“…The Fuchuan ophiolite (FO), one of the oldest in the South China block, is located at Shexian, Anhui Province in the northeasternmost segment of the Jiangnan orogen (Zhou et al, 1989;Wang X L et al, 2017), and it hosts a small high-Al podiform chromitite deposit. As the most integrated ophiolite in the Jiangnan orogen, the FO has been studied for decades (e.g., Zhou et al, 1989;Xing, 1990;Li et al, 1997;Ding et al, 2008;Zhang et al, 2012Zhang et al, , 2013Yu et al, 2017;Zheng et al, 2019;Shu et al, 2019); however, the tectonic setting of the FO is still a matter of ongoing debate with different hypotheses: Zhou et al (1989) suggested that the FO was formed in a small oceanic basin; Xing (1990) proposed an island arc setting; Li et al (1997) and Zhang et al (2012) recommended a back-arc basin at the continental margin; whereas most other researchers (e.g., Yang et al, 1993;Yu et al, 2017;Zheng et al, 2019) have been in favor of a back-arc basin setting.…”