High-temperature altered oceanic crust recycling into oceanic-island basalt−like mantle produces alkaline continental crust driven by mélange diapirs: Insights from isotopic tracing and numerical modeling

Genesis of the large-volume alkaline crust at active continental margin is still enigmatic for geologists worldwide. The point at issue is whether or not subducted oceanic crusts get involved and how they interact with the mantle source of the alkaline crust. Late Mesozoic juvenile alkaline crusts with high εNd(t)-εHf(t) values are widely distributed in the Great Xing’an Range of NE China, as parts of an arc magmatic belt related to the Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean closure. We carried out multi-isotope analyses and 2-D high-resolution numerical modeling to trace the mantle source nature of the alkaline crust. The alkaline rocks show similar trace elements with the I-type enriched mantle and are originated from an upwelling oceanic-island basalt−like mantle. Their high field strength element depleted arc features indicate the crustal material addition in the source region. Low δ18O, mantle-like Sr-Nd-Hf and light Mg isotope compositions, limited δ7Li variations, no Nd-Hf decoupling, and our mixing calculation preclude continental crustal assimilation, marine-sediment melt and/or altered oceanic crust (AOC)−fluid metasomatism, and bulk marine sediment involvement, and provide evidence of the bulk AOC addition in the mantle source. Lower δ18O values than the mantle and relatively low δ7Li values further confirmed the involved AOC to be a high-temperature (high-T) AOC. Our multi-isotope tracing successfully fingerprints the recycled high-T AOC into the source region of the alkaline juvenile crust. Then, our 2-D high-resolution numerical modeling reconstructs the high-T AOC recycling processes driven by mélange melting.