Pluton incremental growth by multi-stage magma pulsations: Evidence from the Fangshan pluton, North China Craton

The Fangshan intrusive suite is a composite pluton in the North China Craton that resulted from incremental assembly of small magma batches. The pluton consists of four intrusive units with abundant mafic enclaves. Here we clarify its crystallisation history through zircon U-Pb dating, which indicates prolonged crystallisation of each intrusive unit at upper-crustal levels between 132.5 and 128.7 Ma. The magmas were episodically extracted from a deep storage area and ascended to the final intrusion level at a palaeo-depth of 10-16 km. Zircon trace element and Hf isotopic compositions and Ti-in-zircon temperature of the four intrusive units and mafic enclaves show significant differences and suggest that their crystallisation occurred in isotopically and chemically diverse magma batches. These magma batches formed in the lower crust from the mingling and mixing of various proportions of residual melts, derived from the fractional crystallisation of mafic magmas, with crustal partial melts at high temperatures. Four type of zircons were observed in mafic enclaves based on a simple textural classification, including antecrysts (type 1), xenocrysts (type 2 and type 3), and recrystallised zircon (type 4). Type 1 zircons were not formed at the emplacement level and are antecrystic, having formed at a deeper, hotter level and been entrained into the ascending melts. Most type 2 zircons were captured from coarse-grained monzonite, and a very small number of grains were sourced from porphyritic granodiorite. Type 3 zircons display a core-rim texture, illustrating that xenocrysts may successively grow in mafic melts. Type 4 zircons display patchy zoning that represents a disequilibrium texture, manifested by the replacement of U-Th-REE-rich zircon by U-Th-REE-poor zircon, which occurred in response to magma mixing between mafic and felsic melts. This study shows that zircon chemistry coupled with detailed textural analyses can provide a powerful tool to elucidate the complex evolution of a magmatic system.

Automated summary

The Fangshan intrusive suite is a composite pluton in the North China Craton formed through incremental assembly of small magma batches. Zircon U-Pb dating revealed that each intrusive unit crystallized over a prolonged period between 132.5 and 128.7 Ma, at upper-crustal levels. Different zircon types in mafic enclaves suggest diverse crystallization environments and processes, shedding light on the complex evolution of the magmatic system.