Zircon evidence for incorporation of terrigenous sediments into the magma source of continental basalts.

ABSTRACT: Crustal components may be incorporated into continental basalts by either shallow contamination or deep mixing. While the former proceeds at crustal depths with common preservation of refractory minerals, the latter occurs at mantle depths with rare survival of relict minerals. Discrimination between the two mechanisms has great bearing to subcontinental mantle geochemistry. Here we report the occurrence of relict zircons in Cenozoic continental basalts from eastern China. A combined study of zircon U-Pb ages and geochemistry indicates that detrital zircons were carried by terrigenous sediments into a subcontinental subduction zone, where the zircon were transferred by fluids into the magma sources of continental basalts. The basalts were sampled from three petrotectonic units with distinc

SUBMITTER: Xu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5760614 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature