Although tectonic models were presented for exhumation of ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks during the continental collision, there is increasing evidence for the decoupling between crustal slices at various depths within deeply subducted continental crust. This lends support to the multi-slice successive exhumation model of the UHP metamorphic rocks in the Dabie-Sulu orogen. The available evidence is summarized as follows: (1) the low-grade metamorphic slices, which have geotectonic affinity to the South China Block and part of them records the Triassic metamorphism, occur in the northern margin of the Dabie-Sulu UHP metamorphic zone, suggesting decoupling of the upper crust from the underlying basement during the initial stages of continental subduction; (2) the Dabie and Sulu HP to UHP metamorphic zones comprise several HP to UHP slices, which have an increased trend of metamorphic grade from south to north but a decreased trend of peak metamorphic ages correspondingly; and (3) the Chinese Continental Science Drilling (CCSD) project at Donghai in the Sulu orogen reveals that the UHP metamorphic zone is composed of several stacked slices, which display distinctive high and low radiogenic Pb from upper to lower parts in the profile, suggesting that these UHP crustal slices were derived from the subducted upper and middle crusts, respectively. Detachment surfaces within the deeply subducted crust may occur either along an ancient fault as a channel of fluid flow, which resulted in weakening of mechanic strength of the rocks adjacent to the fault due to fluid-rock interaction, or along the low-viscosity zones which resulted from variations of geotherms and lithospheric compositions at different depths. The multi-slice successive exhumation model is different from the traditional exhumation model of the UHP metamorphic rocks in that the latter assumes the detachment of the entire subducted continental crust from the underlying mantle lithosphere and its subsequent exhumation as a whole. This also reveals t
Systematical studies of post-collisional igneous rocks in the Dabie orogen suggest that the thickened mafic lower crust of the orogen was partially melted to form low-Mg#adakitic rocks at 143–131 Ma.Delamination and foundering of the thickened mafic lower crust occurred at 130 Ma,which caused the mantle upwelling and following mafic and granitic magmatic intrusions.Migmatite in the North Dabie zone,coeval with the formation of low-Mg#adakitic intrusions in the Dabie orogen,was formed by partial melting of exhumed ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks at middle crustal level.This paper argues that the partial melting of thickened lower and middle crust before mountain-root collapse needs lithospheric thinning.Based on the geothermal gradient of6.6°C/km for lithospheric mantle and initial partial melting temperature of^1000°C for the lower mafic crust,it can be estimated that the thickness of lithospheric mantle beneath thickened lower crust has been thinned to<45 km when the thickened lower crust was melting.Thus,a two-stage model for mountain-root removal is proposed.First,the lithospheric mantle keel was partially removal by mantle convection at 145 Ma.Loss of the lower lithosphere would increase heat flow into the base of the crust and would cause middle-lower crustal melting.Second,partial melting of the thickened lower crust has weakened the lower crust and increased its gravity instability,thus triggering delamination and foundering of the thickened mafic lower crust or mountain-root collapse.Therefore,convective removal and delamination of the thickened lower crust as two mechanisms of lithospheric thinning are related to causality.
C-type adakites have been commonly considered as a result of partial melting of the mafic lower continental crust (LCC) at high pressure, as supported by high P-T experiments on hydrous basalts. However, because the mafic eclogitic LCC is generally dry, experiments on water-bearing materials cannot be used to constrain the melting processes of the dry mafic LCC. Due to the lack of systematic melting experimental studies on dry mafic rocks at crustal pressures, MELTs software was applied to simulating melting of the dry mafic LCC at 1–2 GPa. Comparison of model results with experimental data indicates that, when melting de-gree is greater than 20%, melts from the dry mafic LCC at 1–3 GPa cannot produce the C-type adakitic melt with high SiO2 con-tent (～70%). Although the limited experimental results about dry mafic rock melting at 1–2 GPa in the literature suggest that low degree melting (<10%) cannot produce silicic melt either, MELTs software simulation shows that, at pressure >1.8 GPa, low-degree melting can produce dacitic melt with high K2O/Na2O (～1) if SiO2 content of the melt is controlled by residual garnet. Furthermore, the simulation also suggests that, if pressure is <1.8 GPa, abundant plagioclase (plg) in the residual phase may de-crease SiO2 content in the melt to below 62%, much lower than that of the C-type adakites observed in eastern China. Given the high P-T conditions required to produce melts with high SiO2 and extremely low HREE contents, such melts could easily be con-taminated by other crustal-derived melts, implying that the C-type adakites from eclogite melting could be less commonly ob-served in the outcrops than previously believed. Besides the interpretation that garnet fractionates Sr, Y, and REE, high Sr/Y and La/Yb could be also produced by multiple ways such as inheriting the source features and fractional crystallizing clinopyroxene (cpx). Therefore, it may be problematic using high Sr/Y and La/Yb as criteria to identify adakites. Instead, REE patterns with strong depleti
