Geochemical Characteristics of Wuyang Siliceous Rocks in the Southern Margin of North China Craton and its Constraint on the Formation Environment of BIF of Tieshanmiao Formation

Precambrian banded iron formation (BIF) is one of the most important mineral resources in China, mostly abundant in the North China Craton (NCC) with relatively less common in South China. Since the BIF and siliceous rocks both originated from chemical deposition, the syngenetic BIF and Siliceous rocks can help evaluate their environment of formation. We examine here the mineralogy and geochemistry of siliceous rocks associated with the Tieshanmiao Formation BIF, aiming to decipher the conditions of formation of both BIF and Siliceous rocks in the Wuyang area in the NCC. Analysis of the geochemical characteristics of whole rock shows that the SiO₂ content of the siliceous rock ranges from 90.11% to 94.85% and is relatively high overall. Trace element contents of Ba and U are also high, the Ba/Sr ratio ranges from 3.89 to 25.28 and the U/Th ratio ranges from 0.09 to 0.20. Finally, the ΣREE value of rare earth elements ranges from 57.03 ppm to 152.59 ppm, and these indexes all indicate that siliceous rock resulted from hydrothermal deposition. Plots of Al₂O₃‐SiO₂, SiO₂/(K₂O+Na₂O)‐MnO₂/TiO₂ and Mn‐10×(Cu+Co+Ni)‐Fe in discrimination diagrams also verify this interpretation. However, both the MgO content, ranging from 0.16 to 0.32, and the Fe/Ti ratio, ranging from 2.50 to 9.72, suggest that terrigenous material was added during the depositional process. Major and trace element parameters of siliceous rock, such as the Al/(A1+Fe+Mn) ratio (from 0.81 to 0.93), MnO/TiO₂ (from 0.00 to 0.17), Al/(Al+Fe) (from 0.82 to 0.93), Sc/Th ratio (from 0.21 to 0.50), U/Th (from 0.09 to 0.20), (La/Yb)_N (from 0.83 to 3.04), and the (La/Ce)_N (from 0.01 to 0.02) all imply that the siliceous rock formed in a continental margin. In addition, the Sr/Ba ratio from 0.08 to 0.26, the δCe value from 0.31 to 0.90, and the δEu value from 0.14 to 0.58, all indicate that the siliceous rock was formed at a relatively deeper water depth and under weak hydrodynamic conditions. Siliceous rock and BIF formed in the same geological setting, with the SiO₂/(K₂O+Na₂O) ratio of siliceous rock ranging from 28.61 to 47.43, the SiO₂/Al₂O₃ ratio from 16.53 to 32.37, and the SiO₂/MgO ratio from 287.28 to 592.81, which are all in agreement with chemical deposition associated with volcanic eruptions. The Al₂O₃/TiO₂ ratio from 37.82 to 50.30 indicates that the magma source of siliceous rock was of slightly intermediate composition. During the Late Archean in the Wuyang area, the high concentration and high purity SiO₂ quickly precipitated from hydrothermal fluids to finally result in the accumulation of siliceous rock in a marginal sea, while the input corresponding to iron formation components was deposited to form iron formation layers, and limestone was only the product formed during the deposition intervals of siliceous rock and iron formations. In this study, the synsedimentary siliceous rocks of BIF act as a new way to provide direct evidence to understand the formation environment of BIF due to its high geochemical stability.