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Mantle and Magmatic Processes |
1 University of Montepellier II, CNRS-CGG, 34095 Montpellier, Cedex 5, France and Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK
2 Changsha Institute of Geotectonics, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China
3 Department of Geological Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Science, Box 4398, Chicago, Illinois 60680, USA
In eastern China Palaeozoic kimberlites and Cenozoic basalts have been erupted through the same Archaean crust, thus providing deep probes of the cratonic lower lithosphere over a period of 400 Ma. While Palaeozoic diamondiferous kimberlites point to the existence of thick, refractory lower lithosphere in the east, Cenozoic basalt-borne xenoliths reveal the presence of hot, thin, less refractory lower lithosphere. Remnants of the Archaean lithosphere may have survived as harzburgites which are chemically similar to those from the Kaapvaal craton but very different from recently accreted lherzolites. In the absence of convincing evidence for supra-subduction or intraplate processes it is believed that the dramatic change of lithosphere architecture in the Phanerozoic was caused by indentor tectonics resulting from the collision of India and Eurasia. Passive reactivation and remobilization of the Archaean lower lithosphere, in particular metasome horizons, contributed to Cenozoic magmatism aligned along major lithospheric faults.
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