major types and time space distribution of mesozoic ore deposits in south china and their geodynamic settings the ore deposits of the mesozoic age in south china can be divided into three groups each with different metal associations and spatial distributions and each related to major magmatic events the first event occurred in the late triassic 230 210 ma the second in the mid late jurassic 170 150 ma and the third in the early mid cretaceous 120 80 ma the late triassic magmatic event and associated mineralization is characterized by peraluminous granite related w sn nb ta mineral deposits the triassic ore deposits are considerably disturbed or overprinted by the later jurassic and cretaceous tectono thermal episodes the mid late jurassic magmatic and mineralization events consist of 170 160 ma porphyry skarn cu and pb zn ag vein deposits associated with i type granites and 160 150 ma metaluminous granite related polymetallic w sn deposits the late jurassic metaluminous granite related w sn deposits occur in a ne trending cluster in the interior of south china such as in the nanling area in the early mid cretaceous from about 120 to 80 ma but peaking at 100 90 ma subvolcanic related fe deposits developed and i type calc alkaline granitic intrusions formed porphyry cu mo and porphyry epithermal cu au ag mineral systems whereas s type peraluminous and or metaluminous granitic intrusions formed polymetallic sn deposits these cretaceous mineral deposits cluster in distinct areas and are controlled by pull apart basins along the south china continental margin based on mineral assemblage age and space time distribution of these mineral systems integrated with regional geological data and field observations we suggest that the three magmatic mineralization episodes are the result of distinct geodynamic regimes the triassic peraluminous granites and associated w sn nb ta mineralization formed during post collisional processes involving the south china block the north china craton and the indo china block mostly along the dabie sulu and songma sutures jurassic events were initially related to the shallow oblique subduction of the izanagi plate beneath the eurasian continent at about 175 ma but i type granitoids with porphyry cu and vein type pb zn ag deposits only began to form as a result of the breakup of the subducted plate at 170 160 ma along the nne trending qinzhou hangzhou belt also referred to as qin hang or shi hang belt which is the neoproterozoic suture that amalgamates the yangtze craton and cathaysia block a large subduction slab window is assumed to have formed in the nanling and adjacent areas in the interior of south china triggering the uprise of asthenospheric mantle into the upper crust and leading to the emplacement of metaluminous granitic magma and associated polymetallic w sn mineralization a relatively tectonically quiet period followed between 150 and 135 ma in south china from 135 ma onward the angle of convergence of the izanagi plate changed from oblique to parallel to the coastline resulting in continental extensional tectonics and reactivation of regional scale ne trending faults such as the tan lu fault this widespread extension also promoted the development of ne trending pull apart basins and metamorphic core complexes accompanied by volcanism and the formation of epithermal cu au deposits granite related polymetallic sn w deposits and hydrothermal u deposits between 120 and 80 ma with a peak activity at 100 90 ma

a late cretaceous tin metallogenic event in nanling w sn metallogenic province constraints from u pb ar ar geochronology at the jiepailing sn be f deposit hunan china abstract the jiepailing deposit located in southern hunan province china is a giant sn be f deposit in the nanling w sn province the sn be f mineralization is spatially associated with the jiepailing granite porphyry la mc icp ms zircon u pb dating of the jiepailing granite porphyry yielded a weighted mean 206 pb 238 u age of 90 5 0 9 ma mswd 0 32 which is interpreted as the emplacement age of the granite porphyry hydrothermal muscovite yields a plateau 40 ar 39 ar age of 92 1 0 7 ma mswd 0 9 which is well consistent with the zircon u pb age of the jiepailing granite porphyry responsible for the sn be f mineralization indicating a temporal link between the emplacement of the jiepailing granite porphyry and the sn be f mineralization our new high precise geochronological data suggest that the jiepailing giant sn be f deposit and related granite formed during the early late cretaceous 92 90 ma which provided convincing evidence for a previously unrecognized metallogenic event related to late cretaceous granitic magmatism in nanling region the occurrence of the late cretaceous sn metallogenic event identified in southern hunan province further highlights the importance of systematic metallogenic studies of the nanling w sn province integrated with high precise geochronological data obtained previously it is suggested that the nanling region mainly experienced three tectonomagmatic activities and lithospheric thinning events during mesozoic which are responsible for three sn w metallogenic events to form the world class nanling w sn metallogenic province

molybdenite re os and muscovite 40 ar 39 ar dating of quartz vein type w sn polymetallic deposits in northern guangdong south china northern guangdong is an important part of nanling tungsten tin metallogenic belt south china the tungsten mineralization in this area consists of mainly quartz wolframite vein type mineralization with w sn polymetallic deposits mostly distributed at the outer contact zone between concealed late jurassic granitic stocks and cambrian ordovician low metamorphosed sandstones and shales molybdenite re os and muscovite 40ar 39ar isotopic dating of three typical tungsten vein type deposits yaoling meiziwo and jubankeng in northern guangdong show that two episodes of late jurassic w sn polymetallic mineralization occurred in this area an early episode during the late jurassic 158 159 ma represented by the yaoling hongling and meiziwo tungsten deposits and a younger event during the early cretaceous 138 ma represented by the jubankeng deposit analysis of available radiometric ages of several w sn deposits in the nanling region indicate that these deposits formed at several intervals during the mesozoic at 90 100 134 140 144 162 and 210 235 ma and that large scale w sn mineralization in this region occurred mainly between 150 and 160 ma

surface wave tomography of the western united states from ambient seismic noise rayleigh and love wave phase velocity maps summary we present the results of rayleigh wave and love wave phase velocity tomography in the western united states using ambient seismic noise observed at over 250 broad band stations from the earthscope usarray transportable array and regional networks all available threecomponent time series for the 12 month span between 2005 november 1 and 2006 october 31 have been cross correlated to yield estimated empirical rayleigh and love wave green s functions the love wave signals were observed with higher average signal to noise ratio snr than rayleigh wave signals and hence cannot be fully explained by the scattering of rayleigh waves phase velocity dispersion curves for both rayleigh and love waves between 5 and 40 speriod were measured for each interstation path by applying frequency time analysis the average uncertainty and systematic bias of the measurements are estimated using a method based on analysing thousands of nearly linearly aligned station triplets we find that empirical green s functions can be estimated accurately from the negative time derivative of the symmetric component ambient noise cross correlation without explicit knowledge of the source distribution the average traveltime uncertainty is less than 1 s at periods shorter than 24 s we present rayleigh and love wave phase speed maps at periods of 8 12 16 and 20 s the maps show clear correlations with major geological structures and qualitative agreement with previous results based on rayleigh wave group speeds

tectonic evolution of a composite collision orogen an overview on the qinling tongbai hong an dabie sulu orogenic belt in central china abstract the formation of collisional orogens is a prominent feature in convergent plate margins it is generally a complex process involving multistage tectonism of compression and extension due to continental subduction and collision the paleozoic convergence between the south china block scb and the north china block ncb is associated with a series of tectonic processes such as oceanic subduction terrane accretion and continental collision resulting in the qinling tongbai hong an dabie sulu orogenic belt while the arc continent collision orogeny is significant during the paleozoic in the qinling tongbai hong an orogens of central china the continent continent collision orogeny is prominent during the early mesozoic in the dabie sulu orogens of east central china this article presents an overview of regional geology geochronology and geochemistry for the composite orogenic belt the qinling tongbai hong an orogens exhibit the early paleozoic hp uhp metamorphism the carboniferous hp metamorphism and the paleozoic arc type magmatism but the three tectonothermal events are absent in the dabie sulu orogens the triassic uhp metamorphism is prominent in the dabie sulu orogens but it is absent in the qinling tongbai orogens the hong an orogen records both the hp and uhp metamorphism of triassic age and collided continental margins contain both the juvenile and ancient crustal rocks so do in the qinling and tongbai orogens in contrast only ancient crustal rocks were involved in the uhp metamorphism in the dabie sulu orogenic belt without involvement of the juvenile arc crust on the other hand the deformed and low grade metamorphosed accretionary wedge was developed on the passive continental margin during subduction in the late permian to early triassic along the northern margin of the dabie sulu orogenic belt and it was developed on the passive oceanic margin during subduction in the early paleozoic along the northern margin of the qinling orogen three episodes of arc continent collision are suggested to occur during the paleozoic continental convergence between the scb and ncb the first episode of arc continent collision is caused by northward subduction of the north qinling unit beneath the erlangping unit resulting in uhp metamorphism at ca 480 490 ma and the accretion of the north qinling unit to the ncb the second episode of arc continent collision is caused by northward subduction of the prototethyan oceanic crust beneath an andes type continental arc leading to granulite facies metamorphism at ca 420 430 ma and the accretion of the shangdan arc terrane to the ncb and reworking of the north qinling erlangping and kuanping units the third episode of arc continent collision is caused by northward subduction of the paleotethyan oceanic crust resulting in the hp eclogite facies metamorphism at ca 310 ma in the hong an orogen and low p metamorphism in the qinling tongbai orogens as well as crustal accretion to the ncb the closure of backarc basins is also associated with the arc continent collision processes with the possible cause for granulite facies metamorphism the massive continental subduction of the scb beneath the ncb took place in the triassic with the final continent continent collision and uhp metamorphism at ca 225 240 ma therefore the qinling tongbai hong an dabie sulu orogenic belt records the development of plate tectonics from oceanic subduction and arc type magmatism to arc continent and continent continent collision

laboratory investigation of nonlinear flow characteristics in rough fractures during shear process abstract to understand the influence of shear behavior on the transporting properties of fluid through a single fracture splitting fractures were made in the laboratory and shear flow tests were carried out under constant normal load conditions the applied normal stress is in the range of 0 5 3 0 mpa before the physical test the fracture s morphology is measured for identification of the roughness at each shear step we performed 5 8 high precise hydraulic tests with different hydraulic gradient the relationship between pressure gradient and volume flow rate demonstrates to be nonlinear and fits very well with forchheimer s and izbash s laws the linear and nonlinear coefficients in forchheimer s law are quite sensitive to shear deformation closure or dilation experienced 1 2 and 1 3 orders of magnitude reduction during shear respectively an empirical equation is proposed to quantify the relationship between linear coefficient and nonlinear coefficient based on the experimental observations the two coefficients in izbash s law are quantified the m value is in the range between 1 06 and 1 41 and the value experiences a reduction of 1 2 orders of magnitude during shear in addition the studied critical reynolds number exhibits a decreasing and increasing variation corresponding to shear contraction and shear dilation of rock fracture for all the cases in this study the critical reynolds number ranges between 1 5 and 13 0

geological and geochronological constraints on the formation of the jurassic maozaishan sn deposit dayishan orefield south china abstract the dayishan orefield in the central nanling belt is one of the most important sn districts in south china within this district there are more than seven medium to large sn sn cu and pb zn sn deposits the mineralization is associated with altered granites and greisen quartz veins both of which occur in the inner part of the dayishan granite batholith cassiterite is the principal ore mineral accompanied by subordinate molybdenite cassiterite separates from altered and mineralized granite and greisen quartz veins have concordia ages of 156 5 2 8 ma mswd 3 1 and 158 0 1 8 ma mswd 1 4 respectively molybdenite separates from molybdenite quartz veins that crosscut the greisen alteration have a re os isochron age of 157 9 7 7 ma mswd 26 whereas zircon separates from the porphyry monzogranite have a u pb age of 156 3 1 2 ma these ages are identical within the analytical error and together with the field relationships provide tight constraints on the sn mineralization at around 156 ma rhenium contents of the molybdenite suggests that the ore forming materials were derived from a crustal source whereas s and pb isotopic data point to mixed sources we suggest that the maozaishan deposit was formed by intrusion of the related pluton and occurred in the late jurassic during a period of lithospheric thinning and crustal extension of the south china block

