Plume-lithosphere interaction in the Comei Large Igneous Province: Evidence from two types of mafic dykes in Gyangze, south Tibet, China

Two suites of mafic dykes,T1193-A and T1194-A,outcrop in Gyangze area,southeast Tibet.They are in the area of Comei LIP and have indistinguishable field occurrences with two other dykes in Gyangze,T0902 dyke with 137.7±1.3 Ma zircon age and T0907 dyke with 142±1.4 Ma zircon age reported by Wang YY et al.(2016),indicating coeval formation time.Taking all the four diabase dykes into consideration,two different types,OIB-type and weak enriched-type,can be summarized.The“OIB-type”samples,including T1193-A and T0907 dykes,show OIB-like geochemical features and have initial Sr-Nd isotopic values similar with most mafic products in Comei Large Igneous Provinces(LIP),suggesting that they represent melts directly generated from the Kerguelen mantle plume.The“weak enriched-type”samples,including T1194-A and T0902 dykes,have REEs and trace element patterns showing withinplate affinity but have obvious Nb-Ta-Ti negative anomalies.They show uniform lowerεNd(t)values(−6‒−2)and higher 87Sr/86Sr(t)values(0.706‒0.709)independent of their MgO variation,indicating one enriched mantle source.Considering their closely spatial and temporal relationship with the widespread Comei LIP magmatic products in Tethyan Himalaya,these“weak enriched-type”samples are consistent with mixing of melts from mantle plume and the above ancient Tethyan Himalaya subcontinental lithospheric mantle(SCLM)in different proportions.These weak enriched mafic rocks in Comei LIP form one special rock group and most likely suggest large scale hot mantle plume-continental lithosphere interaction.This process may lead to strong modification of the Tethyan Himalaya lithosphere in the Early Cretaceous.

Petrologic and REE Geochemical Characters of Burnt Rocks

The study of burnt rocks is beneficial to the discussion on the tectonic movement, paleoclimate and paleogeography that coal seams are subjected to after they were formed. In order to obtain the basic data on the features of the burnt rocks, a systematic study of petrology and REE geochemistry on burnt rocks in Shenmu, Northern Shaanxi Province has been done, using the methods of SEM, EDS, susceptibility measurements and ICP-MS. The burnt rocks are divided into two series in the section： the melted rocks and the baked rocks. SEM and EDS analyses reveal that all the minerals show burnt and melted traces, and there are no clay minerals except illite found in the burnt rocks. Susceptibility measurements reveal that the burnt rocks have abnormally high susceptibility values, whereas a geochemical analysis shows that the REE distribution pattern of burnt rocks is similar to that of sedimentary rocks （initial rocks）. In the longitudinal section, with increasing degree of burning （from baked rocks to melted rocks）, the ∑REE gradually decreases, and the total REE of melted rocks is obviously lower than that of baked rocks. Besides, the melted rocks show apparent negative Ce anomalies, while the baked rocks show no anomaly of Ce, and sometimes even show positive anomalies.

Characteristics of platinum-group elements in basalts from spreading axis of Mariana Trough

Total platinum-group elements （PGEs） abundances in basalts from the spreading axis of Mariana Trough ranged from 0.418 × 10^9 to 1. 022 × 10^-9, and primitive mantle-normalized PGE patterns are of positive slope showing the relative enrichment of PPGE （ platinum, palladium, rhodium） and gold relative to IPGE. Compared with other mantle-originated rocks, these basalts have lower PGE contents and wider ranges of primitive mantle-normalized ratios of palladium content to iridium one, palladium content to platinum one and palladium content to gold one exhibiting relative platinum and iridium depletion. Characteristics of PGE patterns indicated that the studied Mariana Trough basalts originated from low partial melting, and the MORB mantle beneath the spreading center had been contaminated by the are-island mantle. In the aspect of trace elements, Mariana Trough basalts showed the enrichment of LILE, lead and LREE, indicating that they had been influenced by subduetion compositions. All these demonstrated that Mariana Trough basalts are products of partial melting from a mixed mantle （ the contamination of MORB mantle by are-island mantle）.

