Newly developed evidence for the original Tethysan island-arc volcanic rocks in the southern segment of the South Lancangjiang Belt

This paper re-describes the characteristics of pre-Ordovician (Pt3) metamorphic volcanic rocks in the Huimin-Manlai region of Yunnan Province from the aspects of petrographic characteristics, rock assemblage, petrochemistry, REE, trace elements, lead isotopes and geotectonic setting. The metamorphic volcanic rocks maintain blasto-intergranular and blasto-andesitic textures; the volcanic rocks are characterized by a basalt-andesite-dacite assemblage; the volcanic rocks are basic-intermediate-intermediate-acid in chemical composition, belonging to semi-alkaline rocks, with calc-alkaline series and tholeiite series coexisting, and they are characterized by low TiO2 contents; their REE distribution patterns are of the LREE-enrichment right-inclined type; the volcanic rocks are enriched in large cation elements and commonly enriched in Th and partly depleted in Ti, Cr and P, belonging to the Gondwana type as viewed from their Pb isotopic composition; petrochemically the data points fall mostly within the field of island-arc volcanic rocks. All these characteristics provided new evidence for the existence of original Tethysan island-arc volcanic rocks in the region studied. © Science Press 2007.