Contamination by continental crust or lithosphere can yield subduction-type signatures and lead to the misidentification of contaminated continental basalts as arc related ones. Uncontaminated asthenosphere (or plume) -generated continental basaltic rocks are normally characterized by (Th/Nb)N＜1,Nb/La≥1, low87Sr/86Sr(t) ratios, high εNd(t)values, similar La/Nb and La/Ba ratios to ocean island basalts (OIB) and “hump=shaped”mantle-normalized multi-element patterns without negative Nb, Ta and Ti anomalies. As the uncontaminated asthenosphere (or plume) -generated basaltic rocks have been found in the studied volcanic successions, the possibility can be basically excluded that they belong to island-arc or active continental margin volcanic rocks. For the basic lavas with subduction-type signatures, we can judge whether they are really island-arc or active continental margin basalts by studying Zr contents and Zr/Y ratios or Zr/Y[CD*2]Zr diagram.