Early Paleozoic reactivation of the Precambrian basement on the northern margin of the Qilian block: Evidence from phase equilibria and zircon U-Pb dating of meta-mafic rocks

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (10) ◽  
pp. 3095-3117
Author(s):  
MAO XiaoHong ◽  
◽  
ZHANG JianXin ◽  
LU ZengLong ◽  
ZHOU GuiSheng
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuo-An Tung ◽  
Houng-Yi Yang ◽  
Huai-Jen Yang ◽  
Jianxin Zhang ◽  
Dunyi Liu ◽  
...  

<p>Field relationships, mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, geochronology, and Nd-Hf-O isotopes of the mafic-ultramafic rocks from the east part of the Qilian block are studied in the present work. The Aganzhen intrusive body only exposed in the Zhigoumen, Shiguanzi, Xianggoumen outcrops and includes Hornblende peridotite, wehrlite, olivine-bearing pyroxenite, hornblende-bearing pyroxenite, websterite, clinopyroxenite, hornblendite, olivine-bearing gabbro. The gabbroic rocks are also layered or massive cumulates with rock types varying continuously from noritic gabbro through hornblende gabbro to dioritic norite. Contact metamorphic zones are well developed between the Aganzhen intrusive body and the country rock. Major element contents of Aganzhen ultramafic-mafic rocks show subalkalic series and are characterized by low SiO<sub>2</sub> contents (38.09-54.96 %), low TiO<sub>2</sub> contents (0.09-0.72 %), low P<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> contents (0.00-0.36 %) and alkali contents (Na<sub>2</sub>O+K<sub>2</sub>O 0.01-5.35 %), but high MgO contents (9.68-33.06 %), Ni contents (116-1505 ppm), Cr contents (713-2808 ppm). Similar LREE-rich pattern ((Ce/Yb)<sub>N</sub> =0.95-3.80 except two Samples) and tiny Eu anomaly (Eu/Eu* =0.6-1.2) indicate the Aganzhen ultramafic-mafic rocks have the same magma source. Trace elements are enriched in LILE (Rb, Th, U, K), relatively depleted in HFSE (Nb and Ta), and the La/Yb, Ce/Yb, Th/Yb, Nb/La, La/Sm values suggest the limited crustal contamination during the rise of the magma. The ε<sub>Nd</sub> (430 Ma) values are −6.9–+2.5 and T<sub>DM</sub> values are 3.6–1.4 Ga. The SHRIMP ages are 433±2 Ma for the Zhigoumen websterite(101-2101A), 434±3 Ma for Shiguanzi hornblendite(101-2104A) and 412±3 Ma for the Xianggoumen serpentinite(101-2107A). In situ zircon O-Hf isotope, the δ<sup>18</sup>O compositions of vary from +9.03 to +9.50 (except three points +11.33, +12.38, +12.44) and ε<sub>Hf</sub>(t) value is +0.29 to +4.13 for the Zhigoumen pyroxenite(101-2101A), the δ<sup>18</sup>O compositions of vary from +6.39 to +7.12 and ε<sub>Hf</sub>(t) value is +7.76 to +13.26 for Shiguanzi gabbro(101-2104A), and the δ<sup>18</sup>O compositions of vary from +4.68 to +5.31 and ε<sub>Hf</sub>(t) value of +0.28 to +2.79 for the Xianggoumen serpentinite(101-2107A). According to the above datum, we suggest that middle Paleozoic magmatisms last ~20 m.y. (434-412 Ma) on the northern margin of the Qilian Block was related to the Early Paleozoic continental collision between the Qilian and Alax blocks, and to subsequent subduction and thermal underplating.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 109 (8) ◽  
pp. 2719-2738
Author(s):  
Ismay Vénice Akker ◽  
Lucie Tajčmanová ◽  
Fernando O. Marques ◽  
Jean-Pierre Burg

