nd isotopic and geochemical constraints on the provenance and tectonic setting of the low grade meta sedimentary rocks from the trans north china orogen north china craton abstract in the trans north china orogen tnco of the north china craton low grade supracrustal successions extensively occur in the wutai luliang zanhuang zhongtiao and dengfeng complexes from north to south meta sedimentary samples from the wutai and zhongtiao complexes were collected for geochemical and nd isotopic studies and several samples from the zanhuang and dengfeng complexes were also analyzed for nd isotopic studies for comparative purpose most of the meta siltstones and meta sandstones from the wutai and zhongtiao complexes are characterized by depletions in mobile elements like cao sr and na2o high chemical index of weathering ciw values and strong positive correlation between al2o3 and tio2 indicating intense weathering conditions significant post depositional k metasomatism is indicated in the a cn k diagrams for most of the analyzed samples and the relatively high pre metasomatized chemical index of alteration cia values 43 87 also imply a high degree of source weathering depleted transitional trace elements ni cr co and sc fractionated light rare earth elements patterns mild negative eu anomalies in the majority of these meta sedimentary samples point toward felsic source rocks including the 2 5 ga granitics ttg gneisses and the paleoproterozoic granitics in the tnco minor contribution from mafic rocks is evidenced from relative high contents of mgo fe 2 o 3 t sc and lower la ybn ratios in some older sequence set samples from the zhongtiao complex our geochemical and nd isotopic data combined with previous studies in the lithostratigraphic sequence provenance and depositional age suggest that the older and younger sequence sets of the low grade supracrustal successions in the tnco were deposited in the different depositional environments the older sequence set was deposited in a back arc basin between the andean type continental margin arc and the eastern block after 2 1 ga whereas the younger sequence set formed in a foreland basin between 1 88 and 1 80 ga which is consistent with the model that the collision between the eastern and western blocks to form the trans north china orogen occurred at 1 85 ga

morphological evolution of gravel and sand extraction pits tromper wiek baltic sea the growing demand for marine mineral resources introduces anthropogenic impacts in the coastal zone among others also through aggregate dredging pits created by anchor hopper dredging may affect local sediment budgets local hydrodynamics and biological habitats in this study we investigate the processes and time scales of pits refilling at two extraction sites over 6 years following cessation of dredging we focused on the evolution of a single pit at a gravel extraction site and the development of a group of three pits located at a sand extraction site in the case of the gravel pit a series of six sonograph and two multibeam surveys were evaluated we observed a spatial expansion of the edge of the pit decreasing availability of screened sand in the neighbourhood of the pit a possible source of refilling and a slowing down of the refilling process with time at the sandy pit site a series of seven sonographs and two multibeam surveys were available we observed a smoothing of the edges and larger mean refilling rates than in the gravel pit case we conclude that the most effective method for monitoring of pit evolution is to make measurements every six months by simultaneously deploying sidescan sonar and multibeam devices

correlation and provenance of upper cretaceous campanian fluvial strata utah u s a from zircon u pb geochronology and petrography abstract detrital zircon and petrographic provenance analysis of upper cretaceous campanian strata corroborate correlation of the fluvial kaiparowits formation in southern utah with post castlegate strata of the mesaverde group in eastcentral utah sandstone samples of the kaiparowits formation in the kaiparowits plateau and mesaverde group neslen bluecastle tongue of castlegate farrer and tuscher formations in gray canyon north of green river utah contain six u pb detrital zircon age populations ranging in age from archean to late cretaceous thrust belt derived sublitharenite and quartzarenite of the lower part of the mesaverde group neslen and bluecastle lack or have only rare mesozoic grains but contain abundant archean proterozoic and paleozoic grains that record recycling of proterozoic paleozoic and jurassic sandstones exposed in uplifted thrust sheets to the west south and southwest derived feldspathic litharenite of the kaiparowits and farrer formations contains proterozoic grains and a diverse population of mesozoic grain ages archean grains are rare to absent maximum depositional ages interpreted from young zircon grains in two kaiparowits samples statistically overlap 40ar 39ar ages 76 74 ma from interbedded bentonitic tuffs and weighted mean ages of young grains from the farrer formation kolmogorov smirnoff statistics in conjunction with young grain ages and detrital age spectra corroborate petrographic evidence which indicates that the kaiparowits rivers were connected northward with a river system that deposited the farrer formation the young grain ages although imprecise indicate that the uppermost mesaverde group strata of the tuscher formation are younger than the kaiparowits formation and record partitioning of the former foreland basin by laramide uplifts

building the wutai arc insights into the archean paleoproterozoic crustal evolution of the north china craton abstract the wutai complex is located within the trans north china orogen tnco which marks the collision zone between the eastern and western blocks of the north china craton ncc here we investigate the timings and mechanisms of precambrian arc building in wutai from a suite of newly identified greenstone felsic tuff banded iron formation bif phyllite sequence zircon grains from the felsic tuff layer intercalated within the greenstones provide robust constraints on the timing of bif deposition geochemical features of the greenstones and felsic tuff suggest e morb and volcanic arc affinity whereas the bifs are of submarine hydrothermal origin zircon grains in the greenstones define an upper intercept age of 2951 41 ma and a lower intercept age of 1845 190 ma those from the felsic tuff show 207pb 206pb weighted mean age of 2557 10 ma whereas those from the bif intercalated with felsic tuff shows an age of 2585 14 ma metamorphic zircon grains in the bif define two age populations of ca 2471 and 1906 ma zircon grains in the phyllite yield an age of 2594 14 ma kernel density plots define age peaks at 2873 and 2578 ma marking the major phase of arc building in wutai zircon ehf t values are mostly positive in the range of 3 15 7 72 suggesting new crustal growth from juvenile depleted mantle components our study provides insights into the mesoarchean to neoarchean crust building through subduction related arc magmatism followed by paleoproterozoic metamorphism in the north china craton

modern concepts of earth dynamics anticipated by alfred wegener in 1912 in his first publication on continental drift alfred wegener anticipated sea floor spreading the functional relationship between bathymetry and age or temperature below the sea floor perhaps mantle convection and some aspects of plate tectonics some of these insights such as sea floor spreading and bathymetry with age did not appear in his later work others such as convection and plate tectonics were taken up when new evidence became available his intuition led him to these insights and he had a very clear perception of the distinction between facts and speculation

late paleoproterozoic 1900 1800ma nappe stacking and polyphase deformation in the hengshan wutaishan area implications for the understanding of the trans north china belt north china craton abstract the hengshan wutaishan area forms part of the trans north china belt developed in response to the final amalgamation of the north china craton the hengshan wutaishan domain and the adjacent fuping massif constitute the largest and the most representative rock exposure of the belt a structural study allows us to redefine the lithological and tectonic units that compose the architecture of the hengshan wutaishan domain and to propose that the trans north china belt was built up through a polyphase tectonic evolution within the period 1900 1800 ma the first event d1 corresponds to the emplacement of lower and upper nappes herein called the orthogneiss and volcanites unit ovu and the low grade mafic unit lgmu respectively the ovu mainly consists of rocks formed in an arc system and metamorphosed under amphibolite facies conditions whereas the lgmu represents oceanic crust rocks with an arc component that underwent greenschist facies metamorphism the syn metamorphic d1 deformation is characterized by a nw se stretching and mineral lineation with a top to the se sense of shear that corresponds to the sense of nappe motion u th pb epm chemical dating on monazite from three metapelites of the ovu gives isochron ages of 1884 11 ma 1886 5 ma and 1887 4 ma interpreted as the age of the prograde amphibolite facies metamorphism coeval with nappe stacking during the d1 event the d2 event corresponds to a widespread crustal melting of the ovu and underlying basement rocks in hengshan related to the exhumation of deep structures about 20 30 ma after nappe emplacement the migmatite contains blocks of retrograded eclogite or hp granulitic restites and is characterized by the development of a pervasive foliation and lineation a late d2 event represents the folding stage of the migmatitic foliation during the completion of a dome the orthogneiss and volcanics unit and the low grade mafic unit are unconformably covered by weakly metamorphosed to unmetamorphosed sediments belonging to the hutuo supergroup these rocks were deformed by a ductile d3 event characterized by a nw se trending stretching lineation south verging folds associated with an axial planar slaty cleavage and an e w crenulation lineation lastly a left lateral wrenching along the zhujiafang shear zone separates the northern and southern parts of hengshan our structural study shows that there is no significant difference between the southern part of hengshan and the lower part of wutaishan both areas belong to ovu and show a structural continuity we suggest that this polyphase deformation developed in response to a north westward subduction of an old ocean named the luliang ocean beneath the western block followed by collision with a micro continent named the fuping block at 1890 1880 ma

geological and isotopic geochemical constraints on the evolution of the fuping complex north china craton abstract the neoarchean to paleoproterozoic fuping complex together with the adjacent hengshan and wutaishan complexes form the middle part of the central zone that separates the north china craton into the eastern and western archean continental blocks the fuping complex comprises three major lithological assemblages the 2 50 ga fuping trondhjemite tonalite granodiorite ttg gneisses the wanzi paragneisses and the 2 08 and 2 02 ga nanying granitic gneisses the ttg gneisses contain abundant enclaves of highly metamorphosed supracrustal rocks including 2 70 ga mafic granulites and amphibolites with endt of 3 29 to 3 96 and tdm of 2 72 2 82 ga and are characterized by tdm of 2 76 3 04 ga and a linear correlation between endt 1 64 to 0 96 and 1 nd indicative of mixing of melts derived from the 2 70 ga metabasic rocks and 3 0 ga crustal materials mafic dikes along the chengnanzhuang shear zone were most likely emplaced at 2 31 ga and have endt of 2 24 to 4 78 and tdm of 2 34 2 59 ga the nanying granitic gneisses with endt of 4 04 to 5 24 were most likely related to partial melting of the 2 70 ga supracrustal rocks and or the 2 50 ga ttg gneisses these geological relationships and isotopic data suggest that the fuping complex probably formed from the following five major tectonomagmatic events 1 mafic magmatism and early crustal growth at 2 7 ga with the possible existence of older 3 0 ga crust s 2 collision related crustal thickening underplating of basaltic magma high grade metamorphism crustal anatexis and ttg magmatism at 2 5 ga 3 extensional deformation and emplacement of the mafic dikes and the nanying granitic plutons along the chengnanzhuang shear zone 2 5 to 2 0 ga 4 s type granitic magmatism and associated amphibolite facies metamorphism 2 0 to 1 80 ga and 5 emplacement of granitic pegmatite dikes at 1 80 ga

charnockite magmatism during a transitional phase implications for late paleoproterozoic ridge subduction in the north china craton abstract the trans north china orogen tnco is a major paleoproterozoic collisional belt along which the western and eastern blocks of the north china craton were amalgamated the luliang complex occurs along the western margin of this belt and incorporates several arc magmatic suites supracrustal sequences granitoids and charnockites here we investigate the luyashan charnockite suite as well as the surrounding granitoids from this complex we present results from petrology fluid inclusions mineral chemistry whole rock geochemistry and zircon u pb and lu hf isotopic studies the charnockites are dominantly anhydrous with the typical presence of orthopyroxene microthermometric and laser raman spectroscopic data on fluid inclusions in the charnockite characterize the trapped fluids as dominantly co2 with traces of n2 and ch4 geochemically the charnockite suite shows compositional variation from monzogabbro through gabbroic diorite and diorite to monzodiorite they are dominantly calc alkaline and ferroan type and display distinct enrichment in large ion lithophile elements with depletion in hree they also show prominent negative anomalies of nb ta sr and ti and positive anomalies of rb pb zr and hf indicating crustal components in the magma source the majority of the granitoid suite shows 207pb 206pb mean ages in the range of 2172 2032 ma correlating with similar ages reported from various groups in the luliang complex the formation of which is correlated with subduction along an active convergent margin however the charnockites which intrude the granitoids and their dioritic enclaves are clearly younger and show tightly constrained emplacement ages in the range of 1853 1872 ma the recrystallized zircons in the older granitoids also show similar ages suggesting a prominent thermal event at this time these ages are close to the timing of final collision between the western and eastern blocks of the north china craton and associated high grade metamorphism at ca 1 85 ga the zircon lu hf isotope data reveal dominantly negative hf t values 8 7 to 0 1 and their tdmc 2477 3042 ma suggest that the magma sources mainly involved meso to neoarchean reworked crustal components with limited input of paleoproterozoic juvenile components our study reveals that charnockite magmatism and regional metamorphism in the western margin of the tnco broadly overlap in space and time the geochemical features mineral assemblages and fluid inclusion characteristics of the charnockites suggest that the rocks were derived from high temperature 900 1000 c co2 enriched and anhydrous less than 3 h2o magmas the magma evolved into more hydrous conditions during cooling marked by the crystallization of amphiboles at 800 850 c the geochemical features of the charnockite suite also suggest that these rocks were formed during a transitional phase from syn subduction to collision such a scenario is compatible with a tectonic setting involving the subduction of an oceanic ridge when flushing of heat and co2 rich fluids from asthenosphere into the overriding plate might have occurred through the slab window generating hot and anhydrous magmas through melting of the basement rocks the slab window mechanism would also account for broadly coeval high temperature and high pressure granulites reported from the tnco we therefore speculate that the formation of the luyashan charnockite suite might have been associated with ridge subduction at the terminal stage of the convergence

shrimp u pb zircon ages of granitoid rocks in the luliang complex implications for the accretion and evolution of the trans north china orogen abstract the luliang complex is situated in the central segment of the trans north china orogen tnco a continent continent collisional belt along which the discrete eastern and western blocks amalgamated to form the basement of the north china craton the complex consists of supracrustal and granitoid rocks of which the latter can be subdivided into pre tectonic ttg gneisses including the yunzhongshan guojiazhuang and chijianling guandishan gneisses syn tectonic gneissic granites represented by the huijiazhuang gneissic granite and post tectonic granites including the luyashan charnockite luchaogou porphyritic granite and tangershang guandishan massive granite the pre tectonic ttg gneisses are mostly calc alkaline and considered to have formed in a magmatic arc environment shrimp u pb analyses reveal that the yunzhongshan gneisses were emplaced at 2499 9 ma representing the earliest arc related magmatic event in the luliang complex this was followed by the intrusion of the guojiazhuang gneisses at 2375 10 ma the most widespread arc related magmatic event in the region was the emplacement of the chijianling guandishan granitoid gneisses of which the tonalitic granodioritic and monzogranitic gneisses were emplaced at 2199 11 ma 2180 7 ma and 2173 7 ma respectively metamorphic zircon overgrowth rims from a tonalitic gneiss yielded a weighted mean 207 pb 206 pb age of 1872 7 ma consistent with the metamorphic age range of 1880 1820 ma defined by metamorphic zircons from various high grade rocks in the tnco thus the evolution of the luliang complex involved emplacement of the yunzhongshan granitoids at 2499 ma the guajiazhuang granitoids at 2375 ma and the chijianling guandishan granitoids at 2199 2173 ma with the final collision between the eastern and western blocks in this area occurring at 1872 7 ma the whole series of magmatic events lasting nearly 650 ma this suggests that the trans north china orogen represents a long lived magmatic arc the new shrimp zircon data combined with structural and petrological studies also reveal the existence of both syn and post collisional granites in the luliang complex the former is represented by the huijiazhuang gneissic granite that was emplaced at 1832 11 ma whereas the latter include the 1815 5 ma luyashan charnockite 1807 10 ma luchaogou porphyritic granite 1798 11 ma guandishan massive granite and 1790 14 ma tangershan massive granite