regional metallogeny of tungsten tin polymetallic deposits in nanling region south china abstract the nanling region gains its reputation for abundant mineral resources especially w sn sb bi pb zn li be ta nb and ion adsorption ree within weathering crust as well as uranium these dominant mineral resources are mainly formed in the yanshanian period with intimate genetic relationship to yanshanian granitoids spatially tungsten and tin deposits separately occurred in the eastern and western parts of nanling region respectively the complicated genetic relationships between tungsten tin polymetallic deposits and nanling granitoids demonstrate a regularity for mineralization we named this metallogenic specialization reflected in the aspects of specialized metallogenic compositions age spatiality alteration and its geological background the metallogenic specialization regional metallogeny is important to discover mineralization lay the foundation a new exploration model named five levels basement was proposed in this paper now it became a prospecting guidance in nanling region recently the ongoing prospecting of large tungsten deposits in nanling and its adjacent region using this model indicates a northward expanding for tungsten deposits in the south part of study area and westward expanding for that in the eastern part in practice the model also can be used in deep prospecting e g deep seated bedded or bed like orebodies as well as not limited to tungsten deposits other mineral deposits

precise sm nd and u pb isotopic dating of the supergiant shizhuyuan polymetallic deposit and its host granite se china the supergiant shizhuyuan w sn bi mo deposit is hosted by the qianlishan granite a small highly fractionated granitic pluton 10 km 2 with multiple phases of intrusions within the early yanshanian granitoid province of se china strong alteration of skarn and greisen that formed in the contact zone between the first and second phases of granite intrusions and devonian limestone is responsible for the polymetallic mineralizations shrimp u pb zircon analysis indicates that the two early phases of the qianlishan granite formed contemporaneously at 152 2 ma metasomatic minerals garnet fluorite and wolframite separated from the skarn and greisen yield a sm nd isochron age of 149 2 ma that is interpreted as the formation age of the shizhuyuan deposit therefore the mineralization of the supergiant shizhuyuan polymetallic deposit formed contemporaneously with or very shortly after the intrusion of the small highly fractionated qianlishan granite

age and genesis of the w bi cu f au nui phao deposit northeast vietnam constrains from u pb and ar ar geochronology fluid inclusions study s o isotope systematic and scheelite geochemistry abstract northeast vietnam comprises several tectonic units which host number of metallic deposits of different types from orogenic gold to intrusion hosted pge deposits the lo gam domain being part of the ne vietnam hosts the lang vai gold district a several pb zn deposits and the recently discovered super large w bi cu f au nui phao deposit the nui phao deposit is 87 9 mt at 0 19 wo3 7 95 caf2 0 18 cu 0 19 g t au and 0 09 bi while the measured resource is 25 1 mt at 0 25 wo3 8 4 caf2 0 23 cu 0 26 g t au and 0 108 bi the nui phao deposit is a very interesting object for research due to location of the orebodies between of two granite massifs of the cretaceous da lien and triassic nui phao age consequently the temporal and genetic relationships of mineralization with a certain magmatic events are unclear here we present mineralogical compositional and geochronological data of the nui phao deposit in conjunction with physical chemical researches to understand the ore genesis and its genetic link to a certain magmatic events according to our observations at least three different mineral associations are distinguished at the nui phao deposit which include greisens skarns and quartz sulfide ore skarn and sulfide ore mineral assemblages generally contain abundant scheelite associated with pyrrhotite chalcopyrite and native bismuth the greisens consist of fluorite muscovite and rare molybdenite the results of fluid inclusions study indicate that at the nui phao deposit the initial ore forming fluid was represented by the reduced co2 ch4 h2o nacl cacl2 system characterized by high temperatures and moderate salinities the fluid boiling is the dominant mechanism for ore deposition at the nui phao deposit relatively homogeneous isotopic compositions of oxygen 18oh2o 6 73 to 9 24 and sulfur 34s 1 6 to 3 5 that closely correspond to magmatic source suggest that the ore forming fluid was generated from cooling granite pluton without contribution meteoric water the systematic studies of scheelite composition show that ree contents decrease from early to late scheelite generations which suggest gradual ree depletion of the ore forming fluid without significant fractionation between lree mree and hree the rees of scheelite are mainly controlled by the substitution mechanisms ca2 w6 ree3 nb5 and 3ca2 2ree3 ca by combining ree features y ho ratios and other characteristics of the nui phao deposit we propose a single magmatic source for hydrothermal ore firming fluids without fluid mixing a significantly contribution of material during fluid rock interaction is also unlikely the combination of mineralogical and geochemical features as well as complex studies of the formation conditions allowed us to conclude that gold at the nui phao deposit occur as impurities in the native bismuth the ages of the da lien and nui phao granite massifs and the nui phao deposit have been estimated to be ca 84 ma ar ar 244 ma u pb and ca 85 ma ar ar respectively indicating a genetic relationship between the mineralization and the cretaceous magmatic event

silurian s type granite related w mo mineralization in the nanling range south china a case study of the pingtan w mo deposit abstract the pingtan deposit in southwestern hunan province is a newly discovered large sized w mo deposit this deposit is situated in the northwestern part of the miao ershan granite batholith western nanling range the tungsten mineralization is mainly hosted in biotite monzogranite and the alteration related to mineralization is controlled by a ne trending fault zone in this paper we present new molybdenite re os and zircon u pb ages zircon lu hf isotope and ree geochemical data aiming to constrain the w mo mineralization age and ore hosting granite petrogenesis in the pingtan w mo deposit molybdenite re os dating of eight ore samples yielded a weighted average model age of 427 0 5 4 ma mswd 0 24 the la icp ms zircon u pb analysis of two biotite monzogranite yielded 206pb 238u ages of 430 8 2 4 ma and 431 0 1 8 ma respectively suggesting that the w mo mineralization is spatial temporally associated with the biotite monzogranite the ore related granites have high contents of sio2 and k2o belong to weakly to strongly peraluminous a cnk 1 00 1 30 and geochemically classified as s type affinity molybdenite re contents 2 262 7 297 g g zircon ehf t 10 34 5 87 and 176hf 177hf 0 282241 0 282376 values of the biotite monzogranite suggest that the ore forming materials are predominantly derived from the crust this is the first identification of tungsten mineralization related to silurian s type granites caledonian granites in the miao ershan granite intrusion indicating caledonian is an important mineralization period of w in the western part of nanling range south china

in situ la mc icp ms and id tims u pb geochronology of cassiterite in the giant furong tin deposit hunan province south china new constraints on the timing of tin polymetallic mineralization abstract the furong deposit located in southern hunan province china is a newly discovered giant tin deposit spatially associated with the a type qitianling granite the petrogenetic link between the giant furong tin deposit and the qitianling granite batholith remains controversial because of the lack of precise dating for the tin polymetallic mineralization here we report for the first time in situ u pb data on cassiterite obtained by la mc icp ms and the results are compared to id tims data the in situ la mc icp ms analyses of the cassiterites provide a reliable age constraint for tin polymetallic mineralization in the furong deposit yielding an isochron age of 159 9 1 9 ma at 95 confidence level mswd 18 which is indistinguishable from the id tims 206 pb 238 u weighted mean age of 158 2 0 4 ma the in situ u pb ages corroborate the ar ar dates published for the furong tin deposit which indicate that the mineralization is coeval with the emplacement of the qitianling granite batholith these results provide further evidence of a close temporal link between the pluton s emplacement and tin mineralization in the furong area the data obtained clearly demonstrate that in situ la mc icp ms u pb dating of cassiterite is a robust geochronometer for direct dating of tin polymetallic mineralization

exhumation of the ultrahigh pressure continental crust in east central china cretaceous and cenozoic unroofing and the tan lu fault the orogenic architecture of the world s largest ultrahigh pressure exposure the hong an dabie mountains of the triassic qinling dabie orogenic belt is dominated by cretaceous and cenozoic structures that contributed to its exhumation from 30 km depth cretaceous magmatic crustal recycling 50 for the entire dabie and heating 250 to 700 c were most prominent in dabie and exhumation magmatism and cooling were all controlled by cretaceous transtension exhumation was accomplished principally by an asymmetric cordilleran type extensional complex in the northern dabie northern orthogneiss unit between 140 and 120 ma at rates as fast as 2 mm yr and average horizontal stretching rates of up to 6 mm yr cretaceous reactivation occurred within a regional transtensional strain field as a result of far field collisions and pacific subduction the onset of crustal extension was preceded and possibly facilitated by a reheating of the hong an dabie crust 140 ma coeval with the onset of voluminous magmatism in eastern china 145 ma which resulted from a change in pacific subduction from highly oblique to orthogonal the tan lu continental scale fault was a normal fault zone in the mid cretaceous 110 90 ma and underwent 5 4 km dip slip and 4 km throw in the cenozoic during the india asia collision the qinling dabie belt acted as the structural discontinuity between the strike slip dominated escape tectonics south of the qilian qinling dabie belt and the rifting dominated tectonism north of it the most prominent cretaceous and cenozoic structures of the hong an dabie the xiaotian mozitang and the jinzhai fault zones respectively reactivated major lithospheric structures of the triassic orogen i e the huwan detachment zone and the suture

mineralogical evidence for magmatic and hydrothermal processes in the qitianling oxidized tin bearing granite hunan south china emp and mc la icpms investigations of three types of titanite abstract the qitianling granite which is located in hunan province southern china is a metaluminous sn granite that crystallized at relatively oxidized conditions between the ni nio nno and fe 2 o 3 fe 3 o 4 mh buffers titanite sphene catisio 5 is a common tin carrier mineral in the qitianling granite based on electron microprobe emp and multi collector mc laser ablation la icpms investigations we describe three types of titanite with various textures and sno 2 contents which probably formed during the magmatic and hydrothermal processes responsible for the granite crystallization and later evolution the form of type i titanite ranges from subhedral to euhedral coarse grained crystals and typically exhibits an envelope like shape and sector zoning it is characterized by a high fe 2 o 3 content on average 2 44 wt and low sno 2 0 43 wt which indicates crystallization during an early magmatic stage its formation temperature is estimated to have been 721 to 780 c from emp and la icpms using the zr in titanite geothermometer type ii titanite occurs as both discrete grains and symplectitic intergrowths and typically fills interstices between other minerals it contains up to 26 wt sno 2 which suggests a late magmatic origin chondrite normalized ree patterns for type ii titanite reveal a lanthanide tetrad effect that was linked to differentiation of the granite magma type iii titanite is restricted to cleavage cracks in chlorite and is rich in al 2 o 3 it is obviously the secondary product of biotite alteration at a temperature that is estimated to be lower than 400 c during the hydrothermal stage this hydrothermal activity also impacted the primary titanites type i titanite experienced alteration to different degrees via coupled dissolution reprecipitation which gave rise to the formation of secondary minerals including cassiterite micro grains some grains of the type ii titanite reacted with fluids along the grain boundary which led to the gradual leaching of sn based on information from these types of titanite and their sn behavior we discuss the progressive enrichment of sn during and after granite crystallization under a high oxidation state as well as the predominant role of fluids in the leaching concentration and transportation of sn during hydrothermal processes which favors vein type sn mineralization

diamond from the dabie shan metamorphic rocks and its implication for tectonic setting diamond occurs in ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks from dabie shan anhui province eastern china diamond bearing rocks include eclogite gamet pyroxenite and jadeitite diamond occurs in a mineral assemblage with coesite and jadeite the diamonds and diamondiferous rocks of dabie shan are interpreted to be the products of ultrahigh pressure metamorphism in the underthrust basement of the yangtze continental plate during the early mesozoic at greater than 4 0 gigapascals and 900 c this interpretation is based on the distribution of rock units the stability field of diamond and isotopic data indicating a crustal origin for the rocks most diamonds occur as euhedral inclusions in garnets and are 10 to 60 micrometers across although some are up to 700 micrometers across

