Subduction—Modified Subcontinental Mantle in South China：Trace Element and Isotope Evidence in Basalts from Hainan Island

Cenozoic lavas from Hainan Island,South China,comprise quartz tholeiite,olivine tholeiite,alkali basalt,and basanite and form a continuous,tholeiite-dominated,compositional spectrum.Highly incompatible elements and their relationships with isotopes in these lavas are shown to be useful in evaluating mantle-source composition,whereas modeling suggests that ratios of elements with bulk partition coefficients significantly larger than those of Nb and Ta may be sensitive to partial melting.Th/Ta and La/Nb ratios of alkali basalts are lower than those of tholeiites,and they are all lower than those of the primitive mantle,These ratios correlate positively with ^207Pb/^204Pb and ^87Sr/^86Sr ratios.Such relationships can be explained by mixing of depleted and enriched source components.A depleted component is indicated by alkali basalt compositions and is similar to some depleted OIB (PREMA).The enriched component,similar to sediment compositions,is indicated by tholeiites with high LILE/HFSE,^207Pb/^204Pb,and ^87Sr/^86Sr ratios.In general,basalts from Hainan and the South China Basin(SCB)share common geochemical characters.e.g.high Rb/Sr,Th/Ta,^207Pb/^206Pb,and low Ba/Th ratios.Such a geochemical trend is comparable to that of EMII-type OIB and best explained as the result of subduction.Occurrence of these characteristics in both continental Hainan basalts and SCB seamout basalts indicates the presence of a South China geochemical domain that exists in the mantle region below the lithosphere.

Subduction-modified subcontinental mantle in South China: Trace element and isotope evidence in basalts from Hainan Island

Cenozoic lavas from Hainan Island, South China, comprise quartz tholeiite, olivine tholeiite, alkali basalt, and basanite and form a continuous, tholeiite-dominated, compositional spectrum. Highly incompatible elements and their relationships with isotopes in these lavas are shown to be useful in evaluating mantle-source composition, whereas modeling suggests that ratios of elements with bulk partition coefficients significantly larger than those of Nb and Ta may be sensitive to partial melting. Th/Ta and La/Nb ratios of alkali basalts are lower than those of tholeiites, and they are all lower than those of the primitive mantle. These ratios correlate positively with²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios. Such relationships can be explained by mixing of depleted and enriched source components. A depleted component is indicated by alkali basalt compositions and is similar to some depleted OIB (PREMA). The enriched component, similar to sediment compositions, is indicated by tholeiites with high LILE/HFSE,²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, and⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios. In general, basalts from Hainan and the South China Basin (SCB) share common geochemical characters, e.g. high Rb/Sr, Th/Ta,²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb, and low Ba/Th ratios. Such a geochemical trend is comparable to that of EMII-type OIB and best explained as the result of subduction. Occurrence of these characteristics in both continental Hainan basalts and SCB seamount basalts indicates the presence of a South China geochemical domain that exists in the mantle region below the lithosphere.