r a daly s early model of seafloor generation 40 years before the vine matthews hypothesis an outstanding theoretical achievement inspired by field work on st helena in 1921 1922 large scale lateral mobility of the earth s lithosphere mobilism was a hotly debated issue in earth sciences during some two decades following publication of wegener s 1912 theory of continental displacement the final acceptance of lithospheric mobility was brought about with the plate tectonics revolution during the late 1960s support for mobilism was rather popular in certain european countries during the 1920s whereas the reactions in north america were mostly hostile one of the very few influential mobilists in the new world was reginald aldworth daly of harvard university the present paper discusses his model of continental displacement which is very remarkable in many aspects we focus on the hitherto neglected fact that daly proposed in the mid 1920s a mechanism to create oceanic crust which would have been totally consistent with the vine matthews hypothesis of seafloor generation published in 1963 it is furthermore suggested that daly s geotectonic proposals were inspired by small scale

shrimp u pb zircon geochronology of the fuping complex implications for formation and assembly of the north china craton abstract the fuping complex located within the central zone of the north china craton is composed of amphibolite to granulite facies orthogneisses interleaved with minor supracrustal rocks at similar metamorphic grade the oldest components recognised are hornblende gneiss enclaves within the predominant biotite orthogneiss which have a shrimp u pb zircon age of 2708 8 ma we consider these enclaves to represent fragments of 2 7 ga continental materials incorporated in the biotite gneiss the biotite gneiss has a shrimp u pb zircon age of 2513 12 ma interpreted to be time of magmatic crystallisation of the igneous precursor based on the igneous characteristics of the zircons this indicates a major magmatic episode at 2 52 ga in the fuping complex identical to the age of felsic volcanism within the low grade wutai complex which crops out immediately to the west a gneissic granite that intrudes the biotite gneisses has a poorly defined 207pb 206pb age of 2045 64 ma this is within error of the age of 2097 46 ma obtained from a fine grained gneiss interlayered with amphibolite of the wanzi supracrustal suite wss interpreted to be volcanic in origin zircons from both these samples have strong oscillatory zoning and provide the first indication of a palaeoproterozoic magmatic event in the area again similar in age to magmatic events recently recognised in the adjacent wutai complex these data indicate a comparable history for the fuping and wutai complexes and support geochemical evidence that they had a common origin and formed part of a late archaean arc affected by later palaeoproterozoic re activation low uranium zircons without oscillatory zoning separated from a sample of biotite gneiss yield data clustered at 1817 26 ma which is interpreted to reflect a period of new zircon growth during a major metamorphic event these data support the recently proposed tectonic model that amalgamation of the north china craton occurred due to collision of the eastern and western blocks along the central zone at 1 8 ga ago

paleoproterozoic rifting of the north china craton geochemical and zircon hf isotopic evidence from the 2137 ma huangjinshan a type granite porphyry in the wutai area abstract shrimp zircon u pb dating of the huangjinshan granite porphyry in the wutai area north china craton ncc yielded concordant ages with a weighted mean 207 pb 206 pb age of 2137 9 ma which indicates that the granite was emplaced in the middle paleoproterozoic the granite porphyry is enriched in sio 2 rees except eu zr nb ga y and zn and depleted in mgo cao al 2 o 3 sr ba v cr and ni with high feo mgo ratios with the zircon saturation temperatures ranging from 856 to 895 c and a lack on detected inherited zircon this indicates it is a hot a type granite of the type emplaced in anorogenic or extensional settings with high heat flow zircons in the granite porphyry have e hf t values ranging from 1 72 to 1 84 and hf model t dm1 ages of 2429 2554 ma the hf isotopes indicate source of the granites was pre neoarchean continental crust mixed with mafic rocks derived from depleted mantle or directly from the partial melting of ca 2 5 ga crust given that there are no syn plutonic gabbro enclaves in the huangjinshan granite porphyry it is preferred that it originated mainly from partial melting of ca 2 5 ga upper crust without mixing with mantle derived magma 2 2 2 0 ga volcanic and plutonic rocks which exhibit bimodal magma characteristics emplacing in rifting setting are abundant in the central ncc the results presented here are further evidence for that 2 2 2 0 ga is an important stage of paleoproterozoic rifting in the central ncc

structural pattern of the wutai complex and its constraints on the tectonic framework of the trans north china orogen abstract wutai complex is a key to test controversial models for the tectonic evolution of the trans north china orogen tnco along which the eastern and western blocks amalgamated to form the north china craton three stages of deformation d 1 to d 3 were identified in the wutai complex d 1 is characterized by ne sw trending foliations s 1 and nw se orientated lineations l 1 indicating an initial nw se directed compression associated with d 1 was prograde metamorphism m 1 d 2 progressively overprinted d 1 and generated z shaped folds and nee sww trending ductile shear zones d 2 resulted in a fan shaped structural pattern of the complex with top to the nw thrusting in the northwestern part and opposite top to the se thrusting in the southeastern part during d 2 the crust was doubled through thickening leading to peak metamorphism m 2 d 3 developed during post collision exhumation and deformed the early fabrics to be open folds resulting in near isothermal decompression m 3 and late cooling metamorphism m 4 the overall structure of the wutai complex is characterized by a fan shaped pattern with structural divergence structural features of the wutai complex combined with those of the adjacent hengshan and fuping complexes indicate that the tnco is characterized by a fan shaped orogenic wedge with opposite senses of thrust this orogenic wedge could have resulted from an eastward subduction and collision between the western and eastern blocks to finally form the tnco at 1 85 ga

crustal growth and intracrustal recycling in the middle segment of the trans north china orogen north china craton a case study of the fuping complex the most important crustal growth on earth occurred at 2 7 ga but the north china craton ncc is characterized by prevalent development of 2 5 ga juvenile crust with relatively rare records of 2 7 ga crustal growth the fuping complex in the middle segment of the trans north china orogen tnco between the eastern and western blocks of the ncc is composed mainly of 2 5 ga fuping tonalitic trondhjemitic granodioritic ttg gneisses and longquanguan augen gneisses 2 1 ga nanying granitic gneisses and the wanzi supracrustal rocks previous studies have suggested one major phase of crustal growth at 2 5 ga possible intracrustal recycling at 2 1 ga and the presence of older rocks in the fuping complex but there has been no record of 2 7 ga crustal growth the fuping ttg gneisses are dominated by stromatic migmatite and new u pb dating of magmatic zircons from two stromatic migmatite samples yielded three different ages 1 2 75 ga which is the oldest age obtained from the fuping ttg gneisses 2 2 54 ga which just falls in the published zircon u pb age range of 2 53 to 2 47 ga for the fuping ttg gneisses and 3 2 11 ga which is almost the same as the age of the nanying granitic gneisses therefore there are two generations of ttg gneisses in the fuping complex importantly both of the 2 75 and 2 54 ga zircons have the highest e hf t values almost equal to the contemporaneous depleted mantle this indicates high contributions of juvenile material to the two generations of ttg gneisses in contrast the 2 11 ga zircons have apparently low e hf t values of 0 47 to 2 04 just falling in between 2 55 and 2 75 ga continental crust values this strongly suggests the reworking of the two generations of ttg gneisses at 2 1 ga zircon u pb and hf isotopes convincingly reveal two major phases of crustal growth in the fuping complex at 2 7 and 2 5 ga the same as in the northern and southern segments of the tnco and also confirm one major phase of intracrustal recycling at 2 1 ga which may be responsible for the nanying granitic gneisses

paleoproterozoic accretionary orogenesis in the north china craton a shrimp zircon study abstract the inner mongolia suture zone imsz and the trans north china orogen tnco incorporate the major paleoproterozoic accretionary orogens in the north china craton ncc with the jiao liao ji belt jljb representing the third one here we investigate the paleoproterozoic tectonics of the imsz and tnco through zircon shrimp geochronology on a representative suite of rocks comprising metasediments and arc magmatic rocks shrimp analysis of zircons with textures indicating extreme recrystallization under ultrahigh temperature uht conditions from the metapelites at heling er in the southern domain of the imsz reveals a single population with a weighted mean 207 pb 206 pb age of 1913 17 ma the zircons in another uht granulite from this locality yield a weighted mean 207 pb 206 pb age of 1910 18 ma these data correlate with the ca 1 92 ga age reported from zircons in sapphirine bearing uht granulites further north and confirm the regional extent of the paleoproterozoic uht metamorphism within the imsz zircons in a charnockite from the southern margin of the khondalite belt fringing the uht granulites in the imsz show two distinct age groups an older population with a magmatic paragenesis and a weighted mean 207 pb 206 pb age of 1932 24 ma and a younger group of metamorphic zircons with an age of 1858 26 ma we also report zircon ages from charnockites in two localities around xing he in the huangtuyao belt belonging to the huai an complex within the westernmost domain of the tnco at the junction with the imsz the charnockite from first locality carries two distinct zircon populations with the older group yielding a weighted mean 207 pb 206 pb age of 2477 2 ma and the younger population showing an age of 1807 38 ma the internal structure as revealed from cl images and the overall high th u values up to 2 42 of the older zircons suggest their magmatic affinity whereas the younger group with extremely low th u 0 02 0 09 is of metamorphic origin zircons from the charnockite in the second locality also define two distinct age clusters with a dominant older magmatic group having a weighted mean 207 pb 206 pb age of 2147 11 ma and a minor younger group with an age of 1958 25 ma the range of ages from 2477 to 2147 ma from magmatic zircons in the charnockites from the eastern periphery of the imsz within the western margin of the tnco in combination with similar ages reported in recent studies from zircons in magmatic complexes within the imsz suggest a prolonged history of subduction related arc magmatism and accretionary tectonics analogous to those in some of the phanerozoic belts such as the central asian orogenic belt and the western pacific subsequent progressive collision and suturing of the continental blocks were accompanied by the exhumation of high pressure hp and uht metamorphic rocks the available data from the imsz and tnco suggest long lived convergent margins associated with the southward subduction of the yinshan block and westward subduction of the eastern block in a double sided subduction realm prior to the final amalgamation of the ncc and its incorporation within the columbia supercontinent in the late paleoproterozoic

geochemistry of the paleoproterozonic nanying granitic gneisses in the fuping complex implications for the tectonic evolution of the central zone north china craton abstract the nanying granitic gneisses represent a major 2 0 ga magmatic event in the fuping complex of the central zone of the north china craton they occur in the chengnanzhuang shear zone which is chiefly developed along the contact between the neoarchean fuping tonalite trondhjemite granodiorite ttg gneisses and the wanzi paragneisses the nanying granitic gneisses were derived from monzogranite and syenogranite with minor amounts of quartz diorite and granodiorite and belong to the metaluminous to peraluminous high potassium calc alkaline series correlations between major and trace elements and similarities in chondrite normalized rare earth element ree patterns support field relationships e g gradational contacts indicating that the nanying granitic gneisses originated from similar magmas the granodioritic monzogranitic and syenogranitic gneisses have similar ranges of initial 87sr 86sr values 0 7030 0 7093 0 7021 0 7193 and 0 7049 0 7111 respectively although these variations are partly attributable to local resetting of the isotopic system during late deformation hydrothermal alteration the whole rock 208pb 204pb 206pb 204pb and 207pb 204pb values of the nanying granitic gneisses are 37 32 76 8 15 24 23 82 and 14 92 17 92 respectively these sr pb isotope systematics together with previously published nd isotope compositions suggest that the nanying granitic gneisses were derived from partal melting of the 2 50 ga fuping ttg gneisses with local assimilation involving the wanzi paragneisses the nanying granitic gneisses are geochemically similar to the cca and ccl groups of granitoids except for a few samples which plot in the hlo group the nanying granitic gneisses exhibit depletion in rb sr ba ti and u and enrichment in th nb zr hf and ree similar to those of syn shear high potassium calc alkaline granitoids and late shear alkaline granitoids they therefore represent the product of a syn collisional to post collisional magmatic event this collisional event which is significantly older than the 1 84 1 80 ga event that has been proposed for the juxtaposition of the eastern and western archean continental blocks in the final stabilization of the north china craton supports a tectonic model involving multiple collisional events for the amalgamation of the internal lithotectonic domains within the central zone and the assembly of the north china craton as a whole

paleoproterozoic ultrahigh temperature granulites in the north china craton implications for tectonic models on extreme crustal metamorphism abstract ultrahigh temperature uht metamorphic rocks associated with the khondalite belt within the inner mongolia suture zone imsz provide robust evidence for extreme thermal metamorphism in the north china craton ncc the imsz marks the collisional suture between the yinshan block to the north and the ordos block to the south as the ncc was incorporated within the columbia supercontinent amalgam during paleoproterozoic here we present a synthesis of the salient features of the uht rocks from the ncc including petrologic indicators fluid characteristics and monazite and zircon chronometry on the extreme crustal metamorphism the granulites carry diagnostic uht mineral assemblages including sapphirine quartz low zn fe3 spinel quartz high alumina orthopyroxene sillimanite quartz and high temperature mesoperthite the stability fields of the typical mineral assemblages conventional geothermobarometry and phase equilibria modeling using pseudosections as reported in a number of recent studies converge to indicate that these uht rocks experienced metamorphic temperatures up to or in excess of 1000 c at ca 10 kbar followed by an isobaric cooling segment the rocks were exhumed along a near isothermal decompression path microstructures mineral reactions and phase equilibria modeling suggest an anti clockwise p t path similar to those displayed by metamorphic orogens developed in subduction collision settings the dominant category of fossil fluids preserved within the major uht minerals is co2 consistent with the stability of the broadly anhydrous mineral assemblage in these rocks both chemical and radiogenic isotopic ages from monazite and zircon chronometry suggest the timing of the uht event as around 1 92 ga the paleoproterozoic high grade metamorphism younging from 1 95 ga in the western domain to 1 92 ga in the eastern domain of the khondalite belt might suggest a scissor like closure of oblique collision between the yinshan and the ordos blocks the salient features of the uht metamorphism in the ncc include 1 extreme metamorphic temperatures at moderate pressures 2 dominantly anhydrous nature of the mineral assemblages typically the stability of orthopyroxene 3 common presence of co2 rich fluid inclusions as the trace of the ambient fluid 4 regional extent of the uht granulites and 5 the association of the uht orogen with an accretionary belt in a continental collisional suture we evaluate the diverse models on the generation of uht orogens including their formation in thickened and inverted back arcs orogen self heating through heat producing elements heat and co2 input by plume impingement below a carbonated tectosphere and asthenospheric upwelling through ridge subduction and slab window process or during post collisional slab break off the ultra hot and dry uht rocks in the ncc provide one of the well preserved examples from the paleoproterozoic globe for investigating extreme metamorphism and related tectonic processes within the plate tectonic paradigm

