Pervasive Neoarchean melting of subducted sediments generating sanukitoid and associated magmatism in the North China Craton, with implications for the operation of plate tectonics

The Mesoarchean to Neoarchean period (ca. 3.0−2.5 Ga) is the most important stage during the emergence and evolution of plate tectonics. However, plate subduction at this time may have been less stable and perhaps more susceptible to the lubrication effect of sediments than the modern counterpart. Such predictions have not yet been verified by field-based investigations. In this work, we identified two types of rock units (i.e., sanukitoids and associated adakitic suites, exposed in the Eastern Hebei Complex of the North China Craton) and illustrated their petrogenesis and tectonic context through field, geochronologic, geochemical, and isotopic investigations. Laser ablation−inductively coupled plasma−mass spectrometry zircon U-Pb analyses suggest that the two magmatic suites formed within a relatively short time span of ca. 2596−2544 Ma and ca. 2559−2533 Ma, respectively. The sanukitoids are composed of meta-andesites and diorite porphyrites and characterized by relatively high MgO (3.94−5.62 wt%), Mg# (50−61), Cr (73−343 ppm), and Ni (37−111 ppm) values. The adakitic rocks are composed of granodiorite-granite gneisses and have relatively high Sr (316−1001 ppm) and low Y (7−13 ppm) and Yb (0.83−1.37 ppm) contents, and relatively high Sr/Y (36−89) and La/Yb (16−45) ratios. Rocks from both suites exhibit depletions of Nb, Ta, and Ti and have similar Sr-Nd-Hf-Zn isotopes: variable (87Sr/86Sr)i (0.7002−0.7053), weakly positive εNd(t) (+0.3 to +1.7) and εHf(t) (+1.8 to +6.8), and slightly heavy δ66Zn (0.30‰−0.36‰). These geochemical characteristics indicate that the sanukitoids were derived from the melting of subducted sediments followed by melt-mantle interaction, whereas the adakitic rocks were produced by direct partial melting of subducted plate (including tonalite-trondjhemite-granodiorite melts) under a garnet stability field with minor sediments. Such distinct magmatic rock associations, together with the coeval charnockites and tholeiites with diverse compositions in the adjacent area, can be best explained by a slab breakoff model. Further, events associated with slab breakoff are likely to represent a transition of a quasi-plate tectonic regime, characterized by multiple, continuous, and stagnant attempts to start the modern-style subduction on Earth. In addition, the emergence of sanukitoids and associated magmas symbolized the onset of supracrustal recycling into the mantle. Combined with the Nd-Hf-Zn isotopes of diverse magmatic rocks in the North China Craton that are comparable to other Precambrian magmatic rock suites worldwide, we suggest that supracrustal recycling symbolized the onset of plate tectonics since ca. 3.0 Ga, and by inference played a key role in the development of subduction-driven plate tectonics in addition to Earth’s secular cooling.