The Cretaceous volcanic succession around the Songliao Basin,NE China: relationship between volcanism and sedimentation

With volume ratio of 8:1:1.5 amongst acidic, intermediate and basaltic rocks, the Cretaceous volcanics around the Songliao Basin are a series of high‐K or medium‐K, peraluminous or metaluminous, calc‐alkaline rocks, lacking typical basalts and peralkaline members of typical rift‐related types. Their eruption ages range between 133 and 127 Ma, 124 and 122 Ma and 117 and 113 Ma respectively. They are high in total (Rare earth element) REE contents (96.1–326 ppm), enriched in LREE and depleted in HREE (LREE/HREE = 4.6–13.8), with negative Eu and Ce anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 0.04–0.88; Ce/Ce* = 0.60–0.97). They have enriched large‐ion lithophile elements (e.g. K, Ba, Th) and depleted high field strength elements (e.g. Nb, Ti and Y), suggesting a subduction‐related tectonic setting. The volcanic activities migrated from south to north, forming a successively northward‐stepping volcanic series and showing a feature significantly different from the overlying sedimentary sequence striking northeast. Thus, an overlap basin model was proposed. Accompanied by opening of the basin, the volcanogenic succession was formed at the block‐faulting stage (131–113 Ma) owing to the closure of the Mongolia–Okhotsk ocean in the Jurassic and early Cretaceous, while the overlying sedimentary sequence was unconformably deposited at the spreading stage (Albian–Maastrichtian) owing to the oblique subduction of the Pacific plate under the Eurasian plate. The volcanic succession constitutes the lower unit of basin filling and is the forerunner of further basin spreading. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.