Contrasting Triassic ferroan granitoids from northwestern Liaoning, North China: Magmatic monitor of Mesozoic decratonization and a craton–orogen boundary

The diversity exhibited by ferroan granitoids testifies to multiple distinct crustal and mantle processes generally within extensional environments and thus holds the key to monitoring important geodynamic and crustal evolutionary processes and calibrating terrane tectonic affinity. This study documents three Middle to Late Triassic ferroan granitoid suites from northwestern Liaoning, North China, and proposes distinct petrogenetic scenarios for each. The Middle Triassic (ca. 238 Ma) Ping'andi (PAD) granites are mainly calc-alkali and peraluminous. Their radiogenic whole-rock Nd and zircon Hf isotopic signatures argue for an origin consistent with partial melting of a juvenile quartzofeldspathic crust formed by prior mantle-derived magmatic underplating and their differentiations. By contrast, the Late Triassic (ca. 220 Ma) Dashaoleng (DSL) and Sijiazi (SJZ) suites show an evolved character from alkali-calcic to alkali and from metaluminous to peraluminous. Their variably evolved whole-rock Sr–Nd and mixed zircon Hf isotopic compositions suggest that both suites were formed by variable mixing between depleted mantle-derived mafic magma and old crust-derived felsic magma, with distinctively higher input from juvenile components in the DSL suite. These contrasting ferroan granitoid suites not only provide a spatial marker for monitoring juxtaposition of the North China Craton (NCC) and the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) along a lithospheric-scale boundary fault in the region, but also present a temporal snapshot that records a southwardly-progressing crustal growth scenario possibly in response to lithospheric dripping within a post-orogenic extensional regime. The cratonic scale synthesis further indicates that diachronous decratonization pattern of the NCC might record episodic response of the craton to evolved plate tectonic processes with two contrasting Phanerozoic orogenic systems.

► This study documents three Triassic ferroan granitoids from North China.
► Their distinct geochemical signatures attest to contrasting genetic scenarios.
► They provide a spatial marker for monitoring the craton–orogen boundary.
► These rocks record a southwardly-progressed crustal growth scenario.