morphodynamic evolution of a sand extraction excavation offshore vale do lobo algarve portugal abstract offshore sand and gravel extraction for aggregates and beach nourishment is an important economic activity and has been a common practice in various countries worldwide for many years the evolution of a sandpit in particular its migration and rate of replenishment depends strongly on the type of sediments involved and on the physical and hydrodynamic characteristics of the surrounding area in order to fully assess the associated impacts on local ecosystems and on the neighboring coastline morphology it is essential to make accurate predictions of the excavation recovery times for this purpose it is fundamental to investigate areas where there is an adequate observational control of the evolution of the sandpit prior and after the excavation to properly calibrate existing numerical models with observations and fully evaluate their prediction adequacy the present work investigates the evolution of an offshore sandpit located off vale do lobo algarve portugal within a time span of four years 2006 2010 based on 4 bathymetric surveys prior to and after the dredging operations complemented with the analysis of wave data and numerical modeling simulations the bathymetric data were used to evaluate the morpho sedimentary evolution and to calculate the sediment volume changes the results show an infill of approximately 17 of the initial exploration pit in the first 4 years with an overall smoothing of the initial excavation bottom topography observations combined with modeling results demonstrate that the pit evolution depends mainly on storm events since it is essentially during these periods that there is a significant sediment movement at the site water depth based on 1 the predicted number of stormy days for the forthcoming years assuming that 2 the yearly average of such events in the past 57 years is representative and considering 3 a decrease of the sandpit recovery rate in time predicted by models and observations it was possible to estimate that the vale do lobo sandpit recovery period is of ca 38 years for its full or near full replenishment

the application of zircon cathodoluminescence imaging th u pb chemistry and u pb ages in interpreting discrete magmatic and high grade metamorphic events in the north china craton at the archean proterozoic boundary abstract two distinct late neoarchean to early paleoproterozoic magmatic events are recognized at the northern margin of the eastern block of the north china craton based on interpretation of zircon structure cathodoluminescence signature th u pb chemistry and age the first event is represented by emplacement of the chaihe trondhjemite and xianjinchang tonalite with magmatic zircon core ages ranging from 2559 2553 7 ma respectively these rocks experienced a subsequent high grade metamorphic event constrained by partial recrystallization of primary magmatic zircon and growth of new zircon rims between 2517 and 2490 ma a second magmatic episode generated by partial melting of crustal rocks during this metamorphic event is represented by the hongshilazi syenogranite with an age of 2502 11 ma the short time interval between initial magmatism and high grade regional metamorphism signifies they were related to the same major tectonothermal event when considered along with evidence of a similar sequence of events at this time 800 km to the south in eastern hebei and the previously established 2500 ma age of granulite facies metamorphism in mafic rocks across the craton it is proposed that a large mantle plume developed beneath the north china craton at the close of the archean

zircon u pb ages and lu hf isotope compositions from clastic rocks in the hutuo group further constraints on paleoproterozoic tectonic evolution of the trans north china orogen abstract the hutuo group as one of the classic examples of paleoproterozoic strata plays an important role in establishing evolutionary processes in the trans north china craton in this contribution we present petrologic detrital zircon u pb ages and lu hf isotopes from three subgroups of the hutuo group sandstones in the doucun and dongye subgroups are dominated by q monocrystalline and polycrystalline quartz and f k feldspar and plagioclase with minor lithic fragments suggesting that the detrital components were mainly derived from both the continental block and recycled orogen in contrast clastic components in the guojiazhai subgroup are mainly q and lithic fragments indicating they were derived predominantly from the recycled orogen the ages of detrital zircons from sandstones in the doucun and dongye subgroups are mainly concentrated at ca 2 5 ga and 2 2 2 1 ga with minor 2 7 ga zircons also present which indicates they were dominantly sourced from 2 5 ga wutai fuping and zanhuang complexes and paleoproterozoic intrusives the guojiazhai subgroup displays a different zircon age population of ca 2 4 ga 2 2 2 1 ga and 2 0 1 9 ga which indicates likely derivation from paleoproterozoic intrusives in the wutai luliang and hengshan areas based on the observation that sandstone clastic components in the doucun and dongye subgroups are dominantly quartz feldspar and sedimentary lithic fragments but not volcanic lithics we propose that they were deposited in a rift related setting zircons from the lower sequence of the hutuo group yielded a young population of 2140 ma considering the volcanic rocks of 2140 14 ma at the base of the group and 2 2 2 0 ga magmatism along the tnco we propose that doucun and dongye subgroups formed at 2 2 2 0 ga the youngest ca 1 9 ga zircons in the guojiazhai subgroup indicate this group was deposited during closure of the rift at 1 9 1 8 ga the two stage model ages of the detrital zircons mainly range from 2 6 to 2 9 ga with a minor 2 5 ga contribution therefore we infer that 2 6 2 9 ga represents a period of intensive crustal growth in the trans north china orogen but that some degree of crustal growth continued to 2 5 ga

two phases of paleoproterozoic metamorphism in the zhujiafang ductile shear zone of the hengshan complex insights into the tectonic evolution of the north china craton abstract the zhujiafang ductile shear zone is located in the central hengshan complex a key area for understanding the paleoproterozoic tectonic evolution of the trans north china orogen north china craton detailed metamorphic and geochronological analyses were carried out on metapelite and garnet amphibolite from the zhujiafang ductile shear zone the metapelite preserves two phases of mineral assemblages early kyanite rutile bearing assemblage and late chlorite staurolite bearing assemblage in garnet mica schist and inclusion type muscovite high si kyanite assemblage and late sillimanite bearing assemblage in sillimanite mica gneiss garnet in the metapelite occasionally exhibits pronounced two stage zoning characteristic of a diffusion core with irregular pyrope xpy and grossular xgr contents and a growth rim with xpy and xgr increasing outwards the isopleths of the maximum xgr in garnet core and si content in inclusion type muscovite in the p t pseudosections suggest that the early mineral assemblages underwent medium high pressure type metamorphism with pressures up to 12 14 kbar at 700 750 c the late assemblages and the growth zoning of garnet rim predict a late separated clockwise p t path with peak conditions of 6 5 0 2 kbar 620 10 c medium low pressure type the garnet amphibolite is mainly composed of garnet hornblende plagioclase ilmenite and quartz without overprinting of late mineral assemblages except for localized corona textures phase modeling suggests that the rock has experienced high amphibolite facies metamorphism with peak conditions of 10 5 0 8 kbar 770 50 c which is broadly consistent with the early phase metamorphism of metapelite zircon u pb dating on metapelite yields two metamorphic age groups of 1 96 1 92 ga and 1 87 1 86 ga which are interpreted to represent the timing of the two separated phases of metamorphism two separated orogenic events may have occurred respectively at 1 95 ga and 1 85 ga in the hengshan wutai area the older phase of orogeny was resulted from continental collision and the younger phase of orogeny may be caused by within plate deformation the final exhumation of the high grade rocks formed in the older i e 1 95 ga orogeny should be related with the younger deformation metamorphic event

tectonic evolution of the hengshan wutai fuping complexes and its implication for the trans north china orogen abstract the hengshan wutai fuping complexes comprise the central segment of the trans north china orogen tnco in the north china craton ncc the tectonic evolution of these complexes is regarded as representative for the entire tnco although the timing of the events has been controvesial on the basis of new nd isotope and structural data and a re appraisal of published geochemical and geochronological data a refined model for the tectonic evolution in the neoarchean to paleoproterozoic has been proposed a major ocean named the proto north china ocean developed between the western and eastern blocks prior to 2565 ma northwest ward intra oceanic subduction resulted in the formation of a proto arc as represented by the 2565 2540 ma wutai granitoids the proto arc was rifted and a back arc basin propagated and extended to form an intra oceanic arc basin system at about 2540 2525 ma the main products during the development of this system were a morb arc back arc basalt adakite association in the wutai greenstone belt and synchronous granitoids in the wutai complex the main subduction accretion process involving multiple subduction zones occurred at 2525 2475 ma resulting in closure of the wutai back arc basin and the formation of diverse arc magmas although the tectonic history between 2 5 and 1 8 ga remains uncertain final collision between the eastern and western blocks and the buildup of the tnco most likely took place at 1 9 1 8 ga the tectonic evolution of the tnco is characterized by subduction accretion processes and the development of arc basin systems thus it is more likely a cordilleran type orogen than a simple continent continent collisional orogen

upb zircon geochronology of late archaean metamorphic rocks in the taihangshan wutaishan area north china abstract a geochronological study has been made in the taihangshan wutaishan area shanxi province on a sequence of precambrian supracrustal rocks and stratigraphically related intrusives these constitute part of the north china basement block the oldest rocks of the fuping group consist predominantly of mafic granulites paragneisses quartzites and amphibolites this group was always considered archaean and early k ar measurements yielded some minimum ages as old as 2300 ma and others as young as 1500 1900 ma the unconformably overlying wutai group is considered as the base of the proterozoic succession and consists of amphibolite grade paragneisses carbonates and amphibolites in its lower part and greenschist grade clastic sediments and volcanics in its upper part it has given apparent k ar mineral ages between 1500 and 2000 ma present investigations have employed the u pb zircon approach on selected parts of the sequences to provide direct depositional ages or age constraints for the fuping and wutai groups and to find the age s of subsequent metamorphic processes a minimum age for the fuping group and maximum age for the wutai group has been derived from zircon age measurements on the lanzhishan granite 2560 9 ma which intrudes the fuping group and is unconformably overlain by the wutai group this late archaean result can be interpreted as the age of an igneous crystallization event and therefore a maximum for the depositional age of the wutai group the above result is well substantiated by zircon dating of the wutai group itself zircons from a low grade metamorphosed keratophyric lava in the upper part of the group give a volcanic crystallization age of 2520 17 ma this provides close constraints for the age of deposition of the wutai group at between 2560 and 2520 ma ago if the wutai group is indeed basal proterozoic the archaean proterozoic boundary in this part of china is also dated at between 2560 and 2520 ma further evidence as to the antiquity of the wutai group comes from a u pb zircon age of 2520 30 ma for the ekou granite which intrudes the wutai group sequence the age of the underlying late archaean rocks in the tainhangshan wutaishan area the fuping group could not be directly determined because of the paucity of volcanic markers and the higher grade of metamorphism its minimum age is 2560 ma see above but only an approximate maximum age can be gleaned from the zircon systematics in granulite and amphibolite grade paragneiss samples these data indicate a degree of pb inheritance which combined with metamorphic disturbance and more recent pb loss inhibit any further interpretation other than that they indicate an approximate maximum age of around 2800 ma several of the paragneisses and one amphibolitic schist contain zircon systems which are interpreted as having completely responded to a well defined amphibolite facies metamorphic event at 2500 ma ago a younger but less well defined metamorphism caused complete pb loss from zircon and recrystallization in the amphibolite and granulite facies terrains at between 2000 and 1800 ma ago rocks which show evidence of this younger metamorphic event were not recognized from the field or structural data base but from the distribution of the few such samples analyzed it seems possible that this younger terrain may now be interpretable as a cross cutting proterozoic mobile belt this proterozoic metamorphic province is also reflected by k ar mica ages between 1600 and 2000 ma and some preliminary rb sr total rock ages at 1700 ma on nearby paragneisses whose u pb zircon age is 2500 ma

the geometry of continental displacement and its application to arctic geology eugen wegmann s early approaches published in the geologische rundschau in 1943 plate tectonics developed around 1965 as a powerful tool to describe the tectonic movements of the earth s crust the article demonstrates that basically four already existing theoretical concepts subduction seafloor spreading the application of euler s theorem and transform faults had to be combined to arrive at the modern theory alfred wegener father of the theory of continental displacement is often credited as the most direct forerunner of plate tectonics however none of the aforementioned concepts had been developed by him the present article deals with the hitherto not duly credited contributions of the swiss geologist eugen wegmann 1896 1982 he developed in a series of highly original papers published between 1943 and 1948 one of them in the geologische rundschau a critical test of the theory of continental displacement based on the regional geology of the arctic furthermore he gave a very concise account on the geometrical principles of drift movements as a result he developed for the first time 25 years before mckenzie and parker s nature 216 1276 1280 landmark paper on the pacific 1967 the geometrical basis to graphically test plate motion directions however his work has not yet received the credit it deserves neither by scientist nor by historians of science

determining precambrian crustal evolution in china a case study from wutaishan shanxi province demonstrating the application of precise shrimp u pb geochronology

a morb arc basalt adakite association in the 2 5 ga wutai greenstone belt late archean magmatism and crustal growth in the north china craton abstract the wutai fuping and hengshan complexes form part of a major 2 5 ga late archean arc system in the northern part of the north china craton the wutai complex is a well preserved greenstone belt dominated by mafic intermediate and felsic volcanic rocks with a mid ocean ridge basalt morb arc back arc basalt adakite association multi element plots for morb type mafic volcanic rocks are characterised by depletion of th nb ta and la nearly flat or lree depleted ree patterns and nb u and nb th ratios greater than primitive mantle values back arc basin basalt babb type rocks have nearly flat trace element patterns with nb ti and y troughs and lree depleted or near flat ree patterns island arc basalt iab type rocks are characterized by negative anomalies of nb ta zr hf ti and y and by lree enrichment the felsic volcanic rocks conform to most compositional criteria for cenozoic adakites including low y and yb high la smn la yb and zr sm ratios and similar trace element and ree patterns trends defined by the association are consistent with magma mixing between morb like melts and subduction slab related melts intra oceanic subduction coupled with contemporary morb type mantle upwelling related to back arc basin extension can account for the interaction between the two components subduction accretion or back arc basin collapse led to accretion of the wutai intra oceanic arc back arc complexes with the magmatic arcs of the fuping and hengshan terranes that are dominated by high grade tonalite trondhjemite granodiorite ttg gneisses this geodynamic interpretation is different from many tectonic models for archean greenstone belts in which magmatism and crustal growth were dominated by mantle plumes or interaction between subduction zones and mantle plumes the final disposition of the arc complexes was controlled by the collision of the eastern and western blocks of the north china craton during the paleoproterozoic resulting in extensive tectonic interleaving within a major orogenic belt that extended throughout the central portion of the north china craton

high pressure temperature metamorphism in the st leonhard granulite massif austria evidence from intermediate pyroxene bearing granulites the st leonhard granulite massif lower austria is one of the small occurrences of high pressure granulite found in the gfohl unit at the highest tectono stratigraphic level of the moldanubian zone although predominantly composed of extremely deformed acidic garnet kyanite bearing rocks thin conformable layers of intermediate garnet clinopyroxene bearing granulites are seen pressure temperature estimates for the peak metamorphic assemblage of garnet clinopyroxene ternary feldspar quartz in these rocks are 15 19 kbar 950 1050 c a close coherence between results obtained from a combination of independent geothermobarometers and those derived from an internally consistent thermobarometric method indicate the retention of high pressure temperature equilibrium mineral compositions even though there is a wealth of petrographic evidence for significant post peak metamorphic decompression pressure temperature estimates for the orthopyroxene bearing intermediate pressure decompression stage obtained from discrete reaction textures are 8 12 kbar and 800 900 c post decompressive cooling from 800 to 500 c at ca 5 8 kbar is recorded by the final amphibolite facies biotite bearing assemblage together with petrological constraints from the enclosing acid granulites

constraints of volcanic rocks of the wutai complex shanxi province northern china on a giant late neoarchean intra oceanic arc system in the trans north china orogen abstract the wutai complex is located in the central part of the trans north china orogen the complex consists of neoarchean to paleoproterozoic granitoids and low grade metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the wutai group the group is subdivided into the shizui taihuai and gaofan subgroups meta volcanic rocks from the taihuai subgroup have igneous zircon u pb ages of 2548 2538 ma and e hf t values of 4 10 to 8 84 with xenocrystic zircons of 3 6 2 7 ga geochemically the meta volcanic rocks can be classified into four groups group 1 low ti tholeiites have the highest nb la pm ratios and the lowest la sm cn ratios flat to slightly light ree depleted chondrite normalized patterns and lower tio 2 and yb contents compared to v they were most likely derived from partial melting of depleted mantle in a fore arc setting group 2 island arc tholeiites displays flat to mildly right declined ree patterns and moderately negative nb ta zr and ti anomalies group 3 mature arc calc alkaline basalts display strongly fractionated chondrite normalized ree patterns and evidently negative nb ta and ti anomalies group 2 and 3 basalts formed by partial melting of sub arc depleted mantle wedge modified by different degrees of slab derived melts group 4 meta andesites and rhyolites have high la and low yb contents and strongly fractionated ree patterns and may have formed by fractionational crystallization of magma of group 3 basalts with clinopyroxene as a major mineral phase the 2 55 2 52 ga wutai group represents an intra oceanic arc underlain in part by a 2 7 ga continental nucleus derived fragment