Abstract The Ossa-Morena Zone (OMZ) has a complex geological history including both Cadomian and Variscan orogenic events. Therefore, the OMZ plays an important role in understanding the geodynamic evolution of Iberia. However, the P–T–t evolution of the OMZ is poorly documented. Here, we combine structural and metamorphic analyses with new geochronological data and geochemical analyses of mafic bodies in Ediacaran metasediments (in Iberia known as Série Negra) to constrain the geodynamic evolution of the OMZ. In the studied mafic rocks, two metamorphic stages were obtained by phase equilibria modelling: (1) a high-pressure/low-temperature event of 1.0 ± 0.1 GPa and 470–510 °C, and (2) a medium-pressure/higher-temperature event of 0.6 ± 0.2 GPa and 550–600 °C. The increase in metamorphic temperature is attributed to the intrusion of the Beja Igneous Complex (around 350 Ma) and/or the Évora Massif (around 318 Ma). New U–Pb dating on zircons from the mafic rocks with tholeiitic affinity yields an age between 815 and 790 Ma. If the zircons crystallised from the tholeiitic magma, their age would set a minimum age for the pre-Cadomian basement. The ca. 800 Ma protolith age of HP-LT tholeiitic dykes with a different metamorphic history than the host Série Negra lead us to conclude that: (1) the HP-LT mafic rocks and HP-LT marbles with dykes were included in the Ediacaran metasediments as olistoliths; (2) the blueschist metamorphism is older than 550 Ma (between ca. 790 Ma and ca. 550 Ma, e.g., Cadomian).


1968 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 643-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatsuro Matsumoto ◽  
Masaru Yamaguchi ◽  
Takeru Yanagi ◽  
Susumu Matsushita ◽  
Ichikazu Hayase ◽  
...  

We have examined some of the presumed Precambrian basement metamorphic and granitic rocks in Japan, through radiometric dating as well as on field evidence, and have found that mineral ages of about 175 to 250 m.y. are abundant in the Hida area, northwestern part of central Japan, that a number of thrust rocks in southwestern Japan show ages of 400 to 450 m.y., and that the oldest of the measured samples is about or somewhat over 500 m.y. Little evidence is available to support a view that the Pre-Sinian rocks, if ever existent, have remained unaltered under such a polycyclic orogenic zone as that represented by Japan, although remnants of the youngest Precambrian to Early Paleozoic cycle can be detected.


Author(s):  
Lijun Wang ◽  
Kexin Zhang ◽  
Shoufa Lin ◽  
Weihong He ◽  
Leiming Yin

When and how the Yangtze Block (Yangtze) and the West Cathaysia terrane (West Cathaysia) in South China were amalgamated are critical to a better understanding of the Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic tectonic evolution of South China and remain highly debatable. A key to this debate is the tectonic significance of the Jiangshan-Shaoxing-Pingxiang (JSP) Fault, the boundary between Yangtze and West Cathaysia. The Shenshan mélange along the JSP Fault has the typical block-in-matrix structure and is composed of numerous shear zone-bounded slivers/lenses of rocks of different types and ages that formed in different tectonic environments, including middle to late Tonian volcanic and volcanogenic sedimentary rocks (turbidite) of arc/back-arc affinity, a series of middle Tonian ultramafic to mafic plutonic rocks of oceanic island basalt affinity, a carbonaceous shale that was deposited in a deep marine environment, and a red mudstone. U-Pb zircon ages and acritarch assemblages (Leiosphaeridia-Brocholaminaria association) found in the turbidite confirm its Tonian age, and fossils from the carbonaceous shale (Asteridium-Comasphaeridium and Skiagia-Celtiberium-Leiofusa) constrains its age to the Early to Middle Cambrian. Field relationships and available age data leave no doubt that the ultramafic-mafic rocks are exotic blocks (rather than intrusions) in the younger metasedimentary rocks. We conclude that the Shenshan mélange is not an ophiolitic mélange, but rather a tectonic mélange that formed as a result of movement along the JSP Fault in the early Paleozoic. We suggest that Yangtze and West Cathaysia were two separate microcontinents, were accreted to two different parts of the northern margin of Gondwana in the early Early Paleozoic, and juxtaposed in the late Early Paleozoic through strike-slip movement along the JSP Fault. We further suggest that the ca. 820 Ma collision in the Jiangnan Orogen took place between Yangtze and a (micro)continent that is now partly preserved as the Huaiyu terrane and was not related to West Cathaysia. We compare our model for South China with the accretion of terranes in the North American Cordillera and propose a similar model for the relationship between the Avalon and Meguma terranes in the Canadian Appalachians, i.e., the two terranes were accreted to two different parts of the Laurentian margin and were later juxtaposed through margin-parallel strike slip faulting.


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