precise zircon u pb and molybdenite re os dating of the shuikoushan granodiorite related pb zn mineralization southern hunan south china abstract the shuikoushan ore district located in southern hunan province south china contains pb zn au mineralization hosted in the devonian to triassic strata and mesozoic granodiorite intrusions ore minerals are mainly pyrite sphalerite galena and minor molybdenite molybdenite usually intergrown with pyrite formed during pb zn hydrothermal mineralization in order to determine the precise age of pb zn mineralization and further understand the relationship between magma emplacement and hydrothermal mineralization in the ore district molybdenite re os dating and zircon sims u pb dating were undertaken the zircon u pb dating reveals that the granodiorite intrusion was emplaced at 158 8 1 8 ma mswd 0 40 re os isotopic age of seven molybdenite samples yields model ages ranging from 157 5 2 5 ma to 161 0 2 4 ma and gives a well defined 187re 187os isochron age of 157 8 1 4 ma 2 mswd 1 3 indicating the timing of pb zn mineralization in the shuikoushan ore district at about 158 ma this date coincides well with the zircon sims u pb age of the granodiorite revealing a genetic association between the pb zn mineralization and the granitic magmatism combined with geochronological data published for other pb zn cu deposits in southern hunan it can be concluded that the granodiorite related pb zn mineralization throughout southern hunan mainly occurred at 160 156 ma rather than 180 170 ma or 170 160 ma as considered previously the pb zn mineralization and major w sn mineralization in southern hunan are coeval and may be related to the same geological event

subduction and eduction of continental crust major mechanisms during continent continent collision and orogenic extensional collapse a model based on the south norwegian caledonides during continental collision in the middle silurian the thickness of the lithosphere under the caledonides of s norway was doubled by subduction of the western margin of baltica including the western gneiss region under laurentia crustal rocks of the baltic plate reached sub moho depths of near 100 km or more as inferred from the presence of coesite in eclogites isostatic calculations indicate an average elevation of the mountain chain of about 3 km at this stage the subducted lithosphere experienced vertical constrictional strains as a result of slab pull by its heavy and cold root eduction of the deeply buried crustal material was initiated by decoupling of the thermal boundary layer in the subducted lithosphere isostatic rebound resulted in very rapid uplift 1 2 mm yr 1 and the deep crust was exhumed mainly by tectonic extensional stripping over a period of 30 40 myr the eduction was probably related to a rolling hinge footwall uplift mechanism and the early high pressure coaxial fabrics were overprinted by extensional simple shear as the deep crust reached middle and upper crustal levels the model explains the present day normal crustal thickness under the exhumed deep rocks without necessarily invoking large scale lateral flow of material in the lower crust or igneous underplating

crustal structure and exhumation of the dabie shan ultrahigh pressure orogen eastern china from seismic reflection profiling crustal penetrating seismic reflection data across the ultrahigh pressure uhp dabie shan orogen show that the yangtze craton was subducted beneath the sino korean craton forming a bivergent orogenic fabric strikingly similar to normal non uhp collision belts hence preservation of uhp minerals coesite and diamond may be unrelated to differences between collisional histories but may be due to opportunities for subsequent intracrustal uplift of material that is routinely returned from mantle depths into the lower crust in most collisional orogens only a narrow channel 5 km now exists from the mantle into the crust through which uhp material was returned to lower crustal depths as thin slabs we image the dabie shan as a crustal scale dome formed during postcollisional intracrustal uplift by core complex type exhumation of the lower crust tectonically unrelated to the earlier exhumation from 100 km to 35 40 km

the remarkable re os chronometer in molybdenite how and why it works the re os rhenium osmium chronometer applied to molybdenite mos2 is now demonstrated to be remarkably robust surviving intense deformation and high grade thermal metamorphism successful dating of molybdenite is dependent on proper preparation of the mineral separate and analysis of a critical quantity of molybdenite unique to each sample such that recognized spatial decoupling of 187re parent and 187os daughter within individual molybdenite crystals is overcome highly precise accurate and reproducible age results are derived through isotope dilution and negative thermal ion mass spectrometry id ntims spatial decoupling of parent daughter precludes use of the laser ablation icp ms microanalytical technique for re os dating of molybdenite the use of a reference or control sample is necessary to establish laboratory credibility and for interlaboratory comparisons the rb sr k ar and 40ar 39ar chronometers are susceptible to chemical and thermal disturbance particularly in terranes that have experienced subsequent episodes of hydrothermal magmatic activity and therefore should not be used as a basis for establishing accuracy in re os dating of molybdenite as has been done in the past re os ages for molybdenite are almost always in agreement with observed geological relationships and when available with zircon and titanite u pb ages for terranes experiencing multiple episodes of metamorphism and deformation molybdenite is not complicated by overgrowths as is common for some minerals used in u pb dating e g zircon monazite xenotime nor are re and os mobilized beyond the margins of individual crystals during solid state recrystallization moreover inheritance of older molybdenite cores incorporation of common os and radiogenic os loss are exceedingly rare whereas inheritance common pb and pb loss are common complications in u pb dating techniques therefore molybdenite ages may serve as point in time markers for age comparisons

re os geochronology and systematics in molybdenite from the endako porphyry molybdenum deposit british columbia canada precise re os molybdenite ages for the endako porphyry molybdenum deposit and the nithi mountain occurrence british columbia canada yield new information on the timing of molybdenite deposition three episodes of mineralization are indicated 1 154 ma 2 148 to 146 ma and 3 145 ma re os dates agree well with new u pb and 40 ar 39 ar data from granitoids of the nithi phase 155 2 1 5 ma the endako phase 148 4 1 5 ma and a preore dike 147 4 0 6 ma and the casey phase 145 1 0 2 ma plus hydrothermal biotite 144 5 0 75 ma villeneuve et al 2001 the excellent correlation between the re os dates from molybdenite and the ages of granitoids from the area indicates a direct genetic relationship between these plutons and molybdenite mineralization these re os data also provide further insight into the systematics and robustness of re os in molybdenite the endako molybdenum deposit is the product of two episodes of mineralization both associated with moderate salinity 5 15 wt nacl equiv and high temperature 440 c fluids a third low temperature 190 300 c hydrothermal event is associated with eocene faulting selby et al 2000 the clear distinction between two of the re os molybdenite dates in the deposit and the close agreement of these dates to the ages of granitoid intrusions suggest that the re os system in molybdenite is not reset by high temperature 440 c moderate salinity hydrothermal fluids in contrast magmatic biotite in a 147 ma preore dike has a 40 ar 39 ar age of 145 ma identical to the age of the hydrothermal biotite indicating that 440 c fluids reset the ar ar system in biotite hence we interpret that the re os isotope system in molybdenite is resistant to resetting by high temperature fluids 440 c in contrast to the 40 ar 39 ar system in biotite the re os system in molybdenite is also unaffected by postore hydrothermal fluids these data show that molybdenite can provide critical information in understanding sulfide mineral deposition in ore systems which is not recorded by other isotopic systems in alteration minerals

subcritical creep compaction of quartz sand at diagenetic conditions effects of water and grain size 1 compactional creep was measured for aggregates of quartz sand that were subjected to an effective pressure of 34 5 mpa and temperature of 150 c for times up to 6 months the effects of grain size and water on creep were determined by loading quartz aggregates of 255 60 130 18 and 35 12 m grain size under nominally dry water vapor static liquid water and flowing water conditions all aggregates displayed transient decelerating creep volume strain rates as low as 2 10 10 s 1 were achieved volume strain rate increases systematically with decrease in grain size and increase in exposure to water at comparable strain or time despite the fact that the effective pressure applied was far less than the critical pressures for short term cataclastic compaction of the quartz aggregates grain scale microstructures indicate that the underlying mechanism of creep is crack growth creep rates are explained by subcritical crack growth as governed by water silicate reactions at crack tips controlled by access of water at dry and vapor conditions and solute chemistry under static and flowing liquid water conditions extrapolation of the experimental results to natural compaction of quartz sand during burial and diagenesis over times of tens of millions of years indicates that porosity loss through subcritical cracking and grain rearrangement of medium grained porous wet quartz sands can reach 10

the dabie uhp unit central china a cretaceous extensional allochthon superposed on a triassic orogen petrological geochronological and structural data show that the eastern dabie metamorphic complex resulted from two orogenic stages precursor rocks of the ultrahigh pressure uhp and high pressure hp units in the present hanging wall tectonic position were buried penetratively deformed and subsequently exhumed by distributed ese directed shearing during triassic time in contrast rocks of the dabie orthogneiss domes now in a footwall tectonic position were penetratively deformed during temperature dominated early cretaceous tectonic events that are likely related to magmatic underplating the dabie orthogneiss domes and the uhp hp units were juxtaposed during early cretaceous exhumation of dabie orthogneiss domes by the formation of an ese directed low angle ductile normal shear zone consequently the uhp hp units now represent an extensional allochthon in the hanging wall of the younger normal shear zone the cretaceous extensional structures are limited by boundary strike slip faults consistent with the south china regional tectonic framework ese directed lateral extrusion is considered to be the driving mechanism for extension and the present day structure of the dabie metamorphic complex

geological characteristics and re_os dating of molybdenites in hehuaping tin polymetallic deposit southern hunan province the hehuaping tin polymetallic deposit a large tin ore field newly discovered in southern hunan consists of skarn and cassiterite sulfide ores at present the controlled reserves amount to about 110 700 tons of tin 10 000 tons of bismuth 50 000 tons of lead and 10 000 tons of zinc with the advance of the exploration work four ore bodies have been explored which are located in the southeast portion of wangxianling indosinian gra nite pluton and hosted in granite granite porphyry and devonian limestone and sandstone respectively re os dating of molybdenites yields model ages between 223 3 2 9 and 225 2 2 7 ma and an isochron age of 224 0 1 9 ma for the skarn ore related to wangxianling granite indicating that w sn mineralization in southern hunan also took place in indosinian period the zircon shrimp u pb dating of the late granite porphyry is 142 3 ma the granite porphyry has been partly mineralized and altered and contains tin ore bodies all this implies that there existed late mineralization of yanshanian period in hehuaping area the early mineralization is supposed to correspond to underplating of the basic magma

geology and genesis of the hehuaping magnesian skarn type cassiterite sulfide deposit hunan province southern china abstract magnesian skarn type tin deposits are relatively rare in the world the hehuaping cassiterite sulfide deposit in southern china having a total reserve of approximately 130 000 t of tin 50 000 t of lead and 10 000 t of zinc is identified as such type the deposit is related to the late jurassic 157 ma hehuaping medium to coarse grained biotite granite that intruded the middle devonian qiziqiao dolomite formation and the tiaomajian sandstone formation four paragenetic stages of skarn and ore formation have been recognized i prograde stage ii retrograde stage iii cassiterite sulfide stage and iv carbonate stage alteration zoning between fresh granite and unaltered country rocks can be identified the skarn are typified by mg mineral assemblages of forsterite spinel diopside tremolite serpentine talc and phlogopite the geochemistry of various skarn minerals shows a gradually decrease of mg end member and correspondingly an increase of fe and especially mn end members along the process of skarn alteration tin mineralization developed during the late retrograde stage resulted in cassiterite magnetite diopside skarn however the deposition of cassiterite occurred predominantly as cassiterite sulfide veins along fractures and interlayer fracture zones during stage iii the petrogeochemistry of hehuaping granite as well as s and pb isotopic analyses suggest that the ore forming elements have a magmatic source originated from the upper crust the h o isotopic and fluid inclusion analyses indicate that high temperature ore forming fluids in early anhydrous skarn stage stage i are also magmatic origin in comparison the retrograde fluids are characterized by relatively low salinity 2 to 10 wt nacl equiv and low temperature 220 to 300 c suggesting a mixed origin of meteoric waters with magmatic fluids the major ore forming stage iii fluids are characterized by lower temperature 170 to 240 c and salinity 1 to 6 wt nacl equiv indicating fluid mixing could be an efficient tin mineralizing mechanism meteoric waters are dominant in stage iv resulting in a further lowering of temperature 130 to 200 c and salinity 0 4 to 1 wt nacl equiv