garnet orthopyroxene plagioclase quartz barometry refinement and application to the english river subprovince and the minnesota river valley recent experimental theoretical and thermodynamic studies permit better calibration of two reactions for geobarometry grossular pyrope quartz anorthite enstatite grossular almandine quartz anorthite ferrosilite if both reactions are applied using the same thermodynamic data and activity models they should yield the same pressure for a given garnet pyroxene plagioclase quartz assemblage application to a variety of high grade terrains generally yielded excellent results however poor results have been obtained for high fe rocks which can be traced to errors in activity models for garnet and or pyroxene either a two site ideal mixing model for orthopyroxene cf wood and banno 1973 underestimates enstatite activity for high fe orthopyroxenes or the ganguly and saxena 1984 model overestimates pyrope activity in low mg garnets

th u pb monazite geochronology of the luliang and wutai complexes constraints on the tectonothermal evolution of the trans north china orogen abstract recent lithological metamorphic and geochronological studies show that the basement of the north china craton ncc formed by collision of two discrete archean to paleoproterozoic blocks eastern and western blocks along a paleoproterozoic orogen named the trans north china orogen however the timing of the collision is controversial and post collisional exhumation has not been precisely dated this study applies the electron microprobe th u pb monazite dating technique to determine the ages of the peak metamorphic event and subsequent exhumation of the low to medium grade luliang and wutai complexes in the trans north china orogen electron microprobe th u pb monazite data for the luliang complex reveal five tho 2 pbo age ranges 1 1940 1938 ma 2 1880 1847 ma 3 1795 1755 ma 4 1720 1703 ma and 5 1648 ma of these age ranges the first four have also been recorded in the wutai complex which yields tho 2 pbo ages of 1 1930 ma 2 1838 1822 ma 3 1793 ma and 4 1719 ma the oldest age range of 1940 1930 ma is interpreted to record the widespread emplacement of mafic dikes in rocks of the luliang and wutai complexes the age range of 1882 1822 ma is in accord with the shrimp u pb ages of metamorphic zircons and mineral sm nd and 40 ar 39 ar ages obtained for other complexes in the orogen and is interpreted as the age of the major metamorphic event caused by amalgamation between the eastern and the western blocks the age range of 1795 1755 ma is consistent with emplacement of large scale unmetamorphosed mafic swarms at 1800 1765 ma interpreted as the time of post orogenic extension the 1720 1703 ma and 1648 ma ages are considered to date later multiple stages of hydrothermal alteration since monazites with such young ages only occur along fractures in older monazite grains and at the rims these new monazite tho 2 pbo ages support the tectonic model for the evolution of the north china craton that envisages discrete eastern and western blocks colliding along the trans north china orogen at 1 85 ga and then undergoing post collisional extension in the period 1795 1755 ma

shrimp u pb zircon ages of the fuping complex implications for late archean to paleoproterozoic accretion and assembly of the north china craton the fuping complex is situated in the central part of the north china craton and consists of four major lithological assemblages fuping tonalitic trondhjemitic granodioritic gneisses longquanguan augen gneisses wanzi supracrustal assemblage and nanying granitic gneisses shrimp u pb geochronology combined with u th and cathodoluminescence cl imaging of zircon enables resolution of magmatic and metamorphic events that can be directed towards understanding the late archean to paleoproterozoic history of the fuping complex cl images reveal the coexistence of magmatic and metamorphic zircons in nearly all rock types of the fuping complex the metamorphic zircons occur as either single grains or overgrowth or recrystallization rims surrounding and truncating oscillatory zoned magmatic zircon cores and are all characterized by nebulous zoning or being structureless with extremely high luminescence and very low th contents these features make them distinct from magmatic zircons that are characterized by concentric oscillatory zoning comparatively low luminescence and high th and u contents shrimp u pb analyses on magmatic zircons reveal that the tonalitic trondhjemitic and granodioritic plutons of the fuping gneisses were emplaced at 2523 14 ma 2499 10 ma and 2486 8 ma respectively whereas the monzogranitic and granitic plutons of the longquanguan augen gneisses were intruded respectively at 2510 22 ma and 2507 11 ma prismatic and oscillatory zoned zircons dominate in the pelitic rocks of the wanzi supracrustal assemblage and are interpreted as detritus from igneous source rocks the concordant and discordant u pb ages of 2502 5 ma and 2507 14 ma obtained from two pelitic rock samples indicate these rocks must have been deposited no earlier than 2507 ma ago in addition a zoned zircon grain in one pelitic rock sample has a near concordant age of 2109 5 1 ma which may provide a maximum depositional age for the wanzi supracrustal rocks shrimp results also reveal that granitic magmatism assigned to the nanying granitic gneisses occurred over a protracted interval from 2077 13 ma to 2024 21 ma the nebulously zoned zircon grains and overgrowth recrystallization zircon rims from different rocks yielded similar concordant 207pb 206pb ages in the range 1875 to 1802 ma interpreted as approximating the age of regional metamorphism of the fuping complex timing of primary zircon crystallization and regional metamorphism of the fuping complex is in general agreement with recent u pb zircon ion probe results for the wutai and hengshan complexes that bound the fuping complex to the northwest these areas are characterized by the emplacement of major granitoid bodies at around 2 50 ga to 2 48 ga ago deposition of supracrustal rocks in the paleoproterozoic intrusion of paleoproterozoic granitic bodies at 2 1 to 2 0 ga and regional metamorphism at 1 875 to 1 802 ga these data indicate that the fuping and hengshan complexes do not represent an older crystalline basement to the wutai complex as suggested in previous tectonic models but together with the wutai complex represent elements of a single late archean to paleoproterozoic magmatic arc system that has been subsequently tectonically disrupted and juxtaposed during the collision of the eastern and western north china blocks at 1 85 ga which resulted in the final assembly of the north china craton

sm nd and shrimp u pb zircon geochronology of high pressure granulites in the sanggan area north china craton timing of paleoproterozoic continental collision abstract high pressure hp mafic granulites are widely distributed as sheet like and lenticular bodies within highly deformed tonalitic gneisses in the sanggan area north china craton they have clockwise isothermal decompression and isobaric cooling p t paths implying continental collision tectonics whole rock analyses of 15 samples define a sm nd isochron yielding an age of 2547 87 ma with e nd t 2 7 corresponding nd depleted mantle model ages show a similar range and are interpreted as the age of the magmatic protolith to the high pressure granulites a combined sm nd mineral whole rock isochron from one of these samples yields an age of 1813 23 ma taken to represent the metamorphic age at an early stage on the cooling path shrimp u pb zircon analyses of three hp mafic granulite samples give uniform weighted mean 207 pb 206 pb ages of 1817 12 1817 12 and 1819 16 ma these ages are interpreted to date metamorphism of the hp granulites and with the sm nd mineral whole rock result strongly suggest that the time of continental collision was at ca 1 82 ga an additional sample records two age populations one at 1803 9 ma and an older one at 1872 16 ma the latter may indicate the timing of either an earlier metamorphic event or possibly the earliest stage of a single prolonged metamorphic episode that peaked at 1 82 ga these results confirm the paleoproterozoic age for assembly of the north china craton

assembling north china craton within the columbia supercontinent the role of double sided subduction abstract an evaluation of recent s wave receiver functions s wave velocities and two versions of p wave tomographic images along various transects in the north china craton provides some clues on the subduction collision history of the different crustal blocks and their final amalgamation within the paleoproterozoic columbia supercontinent interpretation of a n s seismic section of the craton suggests thick slab debris sinking to various depths in the mantle the w e seismic corridors show the preservation of a thick 200 km lithospheric root tectosphere beneath the ordos block and its variable and extensive erosion towards the yanliao block eastern block this zone is characterized by layers with marked velocity contrast and suggests repeated stacking of the remnants of underplated and accreted paleoproterozoic oceanic lithosphere the present day lithosphere asthenosphere boundary beneath this region probably marks the erosional plane along which decratonization occurred through subduction erosion from the east and thermal and material erosion by upwelling asthenosphere from below resulting in the partial destruction of the tectosphere and its thinning towards the east within the asthenosphere below the yanliao block younger and thinner slabs predominate in the absence of any prominent thick high velocity layers these younger slabs define a westward polarity and constitute a mega scale duplex formed by underplating through phanerozoic subduction process particularly the pacific plate subduction from the east the lithologic associations within the inner mongolia suture zone dividing the yinshan block to the north and ordos block to the south correspond to an accreted ocean plate stratigraphic sequence with the tonalite trondhjemite granodiorite ttg gneisses charnockites and calc alkaline granites representing a continental arc built up through subduction from the north the seismic transects bring out a contrasting polarity in the subduction regime with an oblique east to southward subduction of the yinshan block and a westward subduction of the yanliao block here i propose a double sided subduction history for the ncc similar to the ongoing subduction process in the western pacific such double sided subduction is considered to promote rapid amalgamation of continental fragments within supercontinents and the subduction polarities and mantle dynamics of ncc are therefore considered to be critical in evaluating the final assembly of the paleoproterozoic supercontinent columbia

paleoproterozoic p t t evolution in the hengshan wutai fuping area north china craton evidence from petrological and geochronological data abstract this contribution carries out zircon dating and a review of the previous metamorphic and geochronological work on the hengshan wutai fuping area in the central trans north china orogen for elucidating its paleoproterozoic orogenic evolution the hengshan complex can be subdivided into north hengshan and south hengshan complexes separated by the strike slip zhujiafang shear zone high pressure hp mafic granulite and garnet absent amphibolite collected from the north hengshan complex yield metamorphic ages of 1963 1769 ma and 1882 1793 ma respectively both with weighted mean ages of 1 85 ga in the hp mafic granulite zircons of 1 90 ga and those of

the isentobel in central switzerland remnants of the penninic ocean and a source of inspiration for gustav steinmann s idea of young ophiolites

dating the gaofan and hutuo groups targets to investigate the paleoproterozoic great oxidation event in north china abstract there are several sedimentary units in north china that are proposed to be associated with the paleoproterozoic great oxidation event goe and or subsequent events however few of them have been precisely dated in this study deposition age of the greenschist facies gaofan and hutuo groups is determined zircon grains liberated from a tuff layer metamorphosed to sericite quartz schist in the upper part of the mohe formation the second of the three formations of the gaofan group yield a weighted average 207 pb 206 pb age of 2186 8 ma n 7 mswd 1 3 representing time of deposition this age and the detrital zircon u pb ages of the basal feldspar quartzite meta siltstone as well as the initial deposition age of the unconformably overlying hutuo group confine the deposition age of the gaofan group to 2350 2150 ma this result negates the gaofan group as one subgroup of the 2560 2510 ma wutai greenstone belt zircons from the banlaoyao mafic sill meta diabase that intruded the dongye subgroup of the hutuo group yield an upper intercept u pb age of 2057 25 ma n 14 mswd 1 3 representing time of crystallization considering the age of the basalt in the first formation of the doucun subgroup and the tuff in the first formation of the dongye subgroup the deposition age of the doucun and dongye subgroups of the hutuo group is confined to 2150 2090 ma and 2090 2060 ma respectively these age brackets as well as the available carbon and nitrogen isotope data indicate that the zhangxianbu formation of the gaofan group possibly recorded the goe whereas the mohe yaokouqian formations of the gaofan group and the doucun dongye subgroups of the hutuo group recorded the subsequent lomagundi jatuli event lje however the lomagundi jatuli carbon excursions are hardly distinguishable from the gaofan group and the doucun subgroup hutuo group as both units consist of little inorganic carbon but terrestrial clastic turbidites

the influence of sediment recycling and basement composition on evolution of mudrock chemistry in the southwestern united states this paper reports systematic changes in mudrock composition through time on a single con tinental cmstal block the changes reflect both sediment recycling processes and changes through time in the composition of crystalline material being added to the sedimentary system and are related to tectonic evolution as the block matures from a series of accreted arc terranes to a stable craton the major and trace element distributions reflect different aspects of the provenance of the mudrocks in this study major elements record sediment recycling processes as well as changing proportions of sedi mentary and first cycle source rocks with the exceptions of kzo which tends to increase and sioz and a o3 which show no trend most major oxides tend to decline in relative abundance in younger mud rocks patterns shown by the index of compositional variability fe03 kro naao cao mgo mno tiojialro and by k20 a1203 indicate that the major oxide trends are due to decreasing proportions of nonclay silicate minerals and a concomitant increase in the proportion of clay minerals probably due to decreasing input of first cycle detritus coupled with recycling of sedimentary material excursions from progressive trends marked by increases in mgo k20 and cao reflect episodes of large scale input of nonclay first cycle minerals from crystalline source rocks due to large scale basement uplift the chemistry of low solubility trace elements in contrast is not sensitive to recycling effects and reflects the composition of first cycle input incompatible elements are progressively enriched relative to compatible elements in younger mudrocks and values for chondrite normalised rare earth elements also increase in addition the eu anomaly becomes systematically more negative in younger samples these trends cmnot be explained by diagenetic or weathering processes and therefore indicate that the proportion of fnc tionated granitic first cycle detritus being added to the sedimentary system becomes greater with time these results confirm the importance of tectonic setting in controlling mudrock chemistry and also demonstrate that there is a dynamic relationship between the tectonic evolution of a continental block and the composition of its sedimentary mantle

archean geodynamics in the central zone north china craton constraints from geochemistry of two contrasting series of granitoids in the fuping and wutai complexes abstract the archean to paleoproterozoic central zone of the north china craton is situated between the eastern and western archean continental blocks and contains two contrasting series of neoarchean granitoids the 2523 2486 ma tonalite trondhjemite granodiorite ttg gneisses in the fuping complex and the 2555 2525 ma calc alkaline granitoids tonalite granodiorite granite and monzogranite in the wutai complex the fuping ttg gneisses most likely formed from partial melting of 2 7 ga basalts at 50 km with an involvement of 3 0 ga crustal material the wutai granitoids have higher k 2 o lile and rb sr but lower sr y and la n yb n than the fuping ttg gneisses are characterized by nd t dm from 2 5 to 2 8 ga and e nd t from 0 49 to 3 34 and are derived from partial melting of a juvenile source at the geochemistry of these two contrasting series of neoarchean granitoids provides further evidence that the wutai complex originated and evolved separately from the fuping complex the wutai complex most likely formed as an oceanic island arc with volcanism and synvolcanic granitoid intrusions at 2555 2525 ma the wutai complex was subsequently accreted onto the eastern archean continental block and was probably responsible for crustal thickening and ttg magmatism at 2523 2486 ma in the fuping complex as part of the taihangshan hengshan block at the western margin of the eastern archean continental block

