摘要

The role of fluids in the formation of the Permian-aged Xigedan and Mandula gabbroic intrusions in western Inner Mongolia was significant to the evolution of the Xing'an Mongolia Orogenic Belt (XMOB), and the active northern margin of the North China Craton (NCC). Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) U-Pb zircon geochronology establishes that the Xigedan gabbroic intrusion in the northern NCC was emplaced at 266 Ma, and is therefore slightly younger than the ca 280 Ma Mandula gabbroic intrusion in the XMOB. Along with their felsic counterparts, the mafic igneous intrusions record extensive bimodal magmatism along the northern NCC and in the XMOB during the Early to Middle Permian. The Mandula gabbroic rocks have low initial Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios (0.7040-0.7043) and positive epsilon Nd(t) (+6.2 to +7.3) and epsilon Hf (t) values (+13.4 to +14.5), resembling to those of contemporaneous Mandula basalts. These features, together with the presence of amphibole and the enrichment of large ion lithophile elements (LILE, e.g., Rb, Ba, U and Sr) and depletion of Nb-Ta suggest that the parental magmas of the Mandula mafic igneous rocks were derived from a depleted mantle source metasomatized by water-rich fluids. In contrast, the Xigedan gabbroic rocks are characterised by high Sr-87/Sr-88 ratios (0.7078-0.7080) and zircon delta O-18 values (5.84-6.61 parts per thousand), but low epsilon Nd(t) (-9.3 to -10.2) and epsilon Hf(t) values (-8.76 to -8.54), indicative of a long-term enriched subcontinental lithosphere mantle source that was metasomatized by recycled, high delta O-18 crustal materials prior to partial melting. The high water contents (4.6-6.9 wt%) and arc-like geochemical signature (enrichment of fluid-mobile elements and depletion of Nb-Ta) of the parental magmas of the Xigedan gabbroic rocks further establish the existence of a mantle hydration event caused by fluid/melts released from hydrated recycled oceanic crust. Incompatible element modelling shows that 5-10% partial melting of an enriched mantle source by adding respectively 0.5% and 2% sediment melts and fluids, could have produced the parental magmas of the Xigedan gabbroic rocks. A range of geological evidence establishes an intracontinental origin for Late Paleozoic mafic igneous rocks along the northern NCC and in the XMOB, rather than a subduction-related setting. We therefore propose a deep-Earth water cycling process to account for mantle hydration and subsequent Late Paleozoic magmatism, supporting a geodynamic link between deep-Earth water cycling, and intracontinental magmatism and lithospheric extension.