molybdenite re os and muscovite 40ar 39ar dating of the xihuashan tungsten deposit central nanling district south china abstract the xihuashan tungsten deposit in the central nanling region south china is an important vein type ore deposit hosted in cambrian strata and mesozoic granitic intrusions wolframite and molybdenite are the principal ore minerals the gangue minerals are mainly quartz and muscovite wolframite and molybdenite are products of the first stage hydrothermal activity whereas muscovite formed dominantly at the second stage molybdenite re os and muscovite 40ar 39ar dating have been carried out to investigate the age of mineralization re os isotopic dating for molybdenite associated with wolframite yield a precise well constrained isochron age of 157 8 0 9 ma mswd 1 5 ar ar isotopic analyses of muscovite yield a plateau age of 152 8 1 6 ma in agreement with an inverse isochron age of 152 8 1 6 ma which is 5 mys younger than the re os age the molybdenite re os age is interpreted as the age of tungsten mineralization this age coincides well with the zircon u pb age of the host granitic intrusion reported previously the 5 mys difference between molybdenite re os and muscovite 40ar 39ar ages probably represents the duration of hydrothermal activity the results show that the xihuashan tungsten deposit is one of many important tungsten tin deposits formed during 150 to 160 ma associated with large scale lithospheric extension in south china

molybdenite re os dating of biotite dehydration melting in the rogaland high temperature granulites s norway abstract the ability of the re os system in molybdenite to record and preserve the age of granulite facies metamorphism in polymetamorphic belts is tested using the orsdalen w mo district rogaland s norway a low pressure high temperature granulite facies domain displaying osumilite and pigeonite isograds is exposed around the 931 2 ma rogaland anorthosite complex available u pb monazite and zircon data show that a 0 93 ga contact metamorphism overprints a 1 03 0 97 ga regional sveconorwegian metamorphism in the gneiss basement molybdenite and scheelite in the orsdalen district occur in orthopyroxene bearing leucocratic veins parallel to the regional foliation the veins are interpreted as migmatic leucosomes formed by fluid absent incongruent melting of the biotite rich host rock above ca 800 c producing a granulite facies orthopyroxene garnet residual assemblage molybdenite is interpreted as a product of the melting reaction crystallized from trace amounts of mo released from biotite in the host rock during partial melting four re os analyses of molybdenite from three samples representing two mines yield an isochron age of 973 4 ma the isochroneity of the data indicates that the precipitation of molybdenite and the partial melting event are recorded on the district scale the re os system in molybdenite was not affected by subsequent 0 93 ga contact metamorphism corresponding to formation of garnet quartz coronitic textures around molybdenite and other minerals in the deposits the results indicate that granulite facies conditions prevailed at 973 4 ma near the end of a protracted event of regional metamorphism 1 03 0 97 ga biotite dehydration melting recorded in orsdalen took place at a pressure of ca 5 5 kbar orthopyroxene garnet plagioclase quartz thermobarometry possibly in association with regional decompression the study shows that granulite facies metamorphism 0 97 ga took place before intrusion of massif type anorthosites in rogaland 0 93 ga the study suggests that the high temperature osumilite bearing assemblage may be related to the 0 97 ga event and that massif type anorthosites may not be a cause for the high temperature thermal anomaly in the crust but a late expression of it

precise determination of phanerozoic zircon pb pb age by multicollector sims without external standardization 1 zircon has long been recognized as the best geochronometer and the most important timekeeper in geosciences modern microbeam techniques such as sims and la icpms have been successfully applied to in situ u pb zircon age determinations at spatial resolutions of 20 30 m or less matrix matched calibration by external standardization of well characterized natural zircon references is a principal requirement for precise microbeam u pb zircon age determination due to fractionation effects between pb and u which usually result in an external age error exceeding 1 alternatively zircons with a closed u pb system can be directly dated by measurement of 207pb 206pb isotopic ratio without external standardization which has been a common practice for zircons older than 1 0 ga but not for relatively young 1 0 ga and particularly phanerozoic ones because of limitations of analytical precision we describe in this paper a method of 207pb 206pb measurement on phanerozoic zircons using a new generation of large radius magnetic sector multicollector cameca ims 1280 sims in combination with multicollector mode a nuclear magnetic resonance nmr magnet controller and oxygen flooding techniques we achieve precisions of 207pb 206pb ratio of 0 1 and 0 1 0 2 propagating to pb pb age errors 0 4 and 1 3 excluding u decay constant uncertainties for zircons of latest neoproterozoic and late paleozoic to mesozoic age respectively therefore the multicollector sims is capable of direct determination of zircon pb pb ages as young as mesozoic age with uncertainties of geological significance this technique is useful for direct dating of zircons in thin sections moreover it has significance for dating of some other u rich minerals i e baddeleyite and zirconolite that are not suitable for sims u pb dating by external standardization

crustal structure beneath the dabie orogenic belt from ambient noise tomography abstract the qinling dabie sulu orogenic belt in east central china is the largest high and ultrahigh pressure hp and uhp metamorphic zone in the world the dabie mountains are the central segment of this orogenic belt between the north china and yangtze cratons this work studies the nature of the crustal structure beneath the dabie orogenic belt to better understand the orogeny to do that we apply ambient noise tomography to the dabie orogenic belt using ambient noise data from 40 stations of the china national seismic network cnsn between january 2008 and december 2009 we retrieve high signal noise ratio snr rayleigh waves by cross correlating ambient noise data between most of the station pairs and then extract phase velocity dispersion measurements from those cross correlations using a spectral method taking those dispersion measurements we obtain high resolution phase velocity maps at 8 35 second periods by inverting rayleigh wave phase velocity maps we construct a high resolution 3d shear velocity model of the crust in the dabie orogenic belt the resulting 3d model reveals interesting crustal features related to the orogeny high shear wave velocities are imaged beneath the hp uhp metaphoric zones at depths shallower than 9 km suggesting that hp uhp metaphoric rocks are primarily concentrated in the upper crust underlying the high velocity hp uhp metamorphic zones low shear velocities are observed in the middle crust probably representing ductile shear zones and or brittle fracture zones developed during the exhumation of the hp uhp metamorphic rocks strong high velocities are present beneath the northern dabie complex unit in the middle crust possibly related to cooling and crystallization of intrusive igneous rocks in the middle crust resulting from the post collisional lithosphere delamination and subsequent magmatism a north dipping moho is revealed in the eastern dabie with the deepest moho appearing beneath the northern dabie complex unit consistent with the model of triassic northward subduction of the yangtze craton beneath the north china craton

in situ sims u pb dating of hydrothermal rutile reliable age for the zhesang carlin type gold deposit in the golden triangle region sw china the contiguous region between guangxi guizhou and yunnan commonly referred to as the golden triangle region in sw china hosts many carlin type gold deposits previously the ages of the gold mineralization in this region have not been well constrained due to the lack of suitable minerals for radiometric dating this paper reports the first sims u pb age of hydrothermal rutile crystals for the zhesang carlin type gold deposit in the region the hydrothermal u bearing rutile associated with gold bearing sulfides in the deposit yields an u pb age of 213 6 5 4 ma which is within the range of the previously reported arsenopyrite re os isochron ages 204 19 to 235 33 ma for three other carlin type gold deposits in the region our new and more precise rutile u pb age confirms that the gold mineralization was contemporaneous with the triassic w sn mineralization and associated granitic magmatism in the surrounding regions based on the temporal correlation we postulate that coeval granitic plutons may be present at greater depths in the golden triangle region and that the formation of the carlin type gold deposits is probably linked to the coeval granitic magmatism in the region this study clearly demonstrates that in situ rutile u pb dating is a robust tool for the geochronogical study of hydrothermal deposits that contain hydrothermal rutile

a precise u pb age on cassiterite from the xianghualing tin polymetallic deposit hunan south china we report the first precise u pb isotope data on cassiterite from the large xianghualing tin polymetallic deposit in the central nanling district south china the results show that four separates from sample xf 51 have a relatively narrow range of 206pb 238u apparent ages varying from 152 to 157 ma and the three 206pb 238u apparent ages yield a weighted average value of 156 4 ma mswd 0 32 separates from two other cassiterite samples do not have sufficient radiogenic pb to generate a reliable 206pb 238u age seven separates from the above three cassiterite samples define a well constrained 238u 206pb isochron corresponding to an age of 157 6 ma mswd 34 a comparison of the u pb cassiterite ages with published ar ar dates on muscovite from this deposit and k ar age data on biotite from the pluton genetically related to the tin mineralization in this area demonstrates that the u pb isotope system of cassiterite is a potential geochronometer combined with the ar ar dates of muscovite from this deposit we can constrain the absolute age of tin polymetallic mineralization in xianghualing at 154 157 ma the dates obtained in this study consistent with the published geochronological results from other important deposits in this region reveal that the large scale tungsten tin mineralization in the central nanling region was predominantly emplaced during 150 161 ma

temporal consistency between granite evolution and tungsten mineralization in huamei ao southern jiangxi province china evidence from precise zircon u pb molybdenite re os and muscovite 40ar 39ar isotope geochronology abstract the large huamei ao tungsten deposit with total wo 3 reserves of 67 400 tons at an average grade of 1 334 wo 3 is located in the convergent zone of the eastern nanling e w trending tectono magmatic belt and the western wuyishan nne ssw trending tectono magmatic belt in southern jiangxi province china the tungsten mineralization in this deposit is mainly found in quartz wolframite veins with most orebodies distributed at the outer contact zone between concealed late jurassic granitic stocks and sinian weakly metamorphosed sandstones and phyllites zircons collected from medium to fine grained biotite granite in a diamond drill hole at a sea level of ca 10 m yield a crystallization age of 159 9 1 2 ma through laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la mc icp ms u pb dating molybdenite and muscovite that were both separated from quartz wolframite veins yield a re os isochron age of 158 5 3 3 ma and an 40 ar 39 ar weighted plateau age of 157 9 1 1 ma respectively these dates obtained via three independent geochronological techniques constrain the ore forming age of the huamei ao deposit and link the genesis of the ore and the underlying granite analyses of available high precision zircon u pb molybdenite re os and muscovite 40 ar 39 ar radiometric ages of major w sn deposits in southern jiangxi province indicate that there is no significant time interval between w sn mineralization and its intimately associated parent granite emplacement interval of 0 6 ma these deposits formed over three intervals during the mesozoic 240 210 170 150 and 130 90 ma with large scale w sn mineralization occurring mainly between 160 and 150 ma the majority of w sn deposits in this region are located in southern jiangxi and southern hunan provinces

sm nd and rb sr isotopic chronology and cooling history of ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks and their country rocks at shuanghe in the dabie mountains central china abstract ultrahigh pressure metamorphic uhpm rocks at shuanghe area in the dabie mountains occur as a uhpm block within the regional granitic gneiss a sm nd isochron defined by garnet omphacite rutile from coesite bearing eclogite yield an age of 226 3 3 2 ma another sm nd isochron defined by garnet two phengites form uhp gneiss yield a similar age of 226 5 2 3 ma the two consistent sm nd ages defined by three uhpm minerals suggest that nd isotopic equilibrium between uhpm minerals in these rocks during uhp metamorphism has been achieved this may correspond to the age of peak metamorphism with an average metamorphic temperature of 800 c it is demonstrated that the retrograde metamorphism of uhpm rocks occurred in an open chemical system whereas the nd and sr isotopic systematics of uhpm minerals may have remained closed nd and sr isotopic disequilibrium between uhpm minerals and retrograde metamorphic minerals has been observed therefore the tie line of garnet or phengite and whole rock containing retrograde metamorphic minerals gives an old sm nd age and a young rb sr age respectively with no geologic significance however a rb sr ages of 219 0 6 6 ma defined by phengite garnet from a uhpm gneiss indicates that the uhpm rocks at shuanghe cooled down to 500 c at that time it suggests that the uhpm rocks at shuanghe experienced the first rapid cooling during 226 219 ma on the other hand the rb sr ages of 174 7 8 to 169 2 3 3 ma defined by retrograde minerals amphibole or biotite with closure temperature ranging from 450 to 300 c and intensely retrograded metamorphic rocks reflect a second rapid cooling during this time interval this is consistent with the rapid cooling time of 190 170 ma of the orthogneiss in the dabie su lu uhpm belt obtained by ar ar dating method in contrast to uhpm rocks the nd isotopic composition of the garnet in granitic gneiss has been reset during retrograde metamorphism and is in equilibrium with those of retrograde epidote and biotite which yields a sm nd isochron age of 213 5 ma indicating the retrometamorphic time corresponding to amphibolite facies in addition the biotites from the granitic gneiss yield rb sr ages of 171 173 ma similar to those of the uhpm rocks these data suggest that the country rocks granitic gneiss may have a similar cooling history to the uhpm rocks at shuanghe two stages of rapid cooling of uhpm rocks at shuanghe may correspond two stages of fast uplift the initial rapid uplifting and cooling of uhpm rocks during 226 219 ma may be caused by compression tectonics during subducting time of the continental crust whereas the later rapid cooling may reflect the exhumation of the entire subducted continental crust by extension during the early middle jurassic