tectonothermal history of the basement rocks in the western zone of the north china craton and its tectonic implications the basement of the north china craton can be divided into the eastern central and western zones based on lithological structural metamorphic and geochronological data the western zone comprises two different petrotectonic units archaean tonalitic trondhjemitic granodioritic ttg grey gneisses and metamorphic mafic rocks and palaeoproterozoic khondalite series the former is characterized by isobaric cooling ibc type anticlockwise p t paths in the north northwestern part of the zone and near isothermal decompression itd type clockwise p t paths in the eastern part adjacent to the central zone on the other hand the tectonothermal evolution of palaeoproterozoic khondalite series rocks is characterized exclusively by nearly isothermal decompression following the peak of metamorphism and then cooling defining clockwise p t paths the archaean ttg gneisses and associated mafic rocks with anticlockwise metamorphic p t paths reflects an origin related to underplating and intrusion of mantle derived magmas which may be derived from mantle plumes they represent a late archaean continental block in the western part of the north china craton the palaeoproterozoic khondalite series rocks represent passive continental margin deposits they were metamorphosed and deformed in the late palaeoproterozoic during the amalgamation of the western continental block with another continental block in the east part of the north china craton the itd type clockwise p t t paths of the palaeoproterozoic khondalite series rocks record the tectonothermal histories of the collision of the western and eastern continental blocks which resulted in the final assembly of the north china craton at c 1800 ma

age and evolution of a late archean to paleoproterozoic upper to lower crustal section in the wutaishan hengshan fuping terrain of northern china abstract the taihangshan wutaishan area forms part of the central north china craton and consists of three main components the hengshan and fuping complexes containing predominantly ductilely deformed late archean to paleoproterozoic high grade granitoid orthogneisses intruded by mafic dykes of gabbroic composition and the low grade late archean wutai greenstone belt developed between the high grade terrains and consisting of bimodal volcanic rocks and metasediments associated with coeval granitoids zircon dating shows that both the hengshan and fuping complexes were intruded by major granitoid bodies between 2 52 and 2 48 ga with rare occurrences of 2 7 ga gneisses wutai granitoids adjacent to the fuping complex also contain 2 7 ga xenocrysts all possibly reflecting the same older basement rare granitic gneisses in the hengshan have emplacement ages of 2 35 ga and show the same structural features as the older rocks indicating that the main deformation occurred after 2 3 ga deposition of supracrustal rocks and emplacement of mafic dykes occurred in the paleoproterozoic together with intrusion of granitic bodies at 2 1 2 0 ga and all underwent regional metamorphism at 1 88 1 85 ga we interpret the hengshan and fuping granitoid gneisses as the lower plutonic part of a late archean to early paleoproterozoic japan type magmatic arc with the upper volcanic part represented by the wutai complex components of this arc may have evolved at a continental margin as indicated by the 2 7 ga zircons virtually all magmatic events are recorded in all three complexes however the 1 85 ga metamorphic event is only recorded in the higher grade portions of the wutai since low grade and presumably high crustal level precluded metamorphic zircon growth shear zones in the hengshan are interpreted as major lower crustal discontinuities post dating the peak of high pressure granulite metamorphism we suggest that they formed during orogenic collapse and uplift of the hengshan complex in the late paleoproterozoic 1800 ma

neoarchean andean type active continental margin in the northeastern north china craton geochemical and geochronological evidence from metavolcanic rocks in the jiapigou granite greenstone belt southern jilin province abstract the jiapigou granite greenstone belt of southern jilin province is located at the northeastern margin of the north china craton ncc the neoarchean metavolcanic rocks of this region provide strong lines of evidence in petrology and geochemistry for neoarchean crust mantle geodynamic evolution and significant crustal growth events the metavolcanic rock assemblage is dominated by amphibolite hornblende garnet biotite plagioclase gneiss and minor felsic gneiss zircon la icp ms u pb isotopic analyses reveal that these supracrustal rocks may be formed by two episodes of magmatism the first magmatic episode occurred at 2688 ma and was recorded by minor felsic gneiss the second episode occurred at 2588 2536 ma and was marked by a major lithological assemblage of metavolcanic rocks in this area all the supracrustal rocks experienced amphibolite facies metamorphism at 2510 2480 ma except for the felsic gneiss seventeen metavolcanic rock samples can be geochemically classified into three groups group 1 has tholeiitic basaltic chemical composition and is characterized by slightly lree enriched chondrite normalized ree pattern with low la yb n ratio and weakly negative nb anomalies similar to those of primitive arc tholeiite their magmatic precursor was most likely generated by partial melting of upper sub arc mantle wedge slightly metasomatized by slab derived fluids or melts in a subduction initiation environment group 2 with basaltic composition is akin to typical calc alkaline basalt cab showing fractionated chondrite normalized ree patterns and evidently negative nb ta and ti anomalies the magmatic precursor of the group 2 was derived from partial melting of a sub arc mantle wedge at relatively deeper levels significantly metasomatized by slab derived fluids or melts group 3 show chemical composition of andesite to dacite and is distinguished by wide variations in sio2 mgo and mg values strongly fractionated chondrite normalized ree patterns with higher la yb n ratios low yb and y contents and negative nb ta ti and p anomalies analogous to the phanerozoic adakites they might be derived from magma mixing between the mantle wedge melts metasomatized by slab derived melts with perhaps an ancient crustal contribution the felsic gneiss shows positive zircon ehf t2 values 2 2 to 4 5 together with 2 7 ga metamorphic volcanic rocks in the neighboring area indicating a 2 7 ga crustal growth episode most of the metavolcanic rocks display positive ehf t2 values of 0 4 to 7 4 the highest of which is close to the value of contemporaneous depleted mantle suggesting a significant crustal growth event at 2 59 2 54 ga combined with numerous 2 83 2 65 ga inherited zircons and 2688 ma felsic gneiss the jiapigou granite greenstone belt evolved at an andean type active continental margin recording the transition from primitive arc to mature arc

paleoproterozoic arc magmatism in the north china craton no siderian global plate tectonic shutdown abstract arc magmatism in convergent plate margins has been a major contributor to continental growth following arc arc and arc continent collisions in the archean leading to the amalgamation of micro blocks the north china craton ncc witnessed major pulses of continental arc magmatism during the paleoproterozoic in this study we present geochemistry zircon u pb geochronology and lu hf isotope data from a suite of magmatic rocks sampled from the region of confluence of two major paleoproterozoic suture zones in the ncc the inner mongolia suture zone imsz and the trans north china orogen tnco our zircon u pb geochronological data indicate new zircon growth during multiple tectonothermal events as displayed in the 207pb 206pb weighted mean ages of 2410 41 ma for metagranite 2480 12 ma 2125 18 ma 1946 8 ma 1900 15 ma and 1879 12 ma from metagabbros 2446 11 ma from charnockite and 1904 6 ma and 1901 9 ma from metatuffs the 207pb 206pb upper intercept age of zircons in the khondalite shows 2102 76 ma which is identical to the age obtained from the magmatic zircons in one of the metagabbros the khondalites also carry a group of concordant metamorphic zircons with 207pb 206pb mean age of 1881 20 ma metamorphic zircons in the gabbros and charnockites also yield similar ages of 1890 14 ma and 1852 19 ma respectively the age data suggest prolonged arc magmatism in a convergent margin setting during ca 2 48 to 1 9 ga followed by metamorphism at ca 1 89 1 85 ga associated with the final collision lu hf analyses reveal that the dominant populations of zircons from all the rock types are characterized by positive ehf values 1 9 to 6 8 mean 1 8 the ehf and tdmc data suggest that the magmas were mostly derived from neoarchean and paleoproterozoic juvenile components the salient geochemical features of these rocks attest to magma generation from heterogeneous sources involving subduction derived arc components with minor input from continental crust the results presented in this study together with those from previous investigations in different domains of the imsz and tnco suggest major paleoproterozoic arc magmatic events in the ncc lasting for nearly 600 million years associated with the final assembly of the crustal blocks into a coherent craton construction of the final cratonic architecture of the ncc thus witnessed not only the arc continent amalgamations at 2 7 2 5 ga but also major crust building events in the paleoproterozoic through melts generated from juvenile and recycled components in continental magmatic arc systems along an active convergent margin followed by intense deformation and metamorphism during the final collision at 1 85 1 80 ga the prominent paleoproterozoic magmatic records in the ncc do not support the proposal of global plate tectonic shutdown in the siderian and confirm vigorous convergent margin magmatism and crust building processes throughout the paleoproterozoic

high pressure granulites in the sanggan area north china craton metamorphic evolution p t paths and geotectonic significance high pressure basic granulites are widely distributed as enclaves and sheet like blocks in the huaian ttg gneiss terrane in the sanggan area of the central zone of the north china craton four stages of the metamorphic history have been recognised in mineral assemblages based on inclusion exsolution and reaction textures integrated with garnet zonation patterns as revealed by compositional maps and compositional profiles the p t conditions for each metamorphic stage were obtained using thermodynamically and experimentally calibrated geothermobarometers the low ca core of growth zoned garnet along with inclusion minerals defines a prograde assemblage m1 of garnet clinopyroxene plagioclase quartz yielding 700 c and 10 kbar the peak of metamorphism at about 750 870 c and 11 14 5 kbar m2 is defined by high ca domains in garnet interiors and inclusion minerals of clinopyroxene plagioclase and quartz kelyphites or coronas of orthopyroxene plagioclase magnetite around garnet porphyroblasts indicate garnet breakdown reactions m3 at conditions around 770 830 c and 8 5 10 5 kbar garnet exsolution lamellae in clinopyroxene and kelyphites of amphibole plagioclase around garnet formed during the cooling process at about 500 650 c and 5 5 8 kbar m4 these results help define a sequential p t path containing prograde near isothermal decompression itd and near isobaric cooling ibc stages the clockwise hybrid itd and ibc p t paths of the hp granulites in the sanggan area imply a model of thickening followed by extension in a collisional environment furthermore the relatively high pressures 6 14 5 kbar of the four metamorphic stages and the geometry of the p t paths suggest that the hp granulites together with their host huaian ttg gneisses represent the lower plate in a crust thickened during collision the corresponding upper plate might be the tectonically overlying khondalite series which was subjected to medium to low pressure mp lp 7 4 kbar granulite facies metamorphism with a clockwise p t path including an itd segment both the hp and the mp lp granulite facies events occurred contemporaneously at c 1 90 1 85 ga in a collisional environment created by the assembly process of the north china craton

thermobarometry and geotectonic significance of high pressure granulites examples from the moldanubian zone of the bohemian massif in lower austria

a late archean foreland fold and thrust belt in the north china craton implications for early collisional tectonics abstract the archean north china craton is divided into the western and eastern blocks along the central orogenic belt a 1600 km long archean foreland basin and thrust belt fringes the eastern side of the central orogenic belt rocks in the orogen form tectonically stacked east vergent fold and thrust sheets including foreland basin sediments 2 50 ga ophiolitic melange and an island arc complex foreland basin sediments overlie a passive margin sequence and include a 2 50 ga deep water turbidite sequence that grades upward and westward into shallow water molasse now disposed in structurally imbricated east verging thrusts and asymmetric folds that gradually migrated craton ward with deformation uplift and erosion of the orogen there is a strong linked relationship of the formation of the foreland basin to collision of the east and west blocks of the north china craton along the central orogenic belt at 2 50 ga the qinglong foreland basin and central orogenic belt of the north china craton represents one of the best preserved archean orogen to craton transitions in the world its classic internal to external zonation and flexural response to loading demonstrate that convergent tectonics in the archean were broadly similar to phanerozoic convergent margin processes

lithotectonic elements and geological events in the hengshan wutai fuping belt a synthesis and implications for the evolution of the trans north china orogen the hengshan wutai fuping belt is located in the middle segment of the trans north china orogen a palaeoproterozoic continental collisional belt along which the eastern and western blocks amalgamated to form the north china craton the belt consists of the medium to high grade hengshan and fuping gneiss complexes and the intervening low to medium grade wutai granite greenstone terrane and most igneous rocks in the belt are calc alkaline and have affinities to magmatic arcs previous tectonic models assumed that the hengshan and fuping gneiss assemblages were an older basement to the wutai supracrustal rocks but recent studies indicate that the three complexes constitute a single long lived neoarchaean to palaeoproterozoic magmatic arc where the wutai complex represents an upper crustal domain whereas the hengshan and fuping gneisses represent the lower crustal components forming the root of the arc the earliest arc related magmatism in the belt occurred at 2560 2520 ma marked by the emplacement of the wutai granitoids which was followed by arc volcanism at 2530 2515 ma forming the wutai greenstones extension driven by widespread arc volcanism led to the development of a back arc basin or a marginal sea which divided the belt into the hengshan wutai island arc japan type and the fuping relict arc at 2520 2480 ma subduction beneath the hengshan wutai island arc caused partial melting of the lower crust to form the hengshan tonalitic trondhjemitic granodioritic ttg suites whereas eastward directed subduction of the marginal sea led to the reactivation of the fuping relict arc where the fuping tonalitic trondhjemitic granodioritic suite was emplaced in the period 2360 2000 ma sporadic phases of isolated granitoid magmatism occurred in the hengshan wutai fuping region forming 2360 ma c 2250 ma and 2000 2100 ma granitoids in the hengshan complex the c 2100 ma wangjiahui and dawaliang granites in the wutai complex and the 2100 2000 ma nanying granitoids in the fuping complex atc 1920 ma the hengshan wutai island arc underwent an extensional event possibly due to the subduction of an oceanic ridge leading to the emplacement of pre tectonic gabbroic dykes that were subsequently metamorphosed together with their host rocks to form medium to high pressure granulites at 1880 1820 ma the hengshan wutai fuping arc system was juxtaposed intensely deformed and metamorphosed during a major and regionally extensive orogenic event the l uliang orogeny which generated the trans north china orogen through collision of the eastern and western blocks the hengshan wutai fuping belt was finally stabilized after emplacement of a mafic dyke swarm at 1780 1750 ma

age and tectonic setting of late archean greenstone gneiss terrain in henan province china as revealed by single grain zircon dating the authors report precise u pb zircon ages for single grains of a metarhyodacite from the late archean dengfeng greenstone belt in henan province china near the southern margin of the north china craton most grains belong to an igneous population whose u pb isotopic systematics define a straight line intersecting concordia at 2512 12 ma and this is interpreted as the time of crystallization of the original greenstone volcanics several grains are distinctly older between 2576 9 and 2945 44 ma and the authors interpret the older grains as xenocrysts of pre greenstone continental crust that provide evidence for crustal derivation or crustal contamination of the original rhyodacitic lava the xenocrysts suggest evolution of the dengfeng greenstone belt in a continental environment that may be represented by the taihua high grade gneisses bordering the dengfeng greenstones and for which the authors obtained ages of 2806 7 and 2841 6 ma the data add evidence to the now widely held concept that most archean greenstones developed on or near older continental crust and were therefore prone to crustal contamination in such cases conventional zircon dating may not always record the precise age of rock formation

the wutaishan orogenic belt within the shanxi province northern china a record of late archaean collision tectonics abstract the archaean crust of northeastern shanxi province northern china is dominated by three distinct terranes the high grade gneiss terranes hengshan in the north and fuping in the southeast and the intervening low grade terrane of the wutaishan belt the 2 5 ga beitai arc complex which constitutes the major part of the wutaishan belt is interpreted as a pre collision magmatic arc there was a marginal sea basin between the beitai arc and the fuping terrane at the fore arc collision stage the passive margin deposits which occurred along the western margin of the fuping terrane became a foreland fold thrust belt after the closure of the marginal sea basin the remnants of sea floor occur as a melange zone along the suture zone between the beitai arc and fuping terrane nearly at the same time at 2 5 ga the back arc oceanic lithosphere started to subduct beneath the hengshan terrane then the hengshan terrane came into collision with the arc and the fuping terrane some dismembered sea floor rocks are preserved as a back arc melange zone between the hengshan terrane and the beitai arc the term wutaishan orogeny should be reserved for the processes which lasted from 2600 to 2450 ma

