Re-Os dating of the Raobazhai ultramafic massif in North Dabie

The ultramafic massif at Raobazhai in North Dabie is located in the suture zone between the Yangtze craton and North China craton. The Re-Os isotope compositions of the massif are used to decipher the origin and tectonics of the ultramafic rocks involved in continental subduction and exhumation. Fifteen samples were collected from five drill holes along the main SE-NW axis of the Raobazhai massif. Major and trace element compositions of the samples show linear correlations between MgO, Yb and Al2O3. This suggests that the massif experienced partial melting with variable degrees and is from fertile to deplete in basaltic compositions. Nine selected samples were analyzed for Re-Os isotope compositions. Re contents range from 0.004 to 0.376 ng/g, Os contents from 0.695 to 3.761 ng/g, ^187Re/^188Os ratios from 0.022 to 2.564 and ^187Os/^188Os ratios from 0.1165 to 0.1306. These indicate that the massif is a piece of continental lithospberic mantle with variable depletion. Using the positive correlations between ^187TOs/^188Os and Yb and Al2O3 respectively, a proxy isochron age of 1.8±0.1 Ga is obtained for the Raobazhai ultramafic massif, which is interpreted to represent a fragment of the ancient subcontinental lithospheric mantle. During Triassic subduction of the Yangtze craton beneath the North China craton, part of the wedge of subcontinental lithospheric mantle was intruded into the subduction belt, and then exhumed to crustal level together with the subducted crustal plate after ultrahigh pressure metamorphism at mantle depths. This ancient lithospheric mantle is now exposed as an orogenic peridotite massif.

Zircon U/Pb dating and Hf-O isotopes of the Zhouan ultramafic intrusion in the northern margin of the Yangtze Block,SW China:Constraints on the nature of mantle source and timing of the supercontinent Rodinia breakup

The Zhouan ultramafic intrusion in the northern margin of the Yangtze Block is mainly composed of lherzolite. Zircon grains selected from lherzolite are irregular in shape with distinct oscillatory and sector zoning and have Th/U ratios ranging from 0.8 to 10.6, indicating a magmafic origin. The weighted average 206pb/238U age is 637±4 Ma （2σ, n=15）, which can be considered as the crystallization age of the Zhouan intrusion. Zircon grains have δ18O values ranging from 5.2‰to 7.0‰, with an averaged value of 5.8±0.4‰（1 or, n=33）, similar to the mantle δ18O value of zircon. Their 176Hf/177Hf（t） ratios range from 0.282410 to 0.282594 with εHf（t） values ranging from 1.3 to 7.6, lower than the corresponding value of the depleted mantle （~15）, indicating an enriched mantle source. The enriched mantle source may have generated from a metasomatized lithospheric mantle with subducted slab. A number of -635 Ma mafic-ultramafic intrusions in the Suizao basin are associated with coeval bimodal volcanics of the Yaolinghe Formation, indicating a continental rift setting. The ~635 Ma magmafic event in this region may represent the product of the last breakup of the Rodinia supercontinent in the northern margin of the Yangtze Block at Neoproterozoic.