constraints of multiple dating of the qingshan tungsten deposit on the triassic w sn mineralization in the nanling region south china abstract the qingshan tungsten deposit is a quartz vein type ore deposit in the nanling region south china and consists of orebodies along the contact between ordovician sandstone and the mesozoic keshuling granitic pluton there are more than 54 ore bearing quartz veins controlled by ne and nne trending faults the principal ore minerals are wolframite and cassiterite with subordinate molybdenite which formed dominantly during the early oxide and oxide sulfide ore forming stage together with extensive greisenization adjacent to the w bearing quartz veins the gangue minerals are mainly quartz and muscovite zircon grains from the keshuling pluton have a u pb age of 231 9 1 0 ma mswd 4 0 molybdenite separates from the ore bearing quartz veins have a well defined 187re 187os isochron age of 228 7 2 5 ma mswd 0 36 with model ages ranging from 227 6 3 3 to 229 7 3 2 ma hydrothermal muscovite from the greisen between the granite and country rocks has a flat 40ar 39ar plateau age spectra yielding a 40ar 39ar plateau age of 229 4 1 4 ma mswd 0 34 the u pb re os and 40ar 39ar ages are nearly identical within analytical uncertainties and these ages together with the field relationships provide tight constraints on the w sn mineralization at around 230 ma this multiple dating study reflects that the duration of the hydrothermal activity could be less than several million years our new results suggest that the triassic large scale w sn mineralization occurred throughout the nanling region

slab breakoff a model of lithosphere detachment and its test in the magmatism and deformation of collisional orogens we present a model proposing that oceanic lithosphere detaches from continental lithosphere during continental collision slab breakoff allowing an explanation of syn to post collisional magmatism and metamorphism continental collisions are preceded by subduction of dense oceanic lithosphere and followed by attempted subduction of buoyant continental lithosphere this situation of opposing buoyancy forces leads to extensional deformation in the subducted slab a narrow rifting mode of deformation will result if there is strain localization slab breakoff results we have assessed the plausiblity of this process by quantitatively evaluating an upper bound for the strength of the lithosphere and have compared it with the change in buoyancy force during continental sbduction whether breakoff will occur and the depth at which it will occur is a strong function of temperature and hence the subduction velocity for a subduction velocity of 1 cm yr breakoff could occur at depths of between 50 and 120 km while at higher velocities it is still likely to occur but at deeper depths as a result of the rifting during breakoff the asthenosphere upwells into the narrow rift and following breakoff it impinges on the mechanical lithosphere of the overriding plate the resulting conducted thermal perturbation leads to melting of the metasomatised overriding mantle lithosphere producing basaltic magmatism that leads to granitic magmatism in the crust dry asthenospheric mantle will melt only if breakoff occurs at a depth shallower than ca 50 km breakoff removes the force at the downdip side of the continental crust while the enhanced heating leads to a reduction of the strength of the underlying crust both effects facilitate the freeing of buoyant crustal sheets which can then rise towards the surface leading to the rapid exhumation of eclogite facies continental crust the cessation of subduction and replacement of the cold oceanic lithosphere by asthenosphere leads to rapid uplift of the orogen we have tested the variety of predicted expressions of slab breakoff in the geological record of the alps the aegean islands and the dabie shan a comparison of the various belts highlights 1 that the magmatism and metamorphism are found near the suture and the centre of the orogen demonstrating the general steepening of suture during collision 2 that a vague inverse correlation exists between maximum depth of metamorphism and volume of syn orogenic magmatism and 3 that the melts can be emplaced in both compressive and extensional environments we suggest that slab breakoff is an important step in the evolution of many orogenic belts and it allows an explanation for the combined presence in collisional orogens of magmatism with a mantle parentage and ultra high pressure metamorphics

shrimp u pb zircon ar ar muscovite and re os molybdenite isotopic dating of the taoxikeng tungsten deposit south china block abstract the taoxikeng tungsten deposit is located in the jiangxi province in the southern part of china and is one of the largest wolframite quartz vein type tungsten deposits in the country the deposit is situated in sinian neoproterozoic to permian strata at the contact with the buried taoxikeng granite sensitive high mass resolution ion microprobe shrimp zircon u pb analysis of the granite has yielded dates of 158 7 3 9 and 157 6 3 5 ma which are interpreted as the emplacement age of the granite molybdenite separated from ore bearing quartz veins yields a re os isochron age of 154 4 3 8 ma and muscovite separated from greisen between the granite and country rocks yields 40ar 39ar plateau ages of 153 4 1 3 and 152 7 1 5 ma these dates obtained from three independent geochronological techniques constrain the ore forming age of the taoxikeng deposit and link the ore genesis to that of the underlying granite the taoxikeng deposit is an example of a jurassic regional scale tungsten tin ore forming event between 160 and 150 ma in the nanling region of the south china block the deposit s strikingly low rhenium contents 4 9 to 13 0 10 3 g g in molybdenite suggests that the ore was derived from a crustal source this conclusion is consistent with previously published constraints from s d and o stable isotopes sr nd systematics and petrogenetic interpretations of spatially related granites

evolution of strength recovery and permeability during fluid rock reaction in experimental fault zones abstract physical and chemical fluid rock interactions are implicated in controlling earthquake nucleation and recurrence in particular interseismic compaction sealing and healing of fractured fault rocks can lead to strength recovery and stabilisation of fault zones in contrast these same processes can also assist increases in pore fluid pressures and consequent destabilisation of faults here we present high temperature hydrothermal experiments designed to assess the evolution of strength of fault zones in previously intact rock and also characterise the associated changes to porosity and permeability cores of fontainebleau sandstone were initially loaded to failure in a high pressure gas medium apparatus the failed specimens were then hydrothermally reacted at 927 c for variable duration under isostatic conditions and subsequently re fractured to determine the interseismic strength recovery in the most extreme case hydrothermally induced gouge compaction cementation and crack healing resulted in 75 strength recovery after reaction for 6 h isostatic hydrothermal treatment also resulted in dramatic reduction in porosity and permeability strength of the fault zone following hydrothermal reaction appears to be closely correlated to porosity consistent with previous studies on brittle failure of porous aggregates the experimental results show how hydrothermal reactions in fault zones may lead to two competing time dependent effects fault strengthening due to increased cohesion in the fault zone and fault weakening arising from elevated pore pressures within a well cemented low permeability gouge layer

geochemical and sr nd pb isotopic compositions of cretaceous granitoids constraints on tectonic framework and crustal structure of the dabieshan ultrahigh pressure metamorphic belt china abstract the dabie orogenic belt can be divided into four tectonic and lithological units they are from north to south the north huaiyang nhy unit the northern dabie complex ndc unit the ultrahigh pressure uhp metamorphic unit and high pressure hp metamorphic unit cretaceous granitoids from the four tectonic units irrespective of tectonic unit and lithology show surprisingly similar major and trace element and particularly sr nd pb isotopic compositions indicating a similar crustal source for their magma genesis they have initial 87 sr 86 sr t values of 0 7068 0 7091 and nd depleted mantle model ages of 1 6 2 4 ga and e nd t values at the time of their emplacement 120 ma ranging from 13 to 26 their present day pb isotopic compositions are 206 pb 204 pb 15 62 17 06 207 pb 204 pb 15 21 15 44 and 208 pb 204 pb 36 59 37 81 with comparison to the sr nd pb isotopic compositions of the basement rocks in the dabie orogenic belt the isotopic compositions of the cretaceous granitoids indicate a source that is similar to the northern dabie complex but distinct from the ultrahigh pressure metamorphic unit this strongly suggests that the exposed northern dabie complex extends in the deep crust southward beneath the uhp hp metamorphic units and northward beneath the north huaiyang unit the northern dabie complex is best interpreted as the core of a dome within the dabie orogenic belt the uhp hp metamorphic unit is only a thin skinned slab confined in shallower crustal levels over the northern dabie complex present tectonic framework for the uhp hp terrain was formed by extensional tectonics and post the uhp hp metamorphism the northern dabie complex has an affinity to the yangtze craton the similar source for the cretaceous granitoids also suggests that the suture between the north china and the yangtze cratons is marked by the xiaotian mozitang fault separating the north huaiyang unit and the northern dabie complex rather than the previously thought wuhe shuiko fault which separates the northern dabie complex and the uhp unit

reos dating of molybdenites from ore deposits in japan implication for the closure temperature of the reos system for molybdenite and the cooling history of molybdenum ore deposits abstract rhenium and osmium abundances were determined on molybdenites from eighteen ore deposits in japan fifteen vein type a skarn type a greisen type and a pegmatite type deposit re os ages obtained for molybdenites from northeastern central and southwestern japan are 100 130 ma 50 75 ma and ca 10 ma respectively reflecting the ages of regional igneous activities in individual areas for vein type ore deposits re os ages for molybdenites agree with rb sr whole rock ages of host granitoids while they are 3 12 ma older than k ar mineral ages of the host rocks on the other hand re os ages of molybdenites from skarn pegmatite and greisen type ore deposits agree with k ar ages of the host rocks the comparison of re os ages for molybdenites with rb sr and k ar ages of host rocks in vein type deposits suggests that re os closure temperature for vein molybdenite is close to whole rock rb sr closure temperature for host granitic rocks i e roughly estimated to be around 500 c and higher than k ar closure temperature for host granodiorites i e 230 370 c if the thermal history of vein molybdenites is essentially equivalent to that of host rocks one possible explanation for age discrepancies of 3 12 ma between re os ages for molybdenites and k ar ages for the wall rocks observed in vein type molybdenum deposits is that later thermal events after formation of molybdenum ores may reset k ar ages hydrothermal alteration might have occurred in such a temperature condition as to disturb k ar mineral systems in wall rocks and made them younger but not the re os system in molybdenite the other explanation might be that the age discrepancies correspond to a cooling interval from ca 500 to 300 c of host granitoid on the other hand the agreement of re os ages of molybdenites and k ar ages of host rocks in skarn pegmatite and greisen type deposits in this study indicates no later disturbance for k ar system in the wall rock or the rapid cooling of the ore and wall rocks after the formation of molybdenite deposits

