochemical affinities with adakites, their markedly different K isotopic compositions and distinct geochemical fingerprints point to substantial heterogeneity within their source regions. The 1881 Ma monzogranite shows more pronounced heavy K isotopic enrichment (δ⁴¹K = − 0.39 ‰ to − 0.18 ‰) and elevated zircon δ¹⁸O values (7.28 ‰ -8.93 ‰). These features demonstrate the incorporation of mantle components metasomatized by melts of altered oceanic crust (with elevated δ⁴¹K values) into the lower crustal source. In contrast, the 1843 Ma syenogranite displays ultrapotassic affinity with lighter K isotopic compositions (δ⁴¹K = − 0.45 ‰ to − 0.38 ‰) and strongly negative zircon εHf (t) values (− 11.5 to − 10.2), indicating a thickened lower crustal source with contributions from ancient supracrustal sediments. Collectively, K isotopic compositions of the ca. 1.8 Ga adakitic granitoids overcome the limitations of traditional geochemical and isotopic proxies in revealing the complex granite petrogenesis, and they potentially provide evidence for a cycle of plate tectonics, from oceanic crust alteration at mid-ocean ridges through slab subduction to continental collision. The onset of plate tectonics promoted remelting of Archean igneous and sedimentary crust, generating abundant peraluminous and potassic granitoids during the late Archean to Paleoproterozoic and driving crustal compositional maturation in this accretionary orogen.

Keywords

Potassium isotopes / Neoarchean / Paleoproterozoic / Granitoid petrogenesis / Eastern CAOB / Crustal evolution

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Xinyu Long: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Data curation, Conceptualization. Wenliang Xu: Writing - review & editing, Validation, Supervision, Resources, Methodology, Investigation, Conceptualization. Feng Wang: Supervision, Resources, Methodology, Conceptualization. Chenyang Sun: Investigation, Data curation. Jie Tang: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Investigation, Funding acquisition.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Guilin Han, Dr. Xiaoqiang Li, and the staff of Surficial Environment and Hydrological Geochemistry Laboratory at the China University of Geosciences (Beijing) for their assistance during the K isotope measurements. We also extend our gratitude to the Associate Editor Dr. Stijn Glorie for handling our manuscript, and to the four anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and constructive suggestions. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 42402053 and 42072071) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 45124031D045).

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2025.102239.

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