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The role of recycled oceanic crust in magmatism and metallogeny: Os–Sr–Nd isotopes, U–Pb geochronology and geochemistry of picritic dykes in the Panzhihua giant Fe–Ti oxide deposit, central Emeishan large igneous province, SW China

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Abstract

The picritic dykes occurring within fine-grained gabbro in the marginal zone and in the surrounding Proterozoic wall-rock marbles of the Panzhihua Fe–Ti oxide deposit closely correspond in bulk composition with the nearby Panzhihua intrusion. These dykes offer important constraints on the nature of the mantle source of the Panzhihua ore-bearing intrusion and its possible link to the Emeishan plume. U–Pb zircon dating of the picritic dyke yields a crystallization age of 261.4 ± 4.6 Ma, coeval with the timing of the main Panzhihua gabbroic intrusion and Late Permian Emeishan flood basalts. The Panzhihua picritic dykes contain 37.63–43.41 wt% SiO2, 1.15–1.56 wt% TiO2, 11.43–13.25 wt% TFe2O3, and 20.96–28.87 wt% MgO. Primitive-mantle-normalized patterns of the rocks are comparable to those of ocean island basalt. The rocks define a relatively small range of Os isotopic compositions and a low Os signature of −0.13 to +2.76 for γOs (261 Ma). In combination with their Sr–Nd–Os isotopic compositions, we interpret that these rocks were derived from the Emeishan plume sources as well as the interactions of plume melts with the overlying lithosphere which had been extensively affected by eclogite-derived melts from the deep-subducted oceanic slab. Partial melting induced by an upwelling mantle plume that involved an eclogite or pyroxenite component in the lithospheric mantle could have produced the parental Fe-rich magma. Our study suggests that plume-lithosphere interaction might have played a key role in generating many world-class Fe–Ti oxide deposits clustered in the Panxi area.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Yongsheng Liu and Wei Yang for assistance with the work. We thank the two anonymous reviewers and Editor Timothy L. Grove for their thoughtful and constructive comments. Parts of this work were supported by 973 program (2012CB416806), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 40925006 and 40821061), the “Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,” the 111 Project (B07011), and PCSIRT.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Tong Hou, Zhaochong Zhang & M. Santosh

  2. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Saint Louis University, 3642 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63108, USA

    John Encarnacion

  3. Division of Interdisciplinary Science, Kochi University, Kochi, 780-8520, Japan

    M. Santosh

  4. Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochronology and Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 5100640, China

    Yali Sun

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  1. Tong Hou
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Hou, T., Zhang, Z., Encarnacion, J. et al. The role of recycled oceanic crust in magmatism and metallogeny: Os–Sr–Nd isotopes, U–Pb geochronology and geochemistry of picritic dykes in the Panzhihua giant Fe–Ti oxide deposit, central Emeishan large igneous province, SW China. Contrib Mineral Petrol 165, 805–822 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-012-0836-3

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