re os ages for archean molybdenite and pyrite kuittila kivisuo finland and proterozoic molybdenite kabeliai lithuania testing the chronometer in a metamorphic and metasomatic setting seven 187re 187os ages were determined for molybdenite and pyrite samples from two well dated precambrian intrusions in fennoscandia to examine the sustainability of the re os chronometer in a metamorphic and metasomatic setting using a new 187re decay constant 1 666 10 11y 1 with a much improved uncertainty 0 31 we determined replicate re os ages for molybdenite and pyrite from the kuittila and kivisuo prospects in easternmost finland and for molybdenite from the kabeliai prospect in southernmost lithuania these two localities contain some of the oldest and youngest plutonic activity in fennoscandia and are associated with newly discovered economic au mineralization ilomantsi finland and a cu mo prospect kabeliai lithuania two re os ages for vein hosted kabeliai molybdenite average 1486 5 ma in excellent agreement with a 1505 11 ma u pb zircon age for the hosting kabeliai granite pluton the slightly younger age suggests the introduction of cu mo mineralization by a later phase of the kabeliai magmatic system mean re os ages of 2778 8 ma and 2781 8 ma for kuittila and kivisuo molybdenites respectively are in reasonable agreement with a 2753 5 ma weighted mean u pb zircon age for hosting kuittila tonalite these re os ages agree well with less precise ages of 2789 290 ma for a rb sr whole rock isochron and 2771 75 ma for the average of six sm nd tdm model ages for kuittila tonalite three re os analyses of a single pyrite mineral separate from the same sample of kuittila pluton that yielded a molybdenite separate provide individual model ages of 2710 27 2777 28 and 2830 28 ma re 17 4 12 1 and 8 4 ppb respectively with a mean value of 2770 120 ma in agreement with the kuittila molybdenite age the re and 187os abundances in these three pyrite splits are highly correlated r 0 9994 and provide a 187re 187os isochron age of 2607 47 ma with an intercept of 21 ppt 187os mswd 1 1 it appears that the re os isotopic system in pyrite has been reset on the millimeter scale and that the 21 ppt 187os intercept reflects the in situ decay of 187re during the 160 to 170 m y interval from 2778 ma time of molybdenite pyrite deposition to 2607 ma time of pyrite resetting when the re os data for molybdenites from the nearby kivisuo prospect are plotted together with the kuittila molybdenite and pyrite data a well constrained five point isochron with an age of 2780 8 ma and a 187os intercept 2 4 3 8 ppt of essentially zero results mswd 1 5 we suggest that the pyrite isochron age records a regional metamorphic and or hydrothermal event possibly the time of au mineralization a proposed re os age of 2607 ma for au mineralization is in good agreement with radiometric ages by other methods that address the timing of archean au mineralization in deposits worldwide so called late au model molybdenite in contrast provides a robust re os chronometer retaining its original formation age of 2780 ma despite subsequent metamorphic disturbances in archean and proterozoic time

ore forming mechanism of quartz vein type w sn deposits of the xitian district in se china implications from the trace element analysis of wolframite and investigation of fluid inclusions abstract the xitian w sn district is located in eastern hunan province of se china and comprises the heshuxia goudalan and longshang w sn deposits our study on the occurrence mineral assemblage and geochemistry of the orebodies shows that quartz vein orebodies are dominant mode of mineralization and can be divided into three stages stage i quartz molybdenite wolframite i stage ii quartz wolframite ii polymetallic sulfides and stage iii quartz pyrite fluorite the elements nb ta sc sn zn cr v mo cu and zr are abundant in both wolframite i and wolframite ii wolframite i contains higher concentrations of nb 1408 9245 ppm ta 241 2407 ppm and sc 123 521 ppm than wolframite ii nb 144 1080 ppm ta 3 76 315 ppm and sc 1 86 11 44 ppm these results indicate that wolframite i was formed closer to the host rock and at a greater ore forming depth than wolframite ii the total ree concentrations of wolframite i and ii range from 34 96 to 133 36 ppm and 21 30 to 43 73 ppm respectively both wolframite i and wolframite ii have low lree concentrations 0 00 0 05 and 0 08 8 18 ppm respectively and high hree concentrations 34 96 133 31 and 21 23 41 87 ppm respectively the enrichment of hrees in wolframite may be due to the fact that the sizes of the hrees3 0 94 1 02 a in combination with nb5 or ta5 0 72 a are closer to that of w6 0 68 a in combination with ca2 1 08 a or mg2 0 80 a than that of the lrees3 1 03 1 13 a making the coupled substitution easier a study of fluid inclusions in the coexisting gangue minerals shows that the homogenization temperatures of the fluid inclusions decrease from stage i to stage iii stage i 187 382 c average 275 c stage ii 122 278 c average 175 c stage iii 92 172 c average 139 c whereas the salinities of the fluid inclusions increase from stages i to ii and decrease from stages ii to iii stage i 1 8 18 2 wt nacleqv average 10 3 wt nacleqv stage ii 7 3 24 4 wt nacleqv average 14 9 wt nacleqv stage iii 0 2 5 3 wt nacleqv average 1 5 wt nacleqv raman spectroscopy reveals that the fluid inclusions mainly contain h2o co2 is minor and h2s ch4 and n2 are rare we conclude that the formation of wolframite was driven by post magmatic thermodynamic processes the ore forming fluid flowed through a multi fractured low pressure zone in the fault system in the district and a temperature pressure decrease led to fluid immiscibility characterized by co2 escaping in a low ph and high eh environment in stage i crust mantle mixed fluid and meteoric water mixing in stage ii and natural cooling of the fluid system in stage iii

middle to late jurassic felsic and mafic magmatism in southern hunan province southeast china implications for a continental arc to rifting abstract extensive middle to late jurassic felsic and mafic magmatism occurred in the southern hunan province southeast china shrimp zircon u pb dating mineral chemical element geochemical and sr nd hf isotopic data have been determined for these rocks the results indicate that the middle jurassic 178 170 ma changchengling and ningyuan basaltic rocks belong to tholeiitic series and alkaline series respectively and were formed by fractional crystallization of the parent magmas that were derived from partial melting of asthenospheric mantle triggered by the slab released fluids of the subducted paleo pacific plate the late jurassic 152 146 ma daoxian basalts and guiyang lamprophyre dikes are low ti high mg potassic rocks they were derived directly by partial melting of shallower 60 100 km lithospheric mantle composed of amphibole and phlogopite bearing lherzolite in response to thermal perturbations associated with the rifting of continental arc the middle jurassic 164 ma tongshanling granitic rocks belong to calc alkaline series and are strongly peraluminous they were formed by partial melting of palaeoproterozoic metasedimentary basement in the lower crust plus additional input from coeval basaltic magma the late jurassic 156 ma jinjiling and xishan granitic rocks show a2 subtype affinity they were generated by partial melting of granulitized palaeoproterozoic metamorphic basement in the lower crust in response to injection of coeval low ti high mg potassic magmas a moderate degree 56 58 of fractionation of these pure crustal melts could account for more felsic end member of granitic rocks detailed petrologic and geochemical data for the middle to late jurassic felsic and mafic rocks from the southern hunan imply that during the middle jurassic time se china on the southeast of the shi hang zone was a continental arc coupled with the subduction of the palaeo pacific plate and since the beginning of late jurassic time an intra arc rift has been formed along the shi hang zone as a consequence of slab roll back

u pb zircon ages constrain the architecture of the ultrahigh pressure qinling dabie orogen china new shrimp and tims zircon ages 40ar 39ar ages and eclogite locations contribute significantly to our understanding of the ultrahigh pressure dabie shan 1 the geographic extent of the yangtze craton that was subducted to ultrahigh pressure extends to the northern edge of the dabie shan 2 the northern half of the dabie shan is a magmatic complex intruded over a 10 myr interval between 137 and 126 ma that accommodated 100 n s stretching of the pre existing collisional architecture 3 granitic orthogneisses and enclosing ultrahigh pressure paragneisses have indistinguishable zircon populations the population of triassic zircon ages ranges from 219 to 245 ma leading us to question the prevailing assumption that 219 ma zircons formed at ultrahigh pressure and to propose instead that they reflect late retrogression at crustal pressures following the bulk of exhumation

buoyancy driven rapid exhumation of ultrahigh pressure metamorphosed continental crust abstract preservation of ultrahigh pressure uhp minerals formed at depths of 90 125 km require unusual conditions our subduction model involves underflow of a salient 250 150 km wide 90 125 km long of continental crust embedded in cold largely oceanic crust capped lithosphere loss of leading portions of the high density oceanic lithosphere by slab break off as increasing volumes of microcontinental material enter the subduction zone buoyancy driven return toward midcrustal levels of a thin 2 15 km thick low density slice finally uplift backfolding normal faulting and exposure of the uhp terrane sustained over 20 million years rapid 5 mm year exhumation of the thin aspect ratio uhp sialic sheet caught between cooler hanging wall plate and refrigerating downgoing lithosphere allows withdrawal of heat along both its upper and lower surfaces the intracratonal position of most uhp complexes reflects consumption of an intervening ocean basin and introduction of a sialic promontory into the subduction zone uhp metamorphic terranes consist chiefly of transformed yet relatively low density continental crust compared with displaced mantle material otherwise such complexes could not return to shallow depths relatively rare metabasaltic metagabbroic and metacherty lithologies retain traces of phases characteristic of uhp conditions because they are massive virtually impervious to fluids and nearly anhydrous in contrast h2o rich quartzofeldspathic gneissose schistose more permeable metasedimentary and metagranitic units have backreacted thoroughly so coesite and other uhp silicates are exceedingly rare because of the initial presence of biogenic carbon and its especially sluggish transformation rate uhp paragneisses contain the most abundantly preserved crustal diamonds

the study of molybdenites through the187re 187os chronometer we determined the re and os concentrations in 11 molybdenites of various ages 30 2700 m y and from various areas no common osmium has been detected and os was found to be purely radiogenic therefore by comparing the concentrations we were able to determine 187 re 187 os ages for most samples these ages are in good agreement with those measured in surrounding rocks and probably correspond to the age of mineralization however two or three re os ages seem unreliable being probably related to some rhenium leaching through later metamorphic and or hydrothermal events this shows that the petrographic characteristics of ores and the type of crystallization of mos 2 are important in choosing samples suitable for dating re and os determinations combined with careful petrographic investigations may give important clues on the genesis and evolution of molybdenum ores

isotopic and paleomagnetic constraints on the mesozoic tectonic evolution of south china in order to better constrain the paleogeographic evolution of south china we measured sm nd and rb sr isotopic compositions for 23 mesozoic granites that crop out throughout the area tightly grouped neodymium depleted mantle model ages 1 4 0 3 ga suggest the region is underlain by relatively homogeneous proterozoic crust and fail to define crustal provinces neither the isotopic nor geologic data suggest that a mesozoic suture exists however granites possessing anomalously high sm 8 ppm and nd 45 ppm concentrations relatively high initial epsilon neodymium 4 to 8 and high but variable initial 87sr 86sr 0 759 to 0 713 form a northeast trending zone that coincides with two prominent mesozoic basins southeast of the zone lie the majority of mesozoic intrusives and upper triassic to lower cretaceous extensional basins found in south china mesozoic paleomagnetic poles are well clustered northwest of the zone pre cretaceous poles southeast of it are discordant with respect to those from the northwest the only recognized tectonostratigraphic terrane in south china lies southeast of the zone the terrane is bordered by a northeast trending sinistral fault that was active in the mesozoic other faults in south china have similar attitudes ages and sense of shear together the observations suggest that the mesozoic tectonic regime in south china consisted of strike slip activity plus concomitant rifting as terranes or fragments of similar crust were transported north along sinistral faults the zone defined by the granites enriched in nd and sm demarcates displaced terranes to the southeast from relatively stable land to the northwest

an early cretaceous w sn deposit and its implications in southeast coastal metallogenic belt constraints from u pb re os ar ar geochronology at the feie shan w sn deposit se china the feie shan w sn deposit is in eastern guangdong province which is a newly explored deposit in the southeastern coastal metallogenic belt in order to constrain the age of mineralization in the feie shan w sn deposit we collected molybdenites and hydrothermal biotite of the feie shan w sn deposit for dating the tungsten mineralization is spatially associated with the biotite monzonitic granite porphyry la mc icp ms zircon u pb dating of the biotite monzonitic granite porphyry yielded a weighted mean pb u age of 139 2 1 7 ma which was interpreted as the emplacement age of the biotite monzonitic granite porphyry the re os model ages ranged from 137 3 2 0 ma to 146 1 2 1 ma with a weighted mean age of 140 6 1 9 ma and ar ar isotopic analyses of hydrothermal biotite yield a plateau ar ar age of 135 1 0 8 ma these dates obtained via three independent geochronological techniques constrained the ore forming age of the feie shan deposit and linked the genesis of the ore to the underlying biotite monzonitic granite porphyry combined with previous studies it is suggested that there is a period at 144 132 ma for w sn mineralization in the southeastern coastal metallogenic belt the feie shan w sn deposit belongs to the 144 132 ma metallogenic events in the scmb in a geodynamic setting of lithospheric extension