2 7ga crust growth in the north china craton abstract numerous u pb zircon geochronological data show that rocks of the precambrian basement from the north china craton ncc have two age peaks at 1 8 1 9 and 2 5 ga respectively whether the most prominent peak at 2 5 ga really registered a period of major crustal growth in the ncc thus making it different from the global major crustal growth period of 2 7 ga is uncertain in this paper we carried out in situ u pb and hf isotopes of zircons and whole rock chemical and sr nd isotopic analyses for six precambrian samples from the ncc in order to understand crustal growth and reworking the samples have u pb zircon ages of 1 8 1 9 2 5 and 2 7 ga respectively the two samples with u pb zircon ages of 2 7 ga have zircon hf model ages t hf dm and or whole rock nd model ages t nd dm close to their u pb zircon ages it is clear that they represent juvenile crust generation thus providing direct evidence that 2 7 ga was a period of new crustal addition the samples with u pb zircon ages of 1 8 and 2 5 ga also have t hf dm and or t nd dm similar to those of the 2 7 ga samples indicating that these samples also have a mantle extraction time of 2 7 0 1 ga and their 1 8 and 2 5 ga ages may represent periods of reworking of the 2 7 0 1 ga crust rather than juvenile crust generation the reworking is manifested either as metamorphism or as lower crustal derived magmatism specifically the 2 5 ga tonalitic gneiss sample is thought to be derived by melting of the 2 7 ga lower crust since many 2 5 ga tonalite trondhjemite granodiorites ttgs and calc alkaline granitoids in the ncc contain 2 7 ga xenocrystic and inherited zircons we postulate that they are probably also derived mainly from the 2 7 0 1 ga crust our data imply that the quantity of 2 7 ga continental crust in the ncc is probably greater in extent than that exposed today

genesis of the hengling magmatic belt in the north china craton implications for paleoproterozoic tectonics abstract the 2200 1880 ma igneous rocks in the central and eastern parts of the north china craton ncc constitute a new hengling magmatic belt hmb which includes the 2147 ma hengling mafic sill dyke swarm the 2060 ma yixingzhai mafic dyke swarm and the 1973 ma xiwangshan mafic dyke swarm the three swarms are contiguous and have experienced variable degrees of metamorphism from greenschist to low amphibolite facies hengling medium granulite facies yixingzhai and medium high pressure granulite facies xiwangshan they are all tholeiitic in composition typically with 47 52 wt sio 2 and 4 10 wt mgo and all show light rare earth element enrichments and nb and ta depletion their nd t dm ages are in the range of 2 5 3 0 ga specifically the hengling and yixingzhai dykes sills are depleted in th u zr hf and ti whereas the xiwangshan dykes are enriched in u and weakly depleted in other elements variable sr anomalies indicate significant feldspar accumulation positive anomalies or fractionation the end t values of the three swarms are 3 2 3 0 hengling 1 7 1 8 yixingzhai and 1 4 1 0 xiwangshan these mafic representatives of the hmb originated from the 2 5 ga sub continental lithospheric mantle of the ncc and with a type granites and other igneous associations in this belt they likely evolved in an intra continental rift the progressive changing compositions of the three swarms are interpreted in terms of their source regions at different depths i e shallower and shallower through time and the decrease in scale and size of the intrusions and their magma volumes indicate the progressive weakening of magmatism in this rift the rocks in this belt are different chronologically petrologically and chemically from those in the xuwujia magmatic belt xmb we propose that the two magmatic belts represent two different magmatic systems in different blocks of the ncc i e an eastern block with the hmb and a western block with the xmb terminal collision was possibly a result of ridge subduction between the two blocks which led to exhumation of the igneous rocks in the two belts from different crustal levels distinguishable by their different grades of metamorphism

neoarchean paleoproterozoic terrane assembly and wilson cycle in the north china craton an overview from the central segment of the trans north china orogen abstract the north china craton ncc is one of the important precambrian nuclei of the globe as well as an integral component of the paleoproterozoic supercontinent columba the ncc is considered in popular models as an assembly of two major crustal blocks the eastern and western blocks which were sutured along the trans north china orogen tnco which represents a major paleoproterozoic collisional orogen the central segment of the tnco preserves important keys to unravel the tectonic history of amalgamation and cratonization of the ncc here we present an overview on the lithology geochemistry geochronology lu hf isotopes and metamorphic history of the neoarchean to paleoproterozoic rocks in the major basement terranes from the central segment of the tnco the available data allow us to re construct the major precambrian events from the heart of the ncc as follows 1 2 58 2 48 ga amalgamation of three microblocks ordos qianhuai and xuchang along the wutai granite greenstone belt and its branch at the zanhuang area together with the convergence of major microblocks along other 2 5 ga granite greenstone belts leading to the initial cratonization of the ncc 2 2 50 2 45 ga post collisional extension as represented by undeformed mafic dykes and granitoid dykes or plutons resulting in the opening of an oceanic basin along the hengshan and huai an xuanhua complexes 3 2 45 2 12 ga subduction in the hengshan huai an xuanhua and luliang complexes and simultaneous rifting in the fuping wutai and zanhuang complexes 4 2 12 1 98 ga opening of oceanic basins in the wutai and fuping areas followed by double subduction of the oceanic lithosphere and arc magmatism in the fuping wutai and luliang complexes with coeval rifting in the northern part as represented by the hengshan and huai an xuanhua complexes and the southern side as represented by the zanhuang complex 5 1 96 1 80 ga the assembly of the separated terranes or complexes driven by the amalgamation of the western and eastern blocks the collisional event may have occurred at 1 96 1 90 ga and the 1 88 1 80 ga metamorphic ages might represent the retrograde cooling during exhumation 6 termination of the collisional event represented by post collisional intrusions of granitoids charnockites and pegmatites until ca 1 74 ga thus the central segment of the tnco records a prolonged wilson cycle following the initial cratonization of the ncc during neoarchean and involved multiple rift subduction and collisional processes in the paleoproterozoic resulting in the unified ncc and its incorporation into the supercontinent columbia

shrimp data on zircons from the wanzi series constraints on the rock formation time and implications of migmatization at 2 1 2 0 ga in the fuping complex north china craton in most of the rocks of the fuping complex in the trans north china orogen a large quantity of leucocratic veins dykes and granitic intrusions are present as migmatites the incongruent partial melting of biotite to hornblende suggests the water fluxed anatexis of the migmatization of which the melt is manifested by the euhedral crystallization of some quartzofeldspathic minerals and presence of albite rim on earlier plagioclase or k feldspar importantly some melt may be segregated in the sillimanite gneisses or extracted and injected as faint dispersed melt into the competent metasedimentary quartzite of the wanzi series rocks the quartzite has plenty of zircon ages cluster at c 2 5 ga and some at c 2 1 2 0 ga the former may be detrital zircon age while the latter represents the age of migmatization or crystallization of the injected melt not detrital zircon ages as conventionally believed the data have constrained that the sedimentation time of the protolith of the quartzite of the wanzi series was between c 2 5 ga and c 2 1 2 0 ga not younger than c 2 1 2 0 ga as once proposed therefore it must be cautious in applying detrital zircon ages in constraining the time of sedimentation if the rocks have undergone middle high grade metamorphism especially when migmatization was involved in the metamorphism process

neoarchean paleoproterozoic magmatic arc evolution in the wutai hengshan fuping area north china craton new perspectives from zircon u pb ages and hf isotopic data abstract the wutai granite greenstone belt which formed in the neoarchean paleoproterozoic with the adjoining high grade metamorphic hengshan fuping region record important transitions in crustal and tectonic evolution although these evolutionary processes have still been in dispute in this study new u pb and lu hf la icp ms zircon analyses were obtained from eight metamorphosed magmatic rocks in the wutai hengshan fuping area in north china craton ncc the results reveal that most of wutai granitoids yield emplacement ages of 2 56 2 52 ga with corresponding ehf t2 of 4 7 to 8 3 the tonalitic gneiss from dongshandi intrusion however gives a new age of 2482 ma and ehf t2 of 2 5 to 4 6 which are similar with yixingzhai pluton marked by ages of 2501 2499 ma and ehf t2 of 3 2 to 4 4 also 2 7 ga and 2 5 ga continental crust generation are further revealed but 2 5 ga crustal growth is more complicated due to the involvement of old crustal components which can be identified by variable ehf t2 values ranging from 1 8 to 7 5 thus based on the distinctions of hf isotopes compositional and spatial features two consecutive groups of 2 56 2 52 ga and 2 52 2 48 ga are recognized and a two step tectonic evolution model for the wutai hengshan fuping area is proposed during 2 56 2 52 ga intra oceanic subduction led to the formation of wutai oceanic island arc accompanied mainly by the development of wutai granitoids ehf t2 of 4 7 to 8 3 and coeval volcanics predominant arc tholeiitic chemical affinity corresponding to the juvenile crustal growth between 2 52 ga and 2 48 ga with intervening oceanic crust between intra oceanic arc and continent consumed the wutai intra oceanic arc then collided and was obducted onto the western edge of the hengshan fuping continental block large amounts of ttg gneisses produced in both the wutai and hengshan fuping ehf t of 1 8 to 7 5 along with calc alkaline volcanism in wutai possibly in response to the thickening through arc accretion and commencing the continental arc this proposed two step tectonic evolution model combined with a late neoarchean 2 6 2 5 ga intra oceanic arc system along the northwestern of the eastern block eb probably provides a better explanation for the fundamental geodynamic mechanism for continental arc development at the proterozoic dawn

metamorphic evolution and u pb geochronology of metapelite northeastern wutai complex implications for paleoproterozoic tectonic evolution of the trans north china orogen abstract the wutai complex lies in the middle part of the trans north china orogen mainly consisting of metamorphosed volcanic sedimentary rocks named as wutai group and late archean ttg gneisses garnet biotite schist from the northeastern part of the wutai group lower shizui subgroup mainly consists of garnet porphyroblast plus biotite staurolite kyanite sillimanite fibrolite plagioclase quartz as well as accessory minerals including ilmenite magnetite hematite apatite monazite and zircon petrographic observation and mineral chemistry indicate that these metapelites underwent the sequential prograde m1 peak m2 and retrograde m3 metamorphic stages geothermobarometry computation and phase equilibrium modelling show that the representative samples record clockwise p t paths passing from 3 7 kbar 570 630 c m1 through 9 10 kbar 615 660 c m2p to 6 9 kbar 655 680 c m2t and finally to a speculated exhumation stage m3 indicative of orogenic metamorphism srhimp and la icp ms u pb dating on inherited detrital zircons yielded three age peaks of 2 7 ga 2 5 ga and 2 1 ga the youngest 207pb 206pb age of 2064 21 ma of detrital zircon possibly constrains the maximum depositional age of the shizui subgroup sims and shrimp u pb dating of metamorphic monazite and zircon constrain the metamorphic age of the garnet bearing mica schist to be 1853 1823 ma combined with previous data the wutai complex was demonstrated to have been involved in a prolonged subduction collision process 1 97 1 82 ga between the western and eastern blocks in the paleoproterozoic

p t t paths and tectonic history of an early precambrian granulite facies terrane jining district south east inner mongolia china abstract the widespread khondalite series of south east inner mongolia consists largely of biotite sillimanite garnet gneiss and quartzo feldspathic gneiss with some marble and mafic granulite layers it has experienced two metamorphic events at c 2500 and 1900 2000 ma a pre peak stage of the first metamorphism at t 600 700 c and p 6 7 kbar is recognized by the relict amphibolite facies assemblage ky grt bt pl qtz and protected inclusions of biotite hornblende sodic plagioclase and quartz in garnet or orthopyroxene the peak stage with t c 800 50 c and p 8 10 kbar is characterized by the widespread granulite facies assemblages sil grt bt kfs pl qtz in gneiss and opx cpx pl hbl grt in granulite the p t t path suggests that the supracrustal sequence was buried in the lower crust by tectonic thickening during d1 d2 the beginning of the second metamorphism is characterized by further temperature rise to 700 c or more at lower pressure this stage is manifested by the appearance of cordierite after garnet fibrolite sil2 after biotite in gneiss and transformation of hbl1 into opx2 and cpx2 in granulite coronas of symplectitic opx2 pl2 surrounding grt1 and cpx1 in mafic granulite are interpreted as products of near isothermal decompression the p t t path may be related tectonically to waning extension of the crust by the end of the early proterozoic

trace element signature and u pb geochronology of eclogite facies zircon bergen arcs caledonides of w norway secondary ion mass spectrometry sims u pb and trace element data are reported for zircon to address the controversial geochronology of eclogite facies metamorphism in the lindas nappe bergen arcs caledonides of w norway caledonian eclogite facies overprint in the nappe was controlled by fracturing and introduction of fluid in the proterozoic sveconorwegian granulite facies meta anorthosite norite protolith zircon grains in one massive eclogite display a core rim structure sveconorwegian cores have trace element signatures identical with those of zircon in the granulite protolith i e 0 31 th u 0 89 heavy rare earth element hree enrichment and negative eu anomaly weakly zoned to euhedral oscillatory zoned caledonian rims are characterized by th u 0 13 low lree content minimum normalized abundance for pr or nd variable enrichment in hree and no eu anomaly a decrease of ree towards the outermost rim especially hree is documented this signature reflects co precipitation of zircon with garnet and clinozoisite in a feldspar absent assemblage and consequently links zircon to the eclogite facies overprint the rims provide a mean 206pb 238u crystallization age of 423 4 ma this age reflects eclogite forming reactions and fluid rock interaction this age indicates that eclogite facies overprint in the lindas nappe took place at the onset of the scandian silurian collision between laurentia and baltica

late paleoproterozoic charnockite suite within post collisional setting from the north china craton petrology geochemistry zircon u pb geochronology and lu hf isotopes abstract charnockites pyroxene bearing granitoids of magmatic origin in diverse tectonic settings and ranging in age from mesoarchean to cretaceous constitute important components of the continental crust here we report charnockites displaying both magnesian and ferroan compositions associated with gabbros from an amcg anorthosite mangerite charnockite granite suite in the north china craton the orthopyroxene in the magnesian charnockite is characterized by moderate x mg of 0 63 0 65 wo 1 2 en 62 63 fs 35 36 and low al 2 o 3 content of 0 59 0 71 wt the magnesian charnockites show medium to high k contents and high mg 47 69 similar to that of gabbros whereas the mg of the ferroan charnockites is low 6 28 the ferroan charnockites are alkali calcic to alkalic and weakly peralkaline to metaluminous whereas the magnesian charnockites are calcic to calc alkalic and metaluminous although magnesian charnockites are in general considered to have formed in subduction setting the medium to high k contents high mg values with a wide range and the highly negative ehf values of the zircons in these rocks 8 4 to 13 6 suggest inheritance of the arc signature from the melting of ancient arc related crustal material the ferroan charnockites show tholeiitic affinity and define a common differentiation trend with the gabbroic anorthosites and likely represent fractionated end members with or without crustal interaction in a post collisional rift setting we present u pb age data from zircon grains on seven samples including two ferroan charnockites three magnesian charnockites one gabbroic enclave in magnesian charnockite and one gabbroic anorthosite which show emplacement ages of 1748 8 6 4 ma 1747 1 9 5 ma 1756 4 7 3 ma 1756 7 9 2 ma 1731 17 ma 1731 6 8 2 ma and 1746 5 7 3 ma respectively the negative ehf values 1 2 to 13 6 of zircon grains from these rocks and the older crustal model ages ranging from mesoarchean to paleoproterozoic suggest that the magma sources of these rocks involved the melting of ancient crustal components the age data suggest that the magmatic suite was emplaced within a relatively short time interval between1 73 and 1 76 ga during late paleoproterozoic placing the rocks suite in a post collisional scenario following the amalgamation between the eastern and western blocks of the north china craton along the trans north china orogen at ca 1 85 1 80 ga

