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Xinhua phosphorus is a sedimentary phosphate deposit in China with strong REEs enrichment. In this study, Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometer (ICP-AES) as well as rock-mineral identification, major and trace elements analysis together with sedimentology theory have been used to study geochemical characteristics of REEs in Xinhua phosphate rocks. ∑REEs of Xinhua phosphate rocks range from 800×10-6 to 1200×10-6 and are dominated by LREEs and Yttrium. REEs occur in collophanite by isomorphism dominantly. REEs pattern curves show remarkably negative Ce anomaies with values ranging from 0.28 to 0.36 in Xinhua phosphate rocks, which are similar to those of Kunyang phosphate rocks, indicating phosphorus in the south of the upper Yangtze was formed in an oxidative environment and precipitated at the stable epicontinental sea of the passive continental margin. However, REEs pattern curves of the upper black shales and weak Ce and Eu anomalies are different from those of Xinhua phosphate rocks, which reflect black shales were formed in a deep and bathyal sea of a reductive environment. The Meishucunian period had a transgression process and the Meishucunian stage had an upward deep regressive sequence, the boundary between phosphate rocks and black shales possibly being a third-order even less scale sequence boundary. All of this sedimentology information is helpful to reveal the sequence of stratigraphy and marine sedimentary environment, which provides evidence for biological outbreak and stratigraphy sequence of early Cambrian in the Yangtze area, South China.

Thickened crust is of great significance for tectonic evolution and mineralization and generally occurs in collisional orogenic belts. Whether accretionary orogenic belts, such as the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), are able to create remarkably thickened crusts and what the mechanism is, remain to be determined. In the southwestern of CAOB, the Eastern Tianshan with broad magmatism and integrated arc-continental system is an excellent area for understanding the crustal evolution. Here, we report geochronological, geochemical and Nd-Hf-O isotope data for Middle Triassic Baishandong granites in the Eastern Tianshan, which exhibit three stages: Group 1 (ca. 237 Ma) granodiorites, Group 2 (ca. 234 Ma) monzogranites, and Group 3 (ca. 229 Ma) highly fractionated I-type granites. The Group 1 and 2 granites exhibit high-K, calc-alkaline, and metaluminous characteristics, weak negative Eu anomalies, and low (K2O+Na2O)/CaO and FeOT/MgO ratios with high Na2O/K2O, Sr/Y, and (La/Yb)N values and low MgO, Y, and Yb contents, which are indicative of adakitic affinity. The Group 3 rocks have extremely high SiO2 contents, notable Eu and Sr depletions, lower Mg# values, and the 'tetrad effect' of REEs, indicating that they are highly fractionated I-type granites. All the granites have similar depletion in Sr, Nd, Hf, and O isotope compositions (εNd(t) = 3.1–5.5, (87Sr/86Sr)i = 0.7036–0.7051, εHf(t) = 11.3–13.4, δ18O = 6.61–7.21) with young Nd, Hf second-stage model age (565–755 Ma, 425–541 Ma). It indicates that they are all the remelting of thickened juvenile lower crust that was initially derived from Neoproterozoic crust-mantle differentiation. Based on the discussion, we proposed that the granitic pluton intruded in an intraplate extensional setting, which indicates that thickened crust had existed before the Triassic and that the final amalgamation of the Paleo-Asian Ocean occurred in late Palaeozoic. Geochemical features indicate tectonic compression played a more important role in significant lower crust thickening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]