Early Ordovician–Middle Silurian Subduction-Closure of the Proto-Tethys Ocean: Evidence from the Qiaerlong Pluton at the Northwestern Margin of the West Kunlun Orogenic Belt, NW China

Abstract

Early Paleozoic magmatism in the West Kunlun Orogenic Belt (WKOB) preserves important information about the tectonic evolution of the Proto-Tethys Ocean. This paper reports whole-rock compositions, zircon and apatite U-Pb dating, and zircon Hf isotopes for the Qiaerlong Pluton (QEL) at the northwestern margin of WKOB, with the aim of elucidating the petrogenesis of the pluton and shedding insights into the subduction-collision process of this oceanic slab. The QEL is mainly composed of Ordovician quartz monzodiorite (479 ± 3 Ma), quartz monzonite (467–472 Ma), and syenogranite (463 ± 4 Ma), and is intruded by Middle Silurian peraluminous granite (429 ± 20 Ma) and diabase (421 ± 4 Ma). Zircon ε _Hf(t) values reveal that quartz monzodiorites (+2.1 to +9.9) and quartz monzonites (+0.6 to +6.8) were derived from a mixed source of juvenile crust and older lower crust, and syenogranites (−5.6 to +4.5) and peraluminous granites (−2.9 to +2.0) were generated from a mixed source of lower crust and upper crust; diabases had zircon ε _Hf(t) values ranging from −0.3 to +4.1, and contained 463 ± 5 Ma captured zircon and 1 048 ± 39 Ma inherited zircon, indicating they originated from enriched lithospheric mantle and were contaminated by crustal materials. The Ordovician granitoids are enriched in LILEs and light rare-earth elements, and depleted in HFSEs with negative Nb, Ta, P, and Ti anomalies, suggesting that they formed in a subduction environment. Middle Silurian peraluminous granites have the characteristics of leucogranites with high SiO₂ contents (74.92 wt.%–75.88 wt.%) and distinctly negative Eu anomalies (δEu = 0.03–0.14), indicating that they belong to highly fractionated granite and were formed in a post-collision extension setting. Comparative analysis of these results with other Early Paleozoic magmas reveals that the Proto-Tethys ocean closed before the Middle Silurian and its southward subduction resulted in the formation of QEL.

Keywords

subduction-closure / Qiaerlong Pluton / West Kunlun Orogen / Proto-Tethys Ocean / tectonics / geochemistry

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