tectonic setting and significance of 2 3 2 1ga magmatic events in the trans north china orogen new constraints from the yanmenguan mafic ultramafic intrusion in the hengshan wutai fuping area abstract a detailed study of the 2 2 ga yanmenguan mafic ultramafic intrusion in the hengshan area is presented with the aim of clarifying the tectonic history of the trans north china orogen in the north china craton during the period 2 3 2 1 ga shrimp u pb dating of magmatic zircons from a gabbro indicates emplacement at 2193 ma the whole rock and mineral geochemistry of this intrusion are akin to alaskan type complexes and are typical of subduction related magmas the parental magma likely originated from the depleted mantle wedge above a subduction zone and experienced fractional crystallization of olivine and clinopyroxene the continental arc represented by the mafic ultramafic intrusions and contemporary granitic and volcanic rocks together with the luliang back arc basin constitute a marginal arc back arc basin system that evolved between 2 3 and 2 1 ga based on geochronological datasets and available data on magmatism metamorphism and structural deformation a comprehensive new tectonic model for the evolution of the tnco during the neoarchean to paleoproterozoic is constructed 1 2 5 ga intra oceanic arc back arc basin system and its accretion at the end of the neoarchean 2 a long hiatus in magmatism and tectonism between 2 5 and 2 3 ga 3 2 3 2 1 ga marginal arc back arc basin magmatism developed in the accreted hengshan wutai fuping arc terranes and the luliang terrane 4 2 1 ga collision resulting in closure of the 2 3 2 1 ga luliang back arc basin accretion of the luliang hengshan wutai fuping arc terranes and their attachment to the western block of the north china craton 5 the intrusion of 1970 1910 ma post collisional mafic dykes in an extensional event 6 final collision between the western and eastern blocks between 1 9 and 1 8 ga resulting in extensive magmatism tectonism and metamorphism and lastly 7 post 1 8 ga crustal extension

zircon geochronology and metamorphic evolution of mafic dykes in the hengshan complex of northern china evidence for late palaeoproterozoic extension and subsequent high pressure metamorphism in the north china craton abstract magmatic and metamorphic zircons have been dated from ductilely deformed gabbroic dykes defining a dyke swarm and signifying crustal extension in the northern part of the hengshan complex of the north china craton these dykes now occur as boudins and deformed sheets within migmatitic tonalitic trondhjemitic granodioritic and granitic gneisses and are conspicuous due to relics of high pressure granulite or even former eclogite facies garnet pyroxene bearing assemblages shrimp ages for magmatic zircons from two dykes reflect the time of dyke emplacement at 1915 ma whereas metamorphic zircons dated by both shrimp and evaporation techniques are consistently in the range 1848 1888 ma the youngest granitoid gneiss yet dated in the hengshan has an emplacement age of 1872 17 ma these results complement recent geochronological studies from the neighbouring wutai and fuping complexes to the se of the hengshan showing that a crustal extension event occurred in the late palaeoproterozoic this preceded a major high pressure collision type metamorphic event in the central part of the north china craton that occurred in the palaeoproterozoic and not in the late archaean as previously thought our data support recent suggestions that the north china craton experienced a major craton wide orogenic event in the late palaeoproterozoic after which it became cratonized and acted as a stable block

extreme crustal metamorphism during columbia supercontinent assembly evidence from north china craton abstract a vast supracrustal belt of khondalites granulite facies metapelites occur along the northern margin of the north china craton we report here for the first time spinel quartz equilibrium assemblage from these rocks in two textural settings 1 high zno up to 14 47 wt spinel with quartz as inclusions within garnet porphyroblasts defining pressure above 12 kbar and temperature of 900 c and 2 low zno down to 1 2 wt spinel in association with quartz in the matrix assemblage formed during peak ultrahigh temperature conditions ca 975 c and 9 kbar we present a unique case of decompression where the metamorphic conditions of the rocks traversed mostly through the spinel quartz extended stability field monazite grains in textural association with both types of spinel quartz textures were analysed for age determination and the data define two age peaks at 1927 11 ma and 1819 11 ma since the peak thermal regime of the khondalites was close to or exceeded the theoretical closure temperature of pb in monazite we infer the 1819 11 ma age as the timing of ultrahigh temperature event in this craton our data lend support to the idea of ca 1 9 1 8 ga e w collisional orogen at the northern margin of the north china craton we correlate the extreme crustal metamorphism with tectonics associated with the assembly of the north china craton within the columbia supercontinent

crystal chemical evaluation of garnet and omphacite microprobe analyses its bearing on the classification of eclogites abstract the reliability of 920 clinopyroxene and 804 garnet microprobe analyses performed from 1964 through 1984 has been evaluated on the basis of crystal chemical constraints resulting from the latest structural investigations accepted were 343 pyroxenes and 28 garnets which were increased to 444 and 287 respectively after relaxation of some of the initial rigorous constraints so as to meet the number suitable for statistical processing the graphical portray of the accepted data permits the detection of the chemical elements significant in discriminating these eclogite minerals in three groups related to the geological settings of the enclosing rocks and therefore to their p t conditions of formation and to their small variations in bulk chemistry the best discriminant plots were found to be the ca mg na al vi na fe 3 triangle for clinopyroxenes essentially the di jd acm triangle and the ca mg fe 2 triangle for garnets essentially the gross pyr alm triangle their updated versions are reported in addition the data suggest that the p t regime acting during subduction metamorphism was remarkably constant in space and in time they hint for a future possible division of common regional metamorphic eclogites into three isofacial groups provided that the statistics will be increased and additional geological information becomes available finally they point out that the peculiar crystal chemistry of the minerals in kimberlite xenoliths may require reconsideration of the constraints inferred from crustal occurrences

the petrology of two distinct granulite types in the hengshan mts china and tectonic implications abstract the archean to proterozoic hengshan complex north china craton comprises tonalitic and granodioritic gneisses with subordinate mafic lenses pegmatites and granites amphibolite facies assemblages predominate although granulite facies relics are widespread and greenschist facies retrogression occurs in km wide shear zones mafic lenses locally abundant occur as strongly deformed amphibolite hornblende plagioclase boudins or sheets in contrast to previously published models we find two series of mafic rocks with distinctly different granulite facies evolutions in the north of the complex relict high pressure mafic granulites are garnet clinopyroxene bearing rocks with a secondary development of orthopyroxene around both garnet kelyphites and clinopyroxene coronas south of the newly defined central e w trending zhujiafang shear zone numerous mafic boudins and less deformed dykes exhibit a macroscopically visible magmatic texture with coronitic growth of metamorphic garnet full of quartz inclusions between the magmatic plagioclase and pyroxene domains additional orthopyroxene after magmatic augite and sodic rims to magmatic plagioclase clearly indicate medium pressure granulite facies metamorphism these findings suggest tectonic juxtaposition in this area of three different structural levels of the same proterozoic imprinted crust high pressure granulite grade in the northern hengshan medium pressure granulite grade in the southern hengshan and amphibolite to greenschist facies grade in the wutaishan to the se

metamorphic p t paths of the zanhuang amphibolites and metapelites constraints on the tectonic evolution of the paleoproterozoic trans north china orogen garnet bearing metapelites and amphibolites are exposed in the south and middle parts of the zanhuang complex which is located in the central segment of the nearly ns striking trans north china orogen these rocks preserve three metamorphic mineral assemblages forming at the prograde peak and post peak decompression stages the prograde metamorphic stage m1 is represented by mineral inclusions within garnet porphyroblasts the peak metamorphic stage m2 is represented by garnet rims and matrix minerals whereas the retrograde stage m3 is represented by amphibole plagioclase symplectite rimming garnet porphyroblasts in the amphibolites and biotite plagioclase symplectite rimming garnet porphyroblasts in the metapelites all garnet porphyroblasts in the metapelites preserve prograde chemical zoning except for the ubiquitous quite narrow zones from the underwent post peak decompression it has been determined through thermobarometric computation that the metamorphic conditions are 650 710 c at 8 2 9 2 kbar for the m1 inclusion assemblages 810 c at 12 5 kbar for the metamorphic peak m2 matrix assemblages and 660 680 c at 4 4 4 5 kbar for the retrograde m3 symplectite assemblages these rocks are thus determined to have undergone metamorphism with clockwise p t paths involving nearly isothermal decompression itd segments which is inferred to be related to the amalgamation of the eastern and western blocks to form the coherent basement of the north china craton along the trans north china orogen in the late paleoproterozoic 1 88 1 85 ga

garnet zoning and the identification of equilibrium mineral compositions in high pressure temperature granulites from the moldanubian zone austria a detailed investigation of the compositional variation in garnet has been undertaken in a garnet pyroxene bearing granulite from the high grade gfohl unit moldanubian zone lower austria textural observations together with the interpretation of the preserved garnet chemistry enables the recognition of both prograde core and peak metamorphic garnet mantle growth stages an extremely rare feature in high p t granulite facies rocks initial thermobarometric calculations undertaken across whole garnet zoning profiles show how correct interpretation of a zoning profile is essential if the maximum peak metamorphic p t conditions are to be recovered the effect of retrograde decompression and cooling driven reactions on inclusion and host garnet compositions has also been assessed the results indicate that caution should be exercised when utilizing inclusion and adjacent garnet compositions for the thermobarometric evaluation of peak metamorphic equilibration conditions peak p t conditions were determined by the tweequ thermobarometric method utilizing the core compositions of matrix phases combined with the interpreted high p t garnet mantle composition to give 15 6 kbar and 1090 c consistent with previously determined results for moldanubian granulites similar high p t estimates are also provided by a re evaluation of previously published results for a granulite sample from the same lithological unit using a modified interpretation of garnet and plagioclase compositional data the new estimates presented confirm the previously disputed idea that the gfohl unit underwent a high pressure granulite facies stage and is therefore distinctly different from the underlying tectonostratigraphic units it is emphasized that any interpretation of the peak metamorphic conditions in high grade rocks must be based on detailed petrographic observations combined with a thorough understanding of the co existing equilibrium mineral compositions

rare earth element patterns in archean high grade metasediments and their tectonic significance abstract metasediments from two contrasting types of archean high grade terrains are interpreted as being derived from distinct tectonic settings the kapuskasing structural zone canada represents the deep roots of a typical greenstone belt whereas the limpopo province southern africa and western gneiss terrain australia mainly consist of shelf sediments deposited on a granitic basement and then buried to the depths required for granulite fades metamorphism upper amphibolite to granulite fades paragneisses from the kapuskasing structural zone have ree patterns similar to those of greenstone belt sediments except where partial melting has occurred forming restites with eu enrichment and melts with eu depletion except in this latter instance metamorphism has not affected the primary ree patterns ree patterns in archean upper amphibolite to granulite facies metasediments from the central limpopo province and western gneiss terrain show wide differences ranging from patterns which resemble those in post archean terrigenous sediments to typical archean sedimentary rock patterns the diversity in ree patterns for these shallow shelf metasediments is interpreted as resulting from derivation from local provenances samples with post archean patterns displaying eu depletion are interpreted as being derived from k rich granitic plutons which were portions of small stable early archean terrains precursors of the widespread late archean proterozoic episode of major cratonic development

calculation and application of clinopyroxene garnet plagioclase quartz geobarometers recently published thermodynamic and experimental data in a variety of chemical systems have been evaluated to derive gibbs free energies for hedenbergite and pyrope these were used to calculate the geobarometric equilibria

petrochemistry and sr pb and nd isotopic geochemistry of early precambrian rocks wutaishan and taihangshan areas china abstract in the wutaishan and taihangshan region china the lowermost high grade metamorphic complex of grey gneiss and amphibolite the fuping complex gives a 2 2 0 2 ga pb pb isochron age with a first stage growth 7 73 and a 2 37 0 07 ga sm nd isochron age with 143nd 144nd 0 0 50963 0 00005 or nd t 1 50 nd depleted mantle model dates tdm of amhibolites 2 48 to 2 60 ga those of gneisses are 2 43 to 2 46 ga the unconformably overlying medium to low grade metavolcanic complex the wutai complex gives a 2 0 0 1 ga rb sr isochron age with 87 86sr 0 0 7025 2 a 2 27 0 02 ga pb pb isochron date with afirst stage growth 7 73 and a 2 26 0 06 ga sm nd isochron first stage 143nd 144nd 0 0 5097 2 or nd t 1 08 individual sample nd depleted mantle model date are 2 5 ga metavolcanic samples from low grade metasedimentary rocks of the hutuo group all lie close to a 2 3 ga reference line on a rb sr isochron plot have nd tdm 2 32 2 34 and 2 62 ga from previous geological work published u pb zircon dating and ourisotopic and geochemical results we infer that the fuping rocks formed 2 6 ga ago in an environment like a modern island arc the wutai complex formed by 2 5 ga ago mostly formed in a tectonic setting similar to that of the fuping complex with the exception that one volcanic cycle formed in an environment like a modern mor and one unit formed in an environment transitional between modern within plate and plate margin settings the hutuo group formed 2 4 ga ago in a within plate tectonic environment there is no evidence for continental crust before 2 6 ga in the wutaishan and taihangshan region this contradicts previous assignment of the fuping complex to 2 8 ga ol older the fuping complex is not an early nucleus of the sino korean craton the new data also confirm that the wutai complex is older than its original assignment as early proterozoic the sm nd systems for metabasaltic rocks in the region either in amphibolite facies or in greenschist facies are all significantly disturbed in contrast with the undisturbed sm nd reported in previous studies of the sino korea craton this study provides further evidence that the archean igneous rocks in china formed at different times from heterogeneous and depleted mantle sources

geochronology mantle source composition and geodynamic constraints on the origin of neoarchean mafic dikes in the zanhuang complex central orogenic belt north china craton abstract mafic granulitic and amphibolitic boudins dispersed in archean felsic gneisses are widely distributed in the central orogenic belt cob and the eastern block of the north china craton ncc and are considered to constitute deformed mafic dike swarms previous studies have demonstrated that the mafic dikes in the zanhuang complex of the ncc intruded the fabrics of an archean melange belt and were boudinaged during younger deformation igneous zircons from an undeformed mafic dike yield a 207 pb 206 pb age of 2535 30 ma which is interpreted as the crystallization age in addition pegmatites cutting across the mafic dikes in the field also yield an igneous zircon 207 pb 206 pb age of 2504 16 ma providing strong evidence that the mafic dikes in the ncc intruded during the neoarchean metamorphic zircons from one deformed mafic dike sample yield a metamorphic 207 pb 206 pb age of 2090 83 ma and another four samples from deformed mafic dikes have a consistent metamorphic zircon age of ca 1850 ma indicating that the mafic dikes underwent at least two generations of paleoproterozoic metamorphism of ca 2 1 ga and ca 1 85 ga previously reported trace element systematics of the mafic dikes are consistent with an arc related lithospheric mantle source region rather than an ocean island basalt oib like source region the new whole rock nd isotopic composition nd t 0 71 to 3 70 is relatively more evolved compared to that of the depleted mantle at 2 5 ga indicating an enriched lithospheric mantle source accordingly the mafic dikes are proposed to have been formed in a subduction related environment and their enriched mantle source was metasomatized by the melts and fluids derived from the subducted slab based on previous studies of the ncc and new geochronological and isotopic data in this contribution a new comprehensive tectonic model is proposed for the evolution of the ncc between 2 7 ga and 1 85 ga 1 from 2 7 to 2 5 ga an oceanic arc terrane belt developed in what is now the cob of the ncc while a passive margin sequence was deposited on the western edge of the eastern block on the margin of the intervening ocean 2 the oceanic arc terrane collided with the passive margin sequence at 2 5 ga above a west dipping subduction zone 3 the subduction polarity was reversed at ca 2 5 ga and a new east dipping subduction zone gave rise to the intrusion of the 2 5 ga mafic dikes of the ncc 4 the final collision between the western block and the eastern block occurred at ca 2 1 ga 5 the whole ncc then collided with the columbia supercontinent along the north margin of the craton at 1 9 1 8 ga

