The NE-trended Mesozoic granodioritic intrusions are spatially and temporally associated with the copper multi-metal mineralization in southeastern Hunan Province, South China. U-Pb dating result of single-grained zircons of four samples respectively from Shuikoushan, Baoshan, western Tongshanling and eastern Tongshanling intrusions reveals that their crystallization age spans a range from 172 Ma to 181 Ma, which also represents the oldest age of the regional copper multi-metal mineralization. Some of the zircon grains give an upper intercept age of about 1753 Ma and 207Pb/206Pb apparent age of (1752 ± 4) Ma, implying the involvement of the pre-Cambrian metamorphic (possible Middle Proterozoic) basement in their genesis. The presence of such a kind of zircon grains in these granodiorites indicates either that the parental magmas were assimilated by basement rocks during magma ascent or that lower/middle crustal rocks were one of the important components during the melting process.
The genesis of Indo-Sinian granitic plutons with peraluminous and potassium-rich affinities from Hunan Province, China has been investigated by numerical modeling using the numerical code FLAC. On the basis of the regional geological evolution in South China, we employed a realistic numerical model in an attempt to unravel the influences of basaltic underplating and tectonic crustal thickening on the crustal anatexis. Heat production derived from basaltic underplating (e.g. ca. 220 Ma gabbro xenoliths) can result in dehydration melting of fluid-bearing minerals in crustal rocks such as gneisses and metapelites, but its effect is limited in a relatively short time span (5-15 Ma) and on a small scale. Accordingly, it is very difficult for basaltic underplating to generate the large-scale Indo-Sinian granitic bathliths unless voluminous mafic magmas had been underplated at the lower/middle crust during this period. Alternatively, crustal thickening induced by tectonic compression can also lead to geothermal elevation, during which the temperature at the boundary between lower and middle crusts can be up to or greater than 700°C, triggering dehydration melting of muscovite in gneiss and metapelite. The proportion of melts from muscovite-induced dehydration melting is close to critical melt percentage (?20%) once the thickening factor reaches 1.3. These melts can be effectively transferred to the crust-level magma chamber and form large-scale granitic batholiths. In combination with the Indo-Sinian convergent tectonic setting in South China as well as sparse outcrops of contemporary mafic igneous rocks, we consider that tectonic crustal thickening is likely to be the predominant factor controlling the formation of the Indo-Sinian peraluminous and potassium-rich granitoids in Hunan Province.
