Petrogenesis of the 2115 Ma Haicheng mafic sills from the Eastern North China Craton: Implications for an intra-continental rifting

• A precise SIMS 207Pb/206Pb baddeleyite age of 2115 ± 3 Ma is obtained from one Haicheng mafic sill.
• The Haicheng sills were from the ancient subcontinental lithospheric mantle of North China.
• They were related to a craton-scale intra-continental rift rather than a paleo-arc.

The Rhyacian (2300–2050 Ma) is a special era of the Paleoproterozoic represented by large layered intrusions in many cratons. It is well known that there are widespread igneous events at ~ 2100 Ma in the Eastern North China Craton; however, their tectonic environments are under debate: whether they were related to an intra-continental rifting or an arc/back-arc setting along a continental margin. These ~ 2100 Ma igneous events comprise several mafic dykes/sills, with some coeval A-type granites and volcanic events in several rifts; among them, the Haicheng mafic sills in the Liaohe rift are unique as their host rock, the Liaohe Group, bears the world's largest magnesium deposit. Most of the mafic sills are E-W-elongated at present coordinates. Exclusive of superimposition caused by deformation, the widths of the individuals are tens to hundreds of meters and the lengths are hundreds to thousands of meters. They have metamorphosed to an assemblage of plagioclase and hornblende, with minor quartz and accessory chlorite, epidote, apatite, ilmenite, and magnetite. However, relic gabbro and ophitic textures with mainly plagioclase and clinopyroxene are well-preserved. SIMS Pb–Pb dating on baddeleyites from one ~ 1000 m thick sill near Xialiulinzi village yields an average 207Pb/206Pb age of 2115 ± 3 Ma (n = 15, MSWD = 2.3), representing the timing of crystallization. SIMS U–Pb dating on zircon yields a similar forming age. They are tholeiitic in composition (MgO: 4.36–8.88 wt.%; SiO2: 45.76–53.39 wt.%), enriched in light rare earth elements ((La/Yb)N = 1.72–4.37) and large ion lithophile elements (i.e., Cs, Rb, Sr, and K) but depleted in high field strength elements (i.e., Nb, Ta, and Ti). These features were unlikely caused by crustal contamination during their emplacement, as there are little variations in Nb/La and Th/Nb. The rocks have experienced significant plagioclase-plus clinopyroxene-dominating fractional crystallization. Their enriched Sr–Nd isotope characteristics (87Sr/86Srt = 0.703 ~ 0.705, εNdt = − 1.9 ~ 0.6) and trace element patterns indicate that their source(s) could be the ancient subcontinental lithospheric mantle; and this source is similar to those coeval sills from other parts of the craton. Their arc-like trace element features could be inherited from their source regions formed via a subduction process at the late Archean rather than at the middle-late Paleoproterozoic. These sill swarms, throughout the craton, might have developed in an integrated intra-continental rift system at ~ 2100 Ma.

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