evidence for intracontinental thrust related exhumation of the ultra high pressure rocks in china coesite and diamond bearing ultra high pressure metamorphic rocks produced during the triassic continental collision between the sino korean and yangtze plates are offset by about 530 km along the sinistral tanlu fault in eastern china the tanlu fault terminates abruptly south of the ultra high pressure metamorphic terrain in dabie shan and does not extend into the foreland fold belt along the yangtze river this suggests that in this region the mesozoic major sinistral displacement along the tanlu fault was transferred to southward directed thrusting which led to the exhumation of the ultra high pressure metamorphic rocks formed earlier postcollisional himalayan type intracontinental thrusting and concomitant erosion appear to be the main agents in the exhumation of the very high pressure metamorphic rocks in china

precise molybdenite re os and mica ar ar dating of the mesozoic yaogangxian tungsten deposit central nanling district south china the yaogangxian deposit in the central nanling region south china consists of vein type ore bodies hosted in cambrian to jurassic strata and mesozoic granitic intrusions wolframite and molybdenite are the dominant ore minerals intergrown with gangue minerals of quartz feldspar phlogopite and muscovite we have carried out molybdenite re os and phlogopite and muscovite 40ar 39ar dating to better understand the timing and genesis of mineralization re os dating of eight molybdenite samples yielded model ages ranging from 152 0 3 5 to 161 1 4 5 ma with an average of 156 0 ma the re os analyses give a well defined 187re 187os isochron with an age of 154 9 2 6 ma mswd 2 4 hydrothermal phlogopite and muscovite display extremely flat 40ar 39ar age spectra phlogopite yields a 40ar 39ar plateau age of 153 0 1 1 ma whereas muscovite yields a plateau age of 155 1 1 1 ma both 40ar 39ar ages are in good agreement with the re os ages placing the timing of tungsten mineralization at about 154 ma this age is consistent with the field relationships our new data when combined with published geochronological results from other major deposits in this region suggest that large scale w sn mineralization occurred throughout the central nanling region in the late jurassic

zircon u pb molybdenite re os and muscovite ar ar isotopic dating of the xitian w sn polymetallic deposit eastern hunan province south china and its geological significance the xitian tungsten tin w sn polymetallic deposit located in eastern hunan province south china is a recently explored region containing one of the largest w sn deposits in the nanling w sn metallogenic province the mineral zones in this deposit comprise skarn greisen structurally altered rock and quartz vein types the deposit is mainly hosted by devonian dolomitic limestone at the contact with the xitian granite complex the xitian granite complex consists of indosinian late triassic 230 215 ma and yanshanian late jurassic early cretaceous 165 141 ma granites zircons from two samples of the xitian granite dated using laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometer la icpms u pb analysis yielded two ages of 225 6 1 3 ma and 151 8 1 4 ma representing the emplacement ages of two episodic intrusions of the xitian granite complex molybdenites separated from ore bearing quartz veins yielded a re os isochron age of 149 7 0 9 ma in excellent agreement with a weighted mean age of 150 3 0 5 ma two samples of muscovites from ore bearing greisens yielded 40ar 39ar plateau ages of 149 5 1 5 ma and 149 4 1 5 ma respectively these isotopic ages obtained from hydrothermal minerals are slightly younger than the zircon u pb age of 151 8 1 4 ma of the yanshanian granite in the xitian area indicating that the w sn mineralization is genetically related to the late jurassic magmatism the xitian deposit is a good example of the early yanshanian regional w sn ore forming event 160 150 ma in the nanling region the relatively high re contents 8 7 to 44 0 ppm average of 30 5 ppm in molybdenites suggest a mixture of mantle and crustal sources in the genesis of the ore forming fluids and melts based upon previous geochemical studies of early yanshanian granite and regional geology we argue that the xitian w sn polymetallic deposit can be attributed to back arc lithosphere extension in the region which was probably triggered by the break off of the flat slab of the palae pacific plate beneath the lithosphere

p wave velocities anisotropy and hysteresis in ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks as a function of confining pressure 1 the chinese continental drilling project ccsd has drilled to a depth of 5100 m at maobei n34 40 e118 67 donghai county jiangsu province in the eastern segment of the dabie sulu ultrahigh pressure uhp metamorphic terrane the borehole which penetrated through all of the high velocity layers and seismic reflectors observed within the uppermost crust on seismic refraction and reflection profiles reveals the main lithologies to be coesite bearing felsic gneisses metabasic rocks i e amphibolite retrogressed and non retrogressed eclogites and ultramafic rocks i e garnet peridotite and serpentinite p wave velocities anisotropy and hysteresis of 31 typical ccsd core samples and 35 representative surface samples collected from the sulu uhp belt were measured at hydrostatic confining pressures up to 800 mpa the velocity pressure curves can be well described by a four parameter exponential equation derived from theory v p v0 dp b0 exp kp where v0 is the projected velocity at zero pressure if pores cracks were absent d is the intrinsic pressure derivative of velocity in the linear elastic regime b0 is the initial velocity drop caused by the presence of pores cracks at zero pressure and k is the decay constant of the velocity drop in the nonlinear poro elastic regime the seismic hysteresis is caused by irreversible changes in grain contact increases in microcrack aspect ratios and reduction of void space during the pressurization depressurization cycle the statistical properties of p wave velocities in the uhp rocks provide an important set of basic information for the interpretation of field seismic data from the root zones of continental convergent orogenic belts and modern and ancient subduction zones

re os isotopic dating of molybdenites in the xiaoliugou w mo deposit in the northern qilian mountains and its geological significance abstract the xiaoliugou is a large scale w mo deposit newly explored in the northern qilian mountains caledonian fold belt northwestern china it is a vein and skarn type deposit genetically associated with the xiaoliugou caledonian granodiorite stock re os isotopic dating for the molybdenite in the deposit yields an isochron age of 462 13 ma 2 and model ages of 436 to 496 ma these results suggest that w mo mineralization occurred before the collision of plates and mineralized substances mainly originated from the crust

constraints of in situ zircon and cassiterite u pb molybdenite re os and muscovite 40ar 39ar ages on multiple generations of granitic magmatism and related w sn mineralization in the wangxianling area nanling range south china abstract the nanling range in south china hosts numerous w sn rare metal deposits associated with several cycles of polygenetic granitic intrusions in the wangxianling area of the middle nanling range igneous intrusions include the wangxianling and hehuaping granite plutons and more than 20 granite porphyry dykes the wangxianling pluton has a central phase of medium grained tourmaline two mica granite and a marginal phase of medium grained tourmaline muscovite granite the pluton hosts several tungsten deposits including shuiyuanshan and yejiwo mineralization type is dominantly scheelite greisen with subordinate scheelite skarn and wolframite quartz veins the hehuaping pluton composed of coarse grained biotite granite and granite porphyry dykes to the east of the wangxianling pluton have an associated hehuaping tin deposit with tin skarn and subordinate porphyry and greisen mineralization in situ zircon and cassiterite u pb dating molybdenite re os and muscovite 40ar 39ar dating techniques are used to refine the age spectra of granitic rocks and w sn mineralization in the wangxianling area granites of the wangxianling pluton have zircon u pb ages of 224 ma tungsten bearing quartz veins from both the shuiyuanshan and yejiwo tungsten deposits have an average molybdenite re os isochron age of 224 ma and muscovite of scheelite greisen from the shuiyuanshan tungsten deposit yields a 40ar 39ar plateau age of 214 ma the two mineralization ages are consistent with the zircon u pb age of the wangxianling pluton indicating a close association between pluton emplacement and w mineralization in the late triassic both the hehuaping pluton and granite porphyry dykes have zircon u pb ages of 156 ma in situ la icp ms u pb dating of cassiterite in both the tin skarn and tin greisen yields an average age of 156 ma showing that the sn mineralization occurred at a similar time to the late jurassic granitic magmatism thus two mineralization events are identified in the wangxianling area and include an earlier w dominant mineralization event and a later sn dominant mineralization event the earlier event is related both spatially and temporally to intrusion of the late triassic s type wangxianling granite pluton whereas the later mineralization is associated both spatially and temporally with intrusion of the late jurassic hehuaping a2 type granite pluton and a2 type granite porphyry dykes

continental subduction and a mechanism for exhumation of high pressure metamorphic rocks new modelling and field data from oman abstract the physical model presented reveals two principal regimes of continental subduction a highly compressional hc regime and a low compressional lc regime characterised by high and low pressure between the overriding and subducting plates respectively the pressure is inversely proportional to the pull force which depends on the difference between average density of the subducting lithosphere and density of the mantle the subducting continental crust reaches a maximum depth which is proportional to the strength of the crust inversely proportional to the interplate pressure and is ca 200 km on average the crust then fails forming a major crustal thrust the location of failure depends on the regime of subduction on the interplate pressure in the hc regime failure occurs near the front of the subduction collision zone whereas the crust fails at greater depth under the base of the overriding plate in the lc regime the failure is followed by buoyancy driven uplift of the subducted crustal slice while the lithospheric mantle keeps subducting the uplift causes a normal sense displacement formation of a normal fault along the upper surface of the crustal slice for the lc regime failure of the crust near the base of the overriding plate a rapid spontaneous crustal uplift intrusion into the interplate zone brings the deeply subducted crust to shallow depths under the pressure of this crust the frontal part of the overriding plate undergoes local extension and then fails forming a tectonic window the rising material the high pressure rocks is exhumed within this window in the hc regime uplift of the subducted crust after its failure in front of the overriding plate is possible only with erosion of the relief which provides an unloading effect allowing the subducted crustal slice to rise up the exhumation depth is generally smaller in this regime but the volume of the exhumed material is larger the hc subduction regime has been shown earlier to match the himalayan situation the lc regime fits the situation in the oman mountains considered in this paper

estimation of shear strength recovery and permeability of single rock fractures in shear hold shear type direct shear tests abstract the evolution of the long term mechanical hydraulic and transport characteristics of rock fractures should be predicted in advance by considering the issue of the underground deposits of the energy byproducts of high level radioactive waste this paper presents slide hold slide direct shear flow coupling experiments conducted for mortar and granite specimens with single fractures so as to investigate the effects of load holding on the mechanical properties of rock joints from the experimental results it is confirmed that the shear strength of the mortar replica specimens increases and the permeability decreases during 3 days of load holding however no significant changes are observed for the mechanical or the hydro mechanical properties of the granite specimen even after 20 days of load holding it is also confirmed that the shear strength of the mortar specimens increases in both short and long time holding cases however the evolution of shear strength recovery is found to be different for the two cases this is because the dominant factor in the shear strength recovery during short time holding may be attributed to a purely mechanical process like creep deformation at the contacting asperities while the shear strength recovery during long time holding is affected by both mechanical and chemical processes moreover to reproduce the shear strength recovery during short time holding we develop a direct shear model by employing a temporal variation in the dilation that occurs during load holding the model predictions are in relatively good agreement with the experimental observations in the range of the short holding period

