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In order to better constrain the paleogeographic evolution of south China we measured Sm‐Nd and Rb‐Sr isotopic compositions for 23 Mesozoic granites that crop out throughout the area. Tightly grouped neodymium depleted mantle model ages (1.4 ± 0.3 Ga) suggest the region is underlain by relatively homogeneous Proterozoic crust and fail to define crustal provinces. Neither the isotopic nor geologic data suggest that a Mesozoic suture exists. However, granites possessing anomalously high Sm (>8 ppm) and Nd (>45 ppm) concentrations, relatively high initial epsilon neodymium (−4 to −8), and high but variable initial 87Sr/86Sr (0.759 to 0.713) form a northeast trending zone that coincides with two prominent Mesozoic basins. Southeast of the zone lie the majority of Mesozoic intrusives and Upper Triassic to Lower Cretaceous extensional basins found in south China. Mesozoic paleomagnetic poles are well clustered northwest of the zone. Pre‐Cretaceous poles southeast of it are discordant with respect to those from the northwest. The only recognized tectonostratigraphic terrane in south China lies southeast of the zone. The terrane is bordered by a northeast trending sinistral fault that was active in the Mesozoic. Other faults in south China have similar attitudes, ages, and sense of shear. Together, the observations suggest that the Mesozoic tectonic regime in south China consisted of strike‐slip activity plus concomitant rifting as terranes or fragments of similar crust were transported north along sinistral faults. The zone, defined by the granites enriched in Nd and Sm, demarcates displaced terranes to the southeast from relatively stable land to the northwest.

In response to the subduction of the young Shikoku Basin of the Philippine Sea Plate, arc magmas erupted in SW Japan throughout the late Cenozoic. Many magma types are present including ocean island basalt (OIB), shoshonite (SHO), arc-type alkali basalt (AB), typical subalkalic arc basalt (SAB), high-Mg andesite (HMA), and adakite (ADK). OIB erupted since the Japan Sea back-arc basin opened, whereas subsequent arc magmas accompanied subduction of the Shikoku Basin. However, there the origin of the magmas in relation to hot subduction is debated. Using new major and trace element and Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotope analyses of 324 lava samples from seven Quaternary volcanoes, we investigated the genetic conditions of the magma suites using a geochemical mass balance model, Arc Basalt Simulator version 4 (ABS4), that uses these data to solve for the parameters such as pressure/temperature of slab dehydration/melting and slab flux fraction, pressure, and temperature of mantle melting. The calculations suggest that those magmas originated from slab melts that induced flux melting of mantle peridotite. The suites differ mostly in the mass fraction of slab-melt flux, increasing from SHO through AB, SAB, HMA, to ADK. The pressure and temperature of mantle melting decreases in the same order. The suites differ secondarily in the ratio of altered oceanic crust to sediment in the source of the slab melt. The atypical suites associated with hot subduction result from unusually large mass fractions of slab melt and unusually cool mantle temperatures.

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[1] We report new compositional and isotopic data for submarine lavas erupted on the Rumble V Ridge cross chain behind the Kermadec Arc at ∼36°S and for locally subducting sediment. In order to constrain cross-arc changes in the melt source, Havre Trough ambient mantle wedge isotope and trace element characteristics are interpreted from regional back-arc basalts that are relatively free of slab-derived components. They have MORB-like trace element concentrations and are isotopically "Pacific" but define greater heterogeneity in 206 to west increase in the mass fraction of a common subduction component. A particularly enriched subset of eastern basalts is interpreted as being derived from the addition of an even higher mass fraction of a different subduction component with greater apparent stability of refractory trace phases during sediment melting. An implication of this study is that both Nd and Hf can be mobile in sediment-rich subduction zones, but the relative mobility depends on the sediment composition and depth of melting, and the absolute mobility is small.

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