Seasonal Behaviour of Mesoscale Eddy Trajectories in the North Indian Ocean Based on Satellite Altimetry

In the north Indian Ocean (NIO), maps of sea level anomaly from satellite altimetry were analysed from January-1995 to December-2000. The study attempted to trace the trajectories of the individual mesoscale anomalies manually and to understand seasonal changes in terms of phase speed. Mesoscale anomalies are detected as concentric circular shapes and diameters of ~90 km to 600 km and the minimum 30 days life cycle. Relatively higher eddy kinetic energy was noticed in the northwestern region of the NIO. Individual mesoscale anomalies, namely positive (warm, anticyclonic eddies) and negative (cold, cyclonic eddies) showing travelling direction westward in the NIO basins. In autumn, the number of negative anomalies detected is more than positive anomalies and vice versa during summer. The westward propagating positive (negative) anomalies in the Arabian Sea start appearing in winter (spring) along (away from) the west coast of India and west of 65°E;individual anomalies move to the west in spring/summer/autumn and collide along Somalia’s & Arabian coast. A group of positive (negative) anomalies trajectories appears as a tail at the southern tip of India are located west of the Laccadive ridge in winter (summer to autumn) associated with LH (LL). The Bay of Bengal (BB) trajectories show southwestward in northern BB, westward in central BB and northwestward in southern BB;individual anomalies are appearing along the west coast of Andaman & Nicobar ridge. The zonal phase speed decreases away from the equator, and the magnitude varies longitudinally in each season in the form of a wave-like pattern propagating westward from autumn to summer;the life cycle of the wave is almost 365 days (a year). The theoretical phase speed of the first mode of the baroclinic Rossby waves is quite similar to that of averaged zonal speed. Therefore mesoscale anomalies (eddies) are embedded into the large waves like phenomenon (Rossby waves), responsible for creating high variability and EKE in the region of NIO along the western boundaries.

Mineral Exploration Using Subtle or Negative Geochemical Anomalies

Mineral resources prediction and assessment is one of the most important tasks in geosciences.Geochemical anomalies,as direct indicators of the presence of mineralization,have played a significant role in the search of mineral deposits in the past several decades.In the near future,it may be possible to recognize subtle geochemical anomalies through the use of processing of geochemical exploration data using advanced approaches such as the spectrum-area multifractal model.In addition,negative geochemical anomalies can be used to locate mineralization.However,compared to positive geochemical anomalies,there has been limited research on negative geochemical anomalies in geochemical prospecting.In this study,two case studies are presented to demonstrate the identification of subtle geochemical anomalies and the significance of negative geochemical anomalies.Meanwhile,the opportunities and challenges in evaluating subtle geochemical anomalies associated with mineralization,and benefits of mapping of negative anomalies are discussed.

Negative Selection of Written Language Using Character Multiset Statistics

We study the combination of symbol frequence analysis and negative selection for anomaly detection of discrete sequences where conventional negative selection algorithms are not practical due to data sparsity.Theoretical analysis on ergodic Markov chains is used to outline the properties of the presented anomaly detection algorithm and to predict the probability of successful detection.Simulations are used to evaluate the detection sensitivity and the resolution of the analysis on both generated artificial data and real-world language data including the English Wikipedia.Simulation results on large reference corpora are used to study the effects of the assumptions made in the theoretical model in comparison to real-world data.

Decoupled Ce-Nd Isotopic Systematics of the Neoproterozoic Huangling Intrusive Complex and Its Geological Significance, Eastern Three Gorges, South China

Cerium is one of multivalent rear earth elements, which can transfer from trivalence to tretavalence at oxidizing environment. This process may cause variable degrees of fractionation of Ce from other trivalent rear earth elements, and thus may provide specific insight into the geological processes associated with marked redoxomorphism. Multiple geochemical tracing of Sr-Nd-Ce isotopes are performed on the felsic and mafic intrusives of the Neoproterozoic（~800 Ma） Huangling complex located at the eastern Three Gorges, South China. The intrusive rocks exclusively show various extents of negative Ce anomalies. On the εCe-εNd plot, most samples from the mafic intrusions scatter within the second quadrant, whereas those from the felsic intrusions within the fourth Quadrant. Both of the two groups exhibit relatively large range of ？Ce（t） variation but limited ？Nd（t） range, which cause a deviation from the ＂crustal array＂ and reveal a decoupled Nd-Ce isotope correlation. The intermediate-felsic suite have varied Ce/Ce＊ ratios but broadly proximate εCe（t） values, indicating that their negative Ce anomalies were generated during the magmatism; on the contrary, a positive correlation between εCe（t） and Ce/Ce＊ is observed for the intermediate-mafic suite, an indication of an origin of post-magmatic alteration or metamorphism for their Ce anomalies. Calculation of model age, the occurrence age of negative Ce anomalies（TCe） for the intermediate-mafic samples infers that the alteration events took place 〉350 Ma. Data showed that negative Ce anomalies of the felsic intrusions may reflect an increase of oxygen fugacity during magma ascending, rather than an inheritance from their source rocks. This explanation implies that the Neoproterozoic magmatism occurred at the continental nucleus of the Yangtze block were developing at a geodynamic context of rapidly regional uplifting.