Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of stratified lithospheric structure in the Western Qinling.

The nature, structure and evolution of lithospheric mantle beneath orogen are significant records of geological processes including subduction, collision and post-orogenic extention. In Central China, long-distance effects from collision between the North China and Yangtze cratons, uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and subduction of the Pacific Ocean are believed to converge in the Western Qinling. Ben-Xun Su et al. from the Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, investigated the mantle xenoliths from Baiguan and Haoti kamafugites in the Western Qinling to understand the lithospheric structure and mantle metasomatism beneath the orogenic belt.

The Western Qinling lithosphere with depths of at least 120 km is geothermally hot and compositionally stratified, companied by a step-wise decrease in fertility with depth. The shallower portion of the lithospheric mantle is represented by type 2 xenoliths which lack alteration and deformation, and have fertile characteristics in compositions. The dominant rock type in the mantle section is the type 1 peridotites, which have had undergone relatively higher melt extraction and subsequent metasomatism.

In-situ trace element data for minerals in the Baiguan and Haoti xenoliths are presented in this study. Baiguan clinopyroxenes have high LREE and show Ba, Th, U, Pb, Sr enrichment and negative Hf and Y anomalies, but the Haoti clinopyroxenes have large variations in trace elements and complicated distributions in LILE, and show negative Ti, Zr and Hf anomalies. Clinopyroxenes from both xenolith types have Ti/Eu and (La/Yb)N ratios in large ranges of 902–15813 and 0–20, respectively. The petrological and geochemical characteristics suggest that the Western Qinling peridotites had been subjected to silicate and subsequent carbonatite metasomatism, and that carbonatite metasomatism was predominant in Baiguan but lesser in Haoti. Comparisons with the Western Qinling carbonatites and world-wide carbonatites indicate that carbonatite melts involved in the metasomatism originated from deep mantle and most likely related to carbonatite magma, with contributions from subducted oceanic crust. The type 2 peridotites, comprising clinopyroxene megacrysts and clinopyroxenite display similar trace element abundances and patterns, suggesting a close affinity in petrogenesis. This study has recently been published in Lithos (Su et al. Compositionally stratified lithosphere and carbonatite metasomatism recorded in mantle xenoliths from the Western Qinling (Central China). Lithos, 2010，116(1-2): 111-128).Download Here