The Kamusite A2-type granites in the Karamaili tectonic belt, Xinjiang (NW China): tracing staged postcollisional delamination in the eastern Junggar

Abstract

AbstractThe Kamusite pluton is located in the eastern Junggar area, the westernmost segment of the Karamaili structural belt, and is predominantly composed of medium granite and microgranite with an exposure area of 30 km2. The U–Pb zircon geochronology of the Kamusite granites indicates that they crystallized in the late Carboniferous period (328–321 Ma). These granites exhibit high contents of SiO2 (76.09–77.85 wt %) and K2O + Na2O (8.01–9.06 wt %), but low MgO (0.01–0.14 wt %), CaO (0.07–0.32 wt %) and TiO2 (0.01–0.13 wt %) contents, showing alkalic–calcic, weakly peraluminous and ferroan features. They are depleted in Ba, Sr, Ti and P and enriched in Rb and some high-field-strength elements (Hf, Nd, Ta and Y); their rare earth element patterns are slightly right-leaning with strongly negative Eu anomalies, high 10 000 * Ga/Al (3.4–5.36, >2.6) and especially high Y/Nb ratios (1.61–10.33, >1.2), showing the geochemical characteristics of A2-type granite. These granites were produced by partial melting in a high-temperature, low-pressure, reduced and anhydrous environment and experienced extensive fractional crystallization, which concomitantly resulted in tin mineralization. Combining the high positive zircon ϵHf(t) values of +10.9 to +15.76 with young Hf (TDM2) model ages (638–330 Ma), it can be suggested that underplating-related mantle-derived materials were the original source of the Kamusite A2-type granites; namely, these granites formed by the partial melting of juvenile crust. The record of large-scale magmatism indicates that the whole tectonic belt was in a postcollisional extensional setting induced by staged delamination from west to east during the late Carboniferous to early Permian periods.