Discovery of the eclogite and its petrography in the Northern Dabie Mountain

Eclogite from the Northern Dabie Mountain is a new finding by the authors. These eclogites in foliated perdotite are enveloped by banded gneiss and occur in the mafic-ultramafic rock belt. They are mainly composed of omphacite, garnet, diopside, orthopyroxene, amphibole, plagioclase and magnetite, and a small amount of rutile, spinel, olivin and 鏾rundum. The mineral association of peak metamorphism of the eclogite is omphacite+garnet+rutile. The existence of eclogite in the Northern Dabie Mountain implies that there was an eclogitic metamorphism prior to the granulitic facies one in the mafic-ultramafic rock belt.

First occurrence of preiswerkite in the Dabie UHP metamorphic belt

This note reports the preiswerkite that was found as the first occurrence in the UHP metamorphic belt of the Dabie Mountain. It occurs in the quartz jadeitite, and coexists with plagioclase, taramite and magnetite as retrograde symplectite. The calculated temperature of formation for preiswerkite is about 600 -620 ℃ (at P=1.0 -1.5GPa), suggesting that the preiswerkite is an indicator mineral of high-grade greenschist facies retrograded from eclogite-facies rocks.

The Fossils in Shangxi Group and Its Implication for Tectonics, Southern Anhui, China

The Shangxi Group is the local name in southern Anhui Province and it is believed to be the equivalence of the well-known Banxi Group in Hunan Province, southern China. So the area occupied by the Shangxi Group was regarded as a part of the "Jiangnan old land" of Presinian till it was challenged by the present authors years ago. After we postulated that there may be some strata of Palaeozoic Era in Shangxi Group, some microfossils and then macrofossils of Palaeozoic were found in some part of it. The macrof os-sils, Lingula sp. , Conulariid and the microfossils indicate that most units of the Shangxi Group are Palaeozoic strata. Based on the discovery of these fossils and the recognition of the tectonic-setting of the different tectono-petrologic units in the Shangxi Group, three different stratigraphic sequences (island-arc volcanics, back-arc sediments and the cover of passive margin of Yangtze Continental Plate) are established and the tectonic evolution of them is postulated in the present paper.

Effects of retrograde-zoning of garnet on Sm-Nd isotopic dating of eclogite and oxygen isotopic disequilibrium between eclogitic minerals

The compositional zoning of the garnet in a strongly deformed eclogite from Raobazhai foliated peridotite has been recognized. The CaO concentrations of the garnet are decreased from the core to the rim, while its MnO concentrations are increased, suggesting the retrograde origin of such CaO-MnO zoning. The tie line of garnet + omphacite from this eclogite gives a Sm-Nd age of (187±5) Ma, which is less significant than the Sm-Nd ages of (221±5)-(228±3) Ma and (210±6)-(214±6) Ma for ultrahigh-pressure eclogites in the southern Dabie zone and in the northern Dabie zone, respectively. This younger Sm-Nd age could result from the 143Nd/144Nd ratio decrease of the retrograde zone in the garnet. The δ18O values of the garnet and omphacite show that their fractionation values are less than the equilibrium fractionation value between the garnet and omphacite at 500-900℃, which suggests an oxygen isotopic disequilibrium between them.

Eclogites from the Northern Dabie Mountains, eastern China: Geochemical characteristics, Sr-Nd isotopic compositions and tectonic implications

The petrologic geochemical and Sr-Nd isotopic compositions of the eclogites from the mafic-ultramafic rock belt (MUMRB) in the Northern Dabie Mountains indicate that: (1) the protoliths of most of eclogites are tholeiitic basalt and a few may be gabbro, and most of them produced from the Yangtze subducted continental crust (lower crust and formed during the deep subduction) and a part may be from paleo-oceanic relics between the Yangtze and North China continental plates; (2) their positive Nb anomalies and related trace element characteristics show that they did not form in the island-arc setting; (3) the metamorphosed MUMRB with eclogite and meta-peridotite blocks along the southern part of the Mozitan-Xiaotian fault zone may represent the suture zone produced during the collision between the Yangtze and North China continental plates, which included the Yangtze subducted continental crust and paleo-oceanic relics.

DIAMONDS FROM HIGH-PRESSURE METAMORPHIC ROCKS IN EASTERN DABIE MOUNTAIN

Diamonds commonly occur in kimberlites, lamproites and relative alluvial sediments. Some examples of diamonds discovered in ultramafics have heen reported. Sobolev and Shatsky reported diamonds from high-pressure metamorphic rock from northern Kazakhstan and considered it to be the source of the alluvial diamonds in Pridneprovie region of western U. S. S. R. Diamonds reported here show some similarity to those in northern Kazakhstan, and are the second occurrence in the world, but the first one in China.