Carboniferous–Permian extensive magmatism in the West Junggar, Xinjiang, northwestern China: its geochemistry, geochronology, and petrogenesis

• A new model is suggested to depict Late Paleozoic tectonic evolution in West Junggar.
• Granitoids with positive εNd(t) values suggest large-scale mantle upwelling in C2-P1.
• The basement of west Junggar terrane is early Paleozoic oceanic and arc complexes.
• Mantle upwelling was genetically related to a super-plume activity in CAOB.

Located between the Tarim, Kazakhstan, and Siberian plates, the West Junggar terrane is a key component of the Paleozoic Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) with widespread late Paleozoic igneous rocks. In this paper, we report petrological, geochronological, and geochemical data for selected granitoids from the West Junggar. Based on geochronology, the I-type and A-type granites were formed predominantly at 347.9–319.0 Ma and at 321.4–290 Ma respectively. The early-stage I-type granites are characterized by low SiO2, Na2O, and K2O contents with Na2O/K2O ratios > 1 and are metaluminous to weakly-peraluminous. They are enriched in large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and in Sr but depleted in high field strength elements (HFSE), with (87Sr/86Sr)i ratios of 0.7028–0.7044 and εNd(t) values varying from + 5.74 to + 7.76. The late-stage I-type granites are characterized by low contents of Si2O and K2O and relatively high contents of FeO, MgO, and Na2O with Na2O/K2O ratios > 1, and are metaluminous to weakly-peraluminous. They are also enriched in LILE and depleted in HFSE with Eu anomalies, (87Sr/86Sr)i ratios of 0.703–0.704, and εNd(t) values varying from + 5.20 to + 8.00. The A-type granites have high SiO2 contents, high K calc-alkaline-shoshonitic affinities, positive εNd(t) values (5.76–7.77), and low initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.7017–0.7045). Along with reported Sr-Nd isotopic data and regional geologic evidence the Early Carboniferous I-type granites are interpreted as products of partial melting of trapped oceanic crust triggered by underplated mantle wedge-derived basaltic magma; the Late Carboniferous–Early Permian I-type granites as derivatives of partially melted trapped oceanic crust; and the A-type granites as resulting from partial melting of trapped juvenile oceanic crust in an extensional regime. The A-type granitoids with high positive εNd(t) values and high Zr-saturation temperatures could be genetically related to a mantle plume or a regional-scale mantle upwelling in the CAOB.