Geochronological and geochemical constraints on the petrogenesis of the early Paleoproterozoic potassic granite in the Lushan area, southern margin of the North China Craton

• The potassic granite formed at 2194 ± 29 Ma and belong to A-type granite.
• They formed by partial melting of tonalitic–granodioritic crust.
• ∼2.19 Ga magmatism indicates a new tectonic scenario of intro-plate rifting.

We conducted a geochronological and geochemical study on the Paleoproterozoic potassic granites in the Lushan area, southern margin of the North China Craton (NCC) to understand the tectonic regime of the NCC at 2.2–2.1 Ga. This rock suite formed at 2194 ± 29 Ma. The rocks are rich in SiO2 (76.10–77.73 wt.%), and K2O (5.94–6.90 wt.%) with high K2O + Na2O contents from 7.56 wt.% to 8.48 wt.%, but poor in CaO (0.10–0.28 wt.%), P2O5 (0.02–0.05 wt.%) and MgO (0.01–0.30 wt.%, Mg# = 1.08–27.3), indicating they experienced fractional crystallization. Major element compositions suggest the potassic granites share an affinity with high K calc-alkaline granite. Even though the Lushan potassic granitic rocks have high A/CNK ratios (1.11–1.25), which can reach peraluminous feature, the very low P2O5 contents and negative correlation of P2O5 and SiO2 ruling out they are S-type granites. Different from peralkaline A-type granites, the Lushan potassic granites have variable Zr concentrations (160–344 ppm, 226 ppm on average) and 10,000 Ga/Al ratios (1.76–3.00), together with high zircon saturation temperatures (TZr = 826–885 °C), indicating they are fractionated aluminous A-type granites. Enriched LREE ((La/Yb)N = 9.72–81.8), negative Eu anomalies, and low Sr/Y with no correlations in Sr/Y and Sr/Zr versus CaO suggest the possible presence of Ca-rich plagioclase and absence of garnet in the residual. Magmatic zircon grains have variable εHf(t) values (−2.4 to +7.3) with zircon two-stage Hf model ages (TDMC) varying from 2848 Ma to 2306 Ma (mostly around ca. 2.5 Ga), and are plotted in the evolution line of crustal felsic rock. We propose that the rocks mainly formed by partial melting of ca. 2.50 Ga tonalitic–granodioritic crust as a result of upwelling mantle-derived magmas which provided thermal flux and source materials in an intra-continent rifting. The ca. 2.2 Ga magmatism suggests that intra-continental rifting occurred at 2.35–1.97 Ga at least in the southern margin of the NCC after its final cratonization in the late Neoarchean.