Construction of an Early Cambrian Intra-Oceanic Arc within the West Junggar, Nw China: Magmatic Records from Proto- to Mature-Arc

Abstract

The Junggar orogenic collage in Central Asia is characterized by the accretion of multiple Paleozoic intra-oceanic arc terranes developed within the Junggar Ocean, yet magmatic records relating to the construction of these ancient oceanic arcs are largely disrupted. Here, we report new petrological and geochemical data of mafic-ultramafic rocks documented from the Early Cambrian Saleinuohai ophiolitic mélange in southern West Junggar. The mafic rocks include dolerites and basalts, which show geochemical features (e.g., lower TiO2 and Zr relative to MORB, depleted LREE, and high εNd(t)) resembling those of forearc basalts from the Izu-Bonin-Mariana arc. Thus, they may represent the upper section of newly-accreted oceanic crust formed during subduction initiation, upon which a nascent arc is soon built. In contrast, the ultramafic rocks include dunite, wehrlite, and clinopyroxenite, which display cumulate textures with a crystallization order of olivine-clinopyroxene-plagioclase. Similar cumulate sequences are commonly observed in island-arc environments, presumably crystallized under a hydrous and high-pressure condition. The calculated equilibrium melts for these cumulates further resemble those adakitic rocks previously reported from the Saleinuohai ophiolitic mélange. Thus, they may represent the root section of mature island arc crust that formed during intracrustal fractionation. Our data, together with previous results, provide a complete magmatic record of the development of an Early Cambrian intra-oceanic arc within the Junggar Ocean.

Keywords: West Junggar, Intra-oceanic arc, Forearc basalt, Arc cumulates, Magmatic evolution