crustal radial anisotropy beneath the dabie orogenic belt from ambient noise tomography summary in this study we continue our previous work of imaging isotropic shear velocity to study the crustal radial anisotropy beneath the dabie orogen and surrounding regions by jointly analysing rayleigh wave and love wave dispersion curves in addition to processing the vertical component data to retrieve rayleigh waves we collect horizontal component continuous ambient noise data and retrieve love waves from cross correlations of horizontal component noise data between station pairs then we measure love phase velocity dispersion curves at periods from 8 to 35 s using a spectral method and perform surface wave tomography to obtain high resolution phase velocity maps finally we determine crustal radial anisotropy by inverting the local phase velocity dispersion curves of rayleigh and love waves our model of crustal radial anisotropy reveals complex anisotropic patterns associated with the dynamic processes of continent continent collisions and post collision reworking between the north china craton and the yangtze craton in the huabei basin the radial anisotropy is positive throughout the entire crust corresponding to areas with extensional tectonics developed since the middle mesozoic in the jianghan basin strong positive radial anisotropy in the middle and lower crust is observed most likely resulting from subhorizontal alignment of seismic anisotropic materials under the crustal extensional deformation in the eastern dabie orogenic belt the radial anisotropy beneath northern dabie complex ndc appears positive in the upper and lower crust and negative in the middle crust the positive radial anisotropy in the upper crust is probably because of the presence of igneous rocks with anisotropic minerals aligned subhorizontally under the action of the extensional tectonics during igneous extrusion and emplacement whereas the positive radial anisotropy in the lower crust is probably because that subhorizontal alignment of anisotropic materials induced by magmatic underplating formed after the delamination of the orogeny in the middle crust finite strains associated with the vertical intrusion of deep magma might cause crystalline anisotropic minerals aligned vertically resulting in observed negative radial anisotropy in the western dabie orogenic belt positive radial anisotropy is present in the whole crust except beneath the hong an ultrahigh pressure uhp area where radial anisotropy is negative in the middle crust similar to ndc the hong an uhp probably experienced similar thermal geodynamic processes as the eastern dabie and the negative radial anisotropy might be also the result of vertical alignment of anisotropic minerals caused by the vertical intrusion of deep magma strong localized negative radial anisotropy in the middle crust beneath the xinyang area is imaged most likely caused by the vertical alignment of anisotropic minerals crystallized from the vertically intruding mafic magma originated from the upper mantle during the volcanism

hydrothermal zircon geochronology age constraint on nanling range tungsten mineralization southeast china abstract the nanling range southeast china is well known for its wolframite bearing quartz vein wqv tungsten deposit this study focuses on the geochemistry and geochronology of zircons from the wqv and challenges the current view of the tungsten mineralization in the nanling range the features of the wqv zircons include 1 pale brown murky brown or orange red color and translucence under microscope 2 110 101 type crystal form 3 weak cathodoluminescence 4 enrichment of hf ranging from 1 97 to 7 83 wt hfo2 u ranging from 0 02 to 3 97 wt uo2 th ranging from 0 to 0 65 wt tho2 and p ranging from 0 to 1 82 wt p2o5 and 5 presence of solid hydrothermal and ore minerals and fluid inclusions these features indicate that the wqv zircons crystallized from hydrothermal fluids during tungsten mineralization the in situ la icpms u pb results of the wqv zircons from five different tungsten deposits in the nanling range yield similar ages ranging from 134 4 1 9 ma to 132 9 1 5 ma approximately 20 million years younger than proposed tungsten ore ages 155 5 ma several mineralization characteristics and field observations also cast doubt on the current model nanling range tungsten ore is the result of orthomagmatic processes the zircon characterization method provided in this study could be applied to tungsten metallogenic research in other parts of the world

exhumation of high pressure rocks a review of concepts and processes the exhumation of high pressure metamorphic rocks requires either the removal of the overburden that caused the high pressures or the transport of the metamorphic rocks through the overburden exhumation cannot be achieved simply by thrusting or strike slip faulting it may be caused by erosion of shortened and thickened crust but this is unlikely to be the only mechanism for exhuming rocks from depths greater than about 20 km one or more of the following additional mechanisms may be involved 1 corner flow of low viscosity material trapped between the upper and lower plates in a subduction zone can cause upward flow of deeply buried rock and may explain some occurrences of high pressure tectonic blocks in melange this process does not however appear to be adequate to explain the exhumation of regional high pressure terrains 2 buoyancy forces acting directly on metamorphic rock bodies may cause them to rise relative to more dense surroundings this is likely to be the most important mechanism of exhumation of crustal rocks subducted into the mantle but cannot explain the emplacement of coherent tracts of high density metamorphic rock into shallow crustal levels some high pressure blocks emplaced at shallow levels in accretionary terrains may have been entrained in diapiric intrusions of low density mud or serpentinite 3 extension driven by the forces associated with contrasts in surface elevation may explain the exhumation and structural setting of many high pressure terrains extension may occur in the upper part of an accretionary wedge thickened by underplating or it may affect the whole lithosphere in a region of intracontinental convergence if surface elevation has been increased by the removal of a lithospheric root in the second case extension may be accompanied by magmatism and an evolution towards higher temperature during decompression of the metamorphic terrain

multiple mesozoic mineralization events in south china an introduction to the thematic issue mesozoic mineral deposits in south china include world class deposits of w sn and sb and those that provide the major sources of ta cu hg as tl pb zn au and ag for the entire country these deposits can be classified into polymetallic hydrothermal systems closely related to felsic intrusive rocks sn w mo granites cu porphyries polymetallic and fe skarns and polymetallic vein deposits and low temperature hydrothermal systems with no direct connection to igneous activities mvt deposits epithermal au and sb deposits recent studies have shown that they formed in the triassic indosinian jurassic cretaceous early yanshanian and cretaceous late yanshanian stages indosinian deposits include major mvt pb zn ag deposits and granite related w sn deposits early yanshanian deposits are low temperature sb au and high temperature w sn and cu porphyry types many late yanshanian deposits are low temperature au as sb hg and u deposits and also include high temperature w sn polymetallic deposits the formation of these deposits is linked with a specific tectonothermal evolution and igneous activities this special issue brings together some of the latest information in eight papers that deal with the origins and tectonic environments of mineral deposits formed in these stages we anticipate that this issue will stimulate more interests in these ore deposits in south china

u pb zircon geochemical and sr nd hf isotopic constraints on age and origin of jurassic i and a type granites from central guangdong se china a major igneous event in response to foundering of a subducted flat slab abstract the mesozoic geology of se china is characterized by widespread jurassic to cretaceous igneous rocks consisting predominantly of granites and rhyolites and subordinate mafic lithologies however the tectonic regime responsible for the inland jurassic granites remains controversial we report here u pb zircon ages geochemical and sr nd hf isotopic data for the nankunshan alkaline granite and the fogang granitic batholith in central guangdong mineralogical and geochemical features suggest that the fogang and nankunshan rocks are i and aluminous a type granites respectively shrimp u pb zircon analyses yield consistent ages ranging from 159 3 ma to 165 2 ma for four samples from the fogang batholith and an age of 158 5 ma for the nankunshan granite the fogang granites having i sr 0 7098 0 7136 e nd t 4 3 to 12 2 and e hf t 11 5 to 3 1 for the magmatic zircons were derived from paleoproterozoic mafic intermediate igneous protolith with minor addition of mantle derived magmas the nankunshan rocks have relatively lower i sr 0 706 0 708 higher e nd t 0 3 to 2 4 and e hf t 5 7 to 1 1 for the magmatic zircons and some oib like trace element ratios they were likely generated through extensive fractional crystallization of mantle derived alkaline parental magma associated with crustal assimilation these 160 ma i and a type granites in central guangdong were emplaced coeval with the widespread 165 155 ma i and a type granites and syenites following the initiation of intraplate basaltic and or bimodal igneous magmatism at 180 170 ma in the adjacent regions we interpret these jurassic igneous rocks as anorogenic magmatism formed during a major igneous event in response to foundering of an early mesozoic subducted flat slab beneath se china continent

he pb and s isotopic constraints on the relationship between the a type qitianling granite and the furong tin deposit hunan province china abstract the furong tin deposit located in southern hunan province china is a large newly discovered deposit with an estimated sn reserve of about 700 000 tons the deposit is spatially and temporally associated with the a type qitianling granite the 3he 4he ratios of fluid inclusions trapped in sulfides from the deposit range from 0 13 to 2 95 ra indicating a mixed crust mantle source similar to that of the qitianling granite complex lead isotopes in feldspars of the granite mostly in the range of 206pb 204pb 18 547 19 180 207pb 204pb 15 598 15 825 208pb 204pb 37 912 39 068 and in sulfide minerals 206pb 204pb 18 467 18 836 207pb 204pb 15 503 15 772 208pb 204pb 38 607 39 099 are essentially the same indicating that the lead in both was derived mainly from the upper crust with a small mantle component the sulfur isotopic values of the ore minerals vary widely ranging from 26 1 to 10 4 but are mainly within the range of 0 2 to 10 4 implying that the s in the hydrothermal fluids was derived mainly from magmatic fluids with minor contributions from the mantle sedimentary rocks and biogenic material the he pb and s isotopes all confirm that the ore forming fluids of the furong deposit were magmatic in origin derived from the melts that produced the qitianling a type granite the tin mineralization occurs within or along the margins of the qitianling granite complex and the timing of the mineralization coincides with the intrusive age of the granite the available data suggest that the emplacement of the granites and the mineralization was related to mantle upwelling and extension of the lithosphere in south china during the mesozoic

a crustal model of the ultrahigh pressure dabie shan orogenic belt china derived from deep seismic refraction profiling we present a new crustal cross section through the east west trending ultrahigh pressure uhp dabie shan orogenic belt east central china based on a 400 km long seismic refraction profile data from our profile reveal that the cratonal blocks north and south of the orogen are composed of 35 km thick crust consisting of three layers upper middle and lower crust with average seismic velocities of 6 0 6 0 2 km s 6 5 6 0 1 km s and 6 8 6 0 1 km s the crust reaches a maximum thickness of 41 5 km beneath the northern margin of the orogen and thus the present day root beneath the orogen is only 6 5 km thick the upper mantle velocity is 8 0 6 0 1 km s modeling of shear wave data indicate that poisson s ratio increases from 0 24 6 0 02 in the upper crust to 0 27 6 0 03 in the lower crust this result is consistent with a dominantly felsic upper crustal composition and a mafic lower crustal composition within the amphibolite or granulite metamorphic facies our seismic model indicates that eclogite which is abundant in surface exposures within the orogen is not a volumetrically significant component in the middle or lower crust much of the triassic structure associated with the formation of the uhp rocks of the dabie shan has been obscured by post triassic igneous activity extension and large offset strike slip faulting nevertheless we can identify a high velocity 6 3 km s zone in the upper 5 km depth crustal core of the orogen which we interpret as a zone of ultrahigh pressure rocks a north dipping suture and an apparent moho offset that marks a likely active strike slip fault

moho mapping in the dabie ultrahigh pressure collisional orogen central china eight wide angle reflection refraction seismic profiles with a total length of 1700 km and near vertical reflection seismic profiles with a total length of 340 km across the dabie orogen eastern china have been completed in recent years and allow the moho depth and uppermost mantle velocity to be mapped across 40 000 km 2 these data reveal the detailed structure of the crust and upper mantle of this orogen that resulted from collision of the north china craton ncc with the yangtze craton yc the dabie orogen is an asymmetric orogen with a thin crustal root 6 km preserved in its northern part highlighted by a north dipping moho compared to the nearly seismically transparent lower crust the moho crust mantle transition zone under the dabie orogen is a prominent north dipping strongly layered reflection which is inferred to reflect the remnants of subduction of yc under the edge of the ncc or post collisional exhumation of ultrahigh pressure uhp rocks and indicates the northward polarity of subduction of the yc the moho of the yc and ncc meet beneath the northern part of the dabie mountains and the ncc moho north is uplifted by 4 to 5 km offset 1 over the yc moho south marking the ncc yc collision zone along the southern margin of the dabie mountains the moho below the yangtze foreland is underthrust beneath the moho of the dabie mountains forming another moho overlap offset 2 with a depth difference of 5 to 6 km the two moho overlaps offsets at both flanks of the dabie mountains formed two crustal scale boundaries at depth between the ncc and the dabie orogen and the dabie orogen and the yc respectively offset 1 is considered to be the triassic suture between the yc and ncc as supported by the metamorphic ages of uhp rocks this displays a wedge shaped offset zone opening towards the east that acted as a channel for exhumation of uhp rocks offset 2 under the southern margin of the dabie orogen is connected to the xiangfan guangji fault that gave rise to a large scale thrust detachment that propagated towards the foreland of the dabie orogen during the jurassic thus our moho mapping confirms that there are structural remnants of the triassic deep continental subduction preserved despite the superimposed jurassic deformation