The Carboniferous-Early Permian rift-related volcanic successions, covering large areas in the Chinese Tianshan and its adjacent areas, make up a newly recognized important Phanerozoic large igneous province in the world, which can be further divided into two sub-provinces： Tianshan and Tarim. The regional unconformity of Lower Carboniferous upon basement or pre-Carboniferous rocks, the ages （360--351 Ma） of the youngest ophiolite and the peak of subduction metamorphism of high pressure-low temperature metamorphic belt and the occurrence of Ni-Cu-bearing mafic-ultramafic intrusion with age of ~352 Ma and A-type granite with age of ~358 Ma reveal that the final closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean might take place in the Early Mississippian. Our summation shows that at least four criteria, being normally used to identify ancient asthenosphere upwelling （or mantle plumes）, are met for this large igneous province： （1） surface uplift prior to magmatism; （2） being associated with continental rifting and breakup events; （3） chemical characteristics of asthenosphere （or plume） derived basalts; （4） close links to large-scale mineralization and the uncontaminated basalts, being analogous to those of many ＂ore-bearing＂ large igneous provinces, display Sr-Nd isotopic variations between plume and EMI geochemical signatures, These suggest that a Carboniferous asthenosphere upwelling and an Early Permian plume played the central role in the generation of the Tianshan--Tarim （central Asia） large igneous province.
Linqi Xia Xueyi Xu Xiangmin Li Zhongping Ma Zuchun Xia
Early Cambrian and Mid--Late Neoproterozoic volcanic rocks in China are widespread on several Precambrian continental blocks, which had aggregated to form part of the Rodinia supercon- tinent by ca. 900 Ma. On the basis of petrogeochemical data, the basic lavas can be classified into two major magma types： HT （Ti/Y 〉 500） and LT （Ti/Y 〈 500） that can be further divided into HT1 （Nb/La 〉 0.85） and HT2 （Nb/La ≤ 0.85）, and LT1 （Nb/La 〉 0.85） and LT2 （Nb/La ≤ 0.85） subtypes, respectively. The geochemical variation of the HT2 and LT2 lavas can be accounted for by lithospheric contamination of asthenosphere- （or plume-） derived magmas, whereas the parental magmas of the HT1 and LT1 lavas did not undergo, during their ascent, pronounced lithospheric contamination. These volcanics exhibit at least three characteristics： （1） most have a compositional bimodality; （2） they were formed in an intracontinental rift setting; and （3） they are genetically linked with mantle plumes or a mantle surperplume. This rift-related volcanism at end of the Mid-- Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian coincided temporally with the separation between Australia-- East Antarctica, South China and Laurentia and between Australia and Tarim, respectively.
Linqi Xia Zuchun Xia Xueyi Xu Xiangmin Li Zhongping Ma