2 7ga juvenile crust formation in the north china craton taishan xintai area western shandong province further evidence of an understated event from u pb dating and hf isotopic composition of zircon abstract the evolution of the north china craton ncc is well known for a marked 2 55 2 50 ga tectonothermal event however supracrustal and intrusive rocks of 2 75 2 70 ga are in fact widely distributed in the western shandong province the most important area of archaean basement in the eastern part of the ncc this paper reports shrimp u pb dating and la icpms hf isotopic composition of zircons from 2 75 2 70 ga supracrustal and trondhjemite tonalite granodiorite ttg rocks in that area three fine grained hornblende biotite gneiss samples known locally as leptynite with meta volcanic or volcanosedimentary rock protoliths and five ttg samples have shrimp zircon u pb ages varying from 2 75 to 2 70 ga and 2 74 to 2 71 ga respectively zircons from most of the samples have high positive hf t values 4 7 to 10 0 and t dm hf ages 2 85 2 60 ga similar to their zircon u pb ages this indicates that the rocks represent largely juvenile crustal additions derived from depleted mantle only a short time before however some granitoids show hf t zircon values of 13 6 to 5 1 and t dm hf of 3 51 2 80 ga therefore the strong 2 75 2 70 ga tectonothermal event in the western shandong province involved not only juvenile addition to the continental crust but also intracrustal recycling of older components combined with craton wide data it is shown that the ncc is similar to many other cratons around the world where tectonothermal events of 2 7 ga are well developed however the main difference is that in the ncc superimposed 2 5 ga tectonothermal events were much stronger than in most other cratons

granitoid evolution in the late archean wutai complex north china craton abstract two temporally discrete episodes of granite magmatism have been identified in the wutai complex of the north china craton based on shrimp u pb zircon dating of all major granitoid bodies in the area the older period is latest archean and ranges in age from 2560 to 2515 ma whereas the younger episode is paleoproterozoic with magmatism at 2170 and 2120 ma archean magmatism can be further separated into two pulses based on geochemistry and the association of the younger plutons with extensive coeval volcanic activity in the wutai complex the early phase of archean activity is represented by the lanzhishan ekou and portions of the chechang betai granites with ages ranging from 2560 to 2540 ma the lanzhishan granite is the only one at wutaishan that contains inherited zircon with a number of cores and individual grains giving ages in excess of 2700 ma these are relatively evolved granitoids interpreted to be derived from older basement of the eastern block of the north china craton the shifo guangmingshi the main grey phase of the wangjiahui granite and the major components of the chechang betai granite have ages of 2540 2515 ma and are coeval with felsic volcanism in the wutai complex which is a consequence of subduction and related arc magmatism the dawaliang granite and pink phase of the wangjiahui granite are considerably younger with paleoproterozoic ages of 2170 and 2120 ma respectively these are also evolved granitoids most likely derived by partial melting of the older basement although we have found no evidence of inheritance the petrogenesis of the granitoids reflects the precambrian amalgamation history of the north china craton indicating derivation along the western edge of the eastern block during development and amalgamation of the wutai arc and prior to collision with the western block of the craton 1 8 ga ago

the shoreline displacement curve of rugen island southern baltic sea abstract rugen island is situated in north east germany at the southern baltic sea coast geological stratigraphical and palaeoecological evidence collected from the schaabe spit in northeast rugen include 167 cores and 46 radiocarbon dates leading to a local shoreline displacement curve which is compared and discussed with morner s eustatic curve of northwest europe and tooley s shoreline displacement curve of northwest england corresponding to these curves the holocene sea level rise occurred in phases on rugen island the undulations found fit temporally well there is a close correlation between the shoreline displacement curves of the lytham area in northwest england and rugen island during the boreal and the atlanticum compared with morner s eustatic curve rugen island was uplifted between about 7000 bp and 5000 bp in a range of 6 m since that time stable conditions or slightly subsidence are presumed on rugen island

depositional age and provenance of the wutai group evidence from zircon u pb and lu hf isotopes and whole rock geochemistry abstract the hengshan wutai fuping area is situated in the middle segment of the trans north china orogen and consists of the upper amphibolite to granulite facies hengshan and fuping complexes and the intervening greenschist to lower amphibolite facies wutai complex the wutai complex is composed of neoarchean to paleoproterozoic granitoids and low grade metamorphosed supracrustal rocks of which the latter are further divided into the wutai and hutuo groups geochemistry of the meta sedimentary samples from the wutai group indicates weak to moderate source weathering dominantly compositional variation trend and major felsic with few mafic source rocks on the tectonic discrimination plots most of the samples display continental island arc and active continental margin features u pb ages of detrital and xenocrystic zircons from the wutai group yield two major age populations of 2565 2465 ma and 2729 2676 ma and a subordinate age population of 2372 2331 ma the major 2522 ma and 2699 ma zircons were most likely derived from the wutai meta volcanic rocks the minor 2348 ma zircons are only found from the upper gaofan subgroup and most likely sourced from the 2360 2330 ma orthogneisses in the hengshan complex the maximum depositional ages of 2535 2516 ma from the meta sedimentary rocks are consistent with the eruption ages of 2548 2513 ma from meta volcanic rocks in the lower shizui and middle taihuai subgroups indicating coeval sedimentation and volcanism in a fore arc or intra arc basin this favors a tectonically juxtaposed contact rather than a layer cake model however the maximum depositional age of 2348 ma and the 2176 2161 ma felsic intrusions suggest a much younger formation age for the gaofan subgroup

hf isotopic compositions of the standard zircons and baddeleyites used in u pb geochronology abstract zircon and baddeleyite u pb geochronological dating is widely used in solid earth sciences and the advent of rapid in situ methods of analysis such sims and icp ms has re emphasized the importance of having uniform standards recently it has been shown that hf isotopic data can provide important information on these minerals since they contain high concentrations of hf but have low lu hf ratios which results in negligible age correction however the complex internal structures that result from multiple thermal events such as inherited cores and metamorphic overgrowths require that the hf isotopic data be measured with high spatial resolution however the isobaric interferences of 176 yb and 176 lu on 176 hf hamper the precise determination of the 176 hf 177 hf ratio during in situ laser ablation mc icpms analysis it is shown here that mass biases of yb yb and hf hf change with time during analyses and behave differently for solutions and solid material therefore it is suggested that the mean yb value of the individual spot be used to obtain the precise isotopic composition for in situ zircon and baddeleyite hf isotopic analyses for low yb hf 176 yb 177 hf yb value have little effect on the accuracy of the hf isotopic composition however the appropriate yb isotopic abundance is necessary for high yb hf 176 yb 177 hf 0 001 zircons and baddeleyites since the interference of 176 yb on 176 hf is significant using the mean yb value of the individual spot and newly published yb isotopic abundance data six standard zircons and two standard baddeleyites have been investigated using a neptune mc icpms with 193 nm laser for zircons the obtained 176 hf 177 hf ratios are 0 282307 31 2sd for 91500 0 282680 31 2sd for temora 0 281729 21 2sd for cz3 282177 17 2sd for cn92 1 0 282983 17 2sd for fm0411 and 281234 11 2sd for phalaborwa the baddeleyites from phalaborwa and sk10 2 have 176 hf 177 hf ratios of 0 281238 12 and 0 282738 13 2sd these results agree well with the values obtained by the solution method and indicate that these standards have different hf isotopic compositions in which the extremely low 176 lu 177 hf and 176 yb 177 hf values of cz3 zircon and phalaborwa baddeleyite make them excellent standards for machine calibration during in situ zircon hf isotopic measurement with the other standards being more suitable for the development of the correction method

nd isotope and geochemical constraints on the depositional setting of paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks along the margin of the archean hearne craton saskatchewan canada abstract the cree lake zone in the southwestern part of the hearne craton reworked during the paleoproterozoic trans hudson orogeny includes the wollaston group a sequence of paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks as these rocks have been multiply deformed and metamorphosed to high grade a geochemical and isotopic study was initiated to see through the overprinting events to better constrain the provenance and evolution of the wollaston group the wollaston group consists of thick sedimentary successions representing different depositional and tectonic environments that can be subdivided into two subgroups the lower subgroup is represented by deep water turbidite to shallow water marine deposits the upper subgroup separated from the lower one by a regional unconformity comprises molasse type assemblages ranging from talus to shallow marine lacustrine with subordinate volcanogenic rocks major and trace element data obtained from 31 psammopelitic rocks indicate that the clastic material was derived from sources consisting of both felsic and mafic material although felsic sources are more important in the samples from the lower subgroup sedimentary tectonic discrimination diagrams demonstrate that most of the wollaston group was deposited on an active continental margin rather than a passive margin the e nd values for the wollaston group psammopelites calculated at 1 92 ga the approximate age of the boundary between the lower and upper subgroups vary from 3 4 to 6 8 which yields an approximate 70 30 mixture between juvenile paleoproterozoic detritus and archean detritus from the hearne craton a secondary source of detritus may be 1 95 2 0 ga rocks of the taltson orogen which is exposed to the west of the archean rae hearne craton the wollaston group records the complete evolution of the western margin of the trans hudson orogen during the paleoproterozoic the rifting of an archean continent at ca 2 1 ga led to the deposition of the passive margin siliciclastic sediments comprising the lowermost but poorly preserved part of wollaston group the formation of a continental arc rottenstone along the hearne margin at ca 1 92 ga resulted in a change in tectonic environment from a passive margin to a back arc basin and detritus in most of the lower subgroup was then derived from both basement and newly formed magmatic arc collision with the juvenile la ronge arc led to uplift along the hearne margin which transformed the back arc basin into a retroarc foreland basin at ca 1 88 ga sedimentary starvation and shallowing of the basin led to widespread accumulation of carbonate and evaporite deposits in the west whereas rapidly uplifted orogenic belts in the east provided sources of coarse grained clastic detritus forming the wollaston upper subgroup closure and inversion of the sedimentary basin occurred by ca 1 86 ga coincident with the emplacement of mafic to felsic intrusive rocks in the cree lake zone and the emplacement of the voluminous ca 1860 ma andean type wathaman batholith into the continental margin closure was manifested by the onset of foreland directed thrusting of the wollaston group

polyphase deformation of the fuping complex trans north china orogen structures shrimp u pb zircon ages and tectonic implications abstract the fuping complex is located in the central part of the trans north china orogen tnco a paleoproterozoic collisional belt along which the eastern and western blocks were assembled to form the north china craton three stages of deformation d 1 d 3 have been identified in the fuping complex d 1 formed tight to isoclinal folds f 1 penetrative foliation s 1 and mineral lineation l 1 which resulted from the early nw se orientated thrusting and shearing d 2 progressively overprinted d 1 and was dominated by mostly nw se shortening and top to the se e thrusting under a compressive environment d 1 and d 2 occurred in association with the peak metamorphism m 1 d 3 occurred during the exhumation after the crustal thickening producing regional scale nww see trending open folds f 3 and associated low angle detachment faults and was responsible for the isothermal decompression m 2 metamorphism of the complex following the d 3 deformation the complex was exhumed to shallow crustal levels where the rocks underwent the retrogressive cooling m 3 metamorphism syn tectonic leucocratic dykes are widespread in the fuping complex two leucocratic dykes that did not experience d 1 but underwent d 2 yield shrimp zircon ages of 1843 12 ma and 1844 18 ma which indicate that d 1 must have occurred at some time earlier than 1844 ma whereas d 2 must have occurred at some time later than this age two weakly deformed post d 2 leucocratic dykes yield shrimp zircon ages of 1817 14 ma and 1815 45 ma suggesting that the d 2 deformation occurred in the period 1843 1815 ma the new shrimp data indicate that the collision related deformation of the fuping complex must have occurred in the paleoproterozoic not in the late archean structural and geochronological data presented in this study in association with previous lithological and geochemical data suggest that the fuping complex may have been located in the hinterland of an eastward subduction zone and underwent intensive deformation and metamorphism involved in the final collision between the western and eastern blocks at 1 85 ga

continental interiors and cratons any relation abstract continental interior was originally defined as a geographic concept on the example of central asia later james dwight dana used it in a geological context when he argued that north america was an ideal continent with a low old stable interior and higher younger more active periphery this picture was thought satisfactory from the viewpoint of fixist tectonics for more than a century although it was clear that it did not account for the structure of eurasia neither in asia nor in europe cratons and or areas of gentle deformation outside orogenic belts coincide with the continental interior mobilist tectonics and especially its plate tectonics version made clear that in a world where continents are constantly united and re dispersed such non coincidence with continental interior however it may be defined is exactly what one would expect if however after isolation by rifting and or transform fault displacement no plate boundary cuts across a continent the lithosphere beneath it would cool and thicken if this lithosphere is also made up of high mg mg fe residual material left after making basalt it would be lighter than pristine mantle lithosphere such lithosphere would be resistant to subduction and to deformation it would thus protect the portion of the continent overlying it giving rise to a craton cratonic keels of 300 km or deeper can be generated by shortening a depleted mantle cushion that normally reaches down to some 150 km by 50 in the archaean high geothermal gradients would eclogitise the mafic bottom of a continent more mafic than those that are younger and prevent its upper surface from rising during such a shortening this would keep the tops of archaean cratons unmetamorphic or at low grades if a continent with such a deep keel is left alone for a time period on the order of 1 ga continuous cooling will render it very strong only very large strike slip systems can remain active as plate boundaries for a long time within a continental interior therefore if a continental interior can be kept away from such a boundary for about 1 ga it inevitably will turn into a craton with low relief probably a high percentage areawise of internal drainage and high climatic continentality late palaeozoic gondwana land was one such region pre miocene africa was perhaps another with many features inherited from gondwana land if india stops pushing it is likely that central asia will turn into yet another one plume controlled active rifting is the only way to destroy such a consolidated continental interior it is thus the composition and the thermal state plus the state of stress of the lithosphere underlying a continent that determines its tectonic behaviour and not its crustal structure nor its geography craton formation is largely a lithospheric process not a crustal one by the very nature of the process of craton formation cratons commonly but not always originate within continental interiors but continental interior alone can be assigned no tectonic connotation whatever