The Aoyougou Mafic-Ultramafic complex in the North Qilian Mountains, Northwest China: A possible Middle Proterozoic ophiolite along the Southern Margin of the North China Craton

Abstract

The Aoyougou mafic-ultramafic complex lies in the Paleozoic orogenic belt of the western part of the North Qilian Mountains near Aoyougou valley in Gansu Province, northwestern China. It consists of serpentinite, a cumulate sequence of gabbro and diorite, pillowed and massive lavas, diabase dikes, and chert, an assemblage tentatively interpreted as an ophiolite. SHRIMP dates on zircons from the diabase dikes indicate a crystallization age of 1777 ± 28 Ma. The basalts show light rare-earth element enrichment and have relatively high TiO2 and low Al2O3 contents, characteristic of present-day E-MORB or ocean-island lavas. All of the lavas have relatively low MgO contents and Mg numbers [100Mg/(Mg+Fe)], indicating a somewhat evolved character. The diabase dikes have flat chondrite-normalized REE patterns and are significantly more primitive than the lavas. Based on the lava geochemistry, the nature of the serpentinite, and the regional geology, the Aoyougou complex is interpreted as a fragment of oceanic lithosphere that may have formed at an oceanic spreading axis. Later subduction of oceanic lithosphere in the Middle Proterozoic produced a trench-arc-basin system, which is preserved in the North Qilian Mountains. The tectonically dismembered Aoyougou complex is similar in many respects to Phanerozoic ophiolites and suggests that modern-style plate tectonic processes in China may have begun as early as the Middle Proterozoic.