Magmatic Source Composition and Magmatism of the Volcanic Rocks in the Area of Kuruktag, Southern Xinjiang

1. Geological setting The terrane of Kuruktag lies in the north-eastern margin of the Tarim Basin and is a faulted marginal uplift of the basin. In the terrane, there occur extensively Dagelagebulake Group and Xinditage Group of Archaean-Paleoprotozoic metamorphic sequences overlain by Sinian-Cambrian sequences (Geological and mineral bureau of Xingjiang ulger atonomous region, 1993). The sedimentology of the Sinian-Cambrian strata have been studied (South Xinjiang petrollum exploratio…

Magmatic Source Composition and Magmatism of the Volcanic Rocks in the Area of Kuruktag, Southern Xinjiang

In the Sinian-Cambrian strata in the area of Kuruktag, southern Xingjiang, four layers of volcanic rocks occurred in the Early Sinian Beiyixi Formation, Late Sinian Zhamoketi Formation and Shuiquan Formation, and Early Cambrian Xishanbulake Formation, respectively. Volcanics of the Shuiquan Formation and Xishanbulake Formation are of alkali basalt series, those of the Zhamoketi Formation are of alkali basalt series and tholeiite series, and those of the Beiyixi Formation are obviously characterized by bimodal assemblage and mostly belong to alkali volcanics. Multi-element distribution patterns of the rocks show continental tumescence characters of interplate basalt. Fractional crystallization of plagioclase led to negative Eu-anomalies of some volcanics and the cumulation of olivine resulted in high MgO and low SiO2 content of some volcanic rocks. The SiO2 saturability of volcanic rocks of the Xishanbulake Formation and Shuiquan Formation is lower than that of tholeiite of the Zhamoketi Formation. Correspondingly, the abundance of incompatible elements in the first two formations is higher than those in the last formation, and the differences can be attributed to the different degrees of partial melting. The intense fractionation of REE and the obvious depletion of HREE suggest that these volcanic rocks were derived from garnet lherzolite of the mantle in the continental lithosphere. The Ba/Nb, La/Nb, Ba/La, Ba/Th and Rb/Nb rations demonstrate that these volcanic rocks were exclusively derived from the enriched mantle, mainly the EMI type mantle.