Detrital zircon U–Pb dating and Hf isotope study of late Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks in central–eastern Jilin Province, NE China: Constraints for tectonic evolution of the eastern segment of the Paleo‐Asian Ocean

Abstract

This paper reports in situ U–Pb ages and Hf isotopic data on detrital zircons from Palaeozoic strata in central‐eastern Jilin Province, NE China, with the aim of constraining the timing of final closure of the Paleo‐Asian Ocean and the tectonic evolution of the eastern segment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). Zircons from Middle to Late Permian Fanjiatun and Yangjiagou formations in central Jilin Province are characterized by four major groups of age populations (2.5–2.3 Ga, 1.9–1.7 Ga, 1.3–1.0 Ga, and Late Palaeozoic ages). The Paleo‐Mesoproterozoic and Cambrian zircons have positive εHf(t) values, suggesting that the source was mainly locally derived from the CAOB, whereas a lesser amount of Archean zircons with positive εHf(t) values, indicating that source from the North China Craton (NCC). The Phanerozoic zircons have both positive and negative εHf(t) values indicates that material from bidirectional provenances in the CAOB and the NCC. However, Late Permian Kaishantun Formation in eastern Jilin Province contain a single group of Phanerozoic zircons with positive εHf(t) values, distinct from known igneous zircons in the NCC, suggesting a local source. These observations, along with the results of previous studies on Middle–Late Permian igneous rocks in Jilin Province, indicate that the eastern segment of the Paleo‐Asian Ocean underwent the initial closure in central Jilin Province during the Middle Permian and the final closure in eastern Jilin Province in the Late Permian–Early Triassic. The detrital zircon geochronological data clearly record two stages of tectonic evolution and the scissor‐like closure model of the Paleo‐Asian Ocean in the eastern segment of the CAOB.

The Late Triassic Molasse Deposits in Central Jilin Province, NE China: Constraints on the Paleo-Asian Ocean Closure

“…The CYS is composed mainly of Phanerozoic granitoids with a series of subduction-related tectonic mélanges, including the Kaiyuan, Xia ertai, Hulan, Seluohe, Qinglongcun, and Kaishantun tectonic mélanges [12,15,[21][22][23][25][26][27][28]31,35,47]. In addition, minor Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments are also distributed in the "granite ocean" [39,[43][44][45][46][48][49][50].…”

“…In one school of thought, the final closure occurred prior to the Permian, mainly including before the Late Devonian and between the Late Devonian [54][55][56] and Early Carboniferous [57][58][59]. In an alternative view, the closing of the PAO occurred during the Permian-Triassic, which can be reclassified as during the late Early Permian [60,61], during the Middle-Late Permian [62][63][64][65], during the Late Permian [4,34,48,66], during the Late Permian-Early Triassic [3,10,11,21,33,35,40,41,50,[67][68][69][70], during the Late Permian-Middle Triassic [5,22,25,26,28,32,42,71,72], and during the Middle-Late Triassic [20,24,37,49,73]. Therefore, substantial controversy remains regarding the closure time of the PAO along the CYS.…”

Zircon U–Pb Geochronology and Petrogenesis of Early–Midlle Permian Arc–Related Volcanic Rocks in Central Jilin: Implications for the Tectonic Evolution of the Eastern Segment of Central Asian Orogenic Belt

“…The Songliao Block possesses a tremendous region in NE China (Fig. 1), bounded by the Hegenshan-Heihe tectonic suture zone in the northwest, the Jilin-Heilongjiang Ultrahigh Pressure Belt in the east, and the Xar Moron-Changchun-Yanji tectonic suture zone in the south (Zhou et al, 2012b;Shi et al, 2019;Shi et al, 2020). It comprises the the Lesser Xing'an Range in the northeast, Zhangguangcai Range in the east, the southern Great Xing'an Range in the west, and the Songliao Basin in the central part, associated with the existence of basement rocks beneath the Songliao Basin.…”

“…Hf isotope methods are a responsible approach for the crustal evolutional research (Wu et al, 2007). Zircon Hf isotope compositions can be used for constraining the sourcing of the primary magma, for example, with zircons from Phanerozoic igneous rocks within the NCC have negative ε Hf (t) values (Yang et al, 2006;Liu et al, 2017), whereas those within igneous rocks of the CAOB having positive ε Hf (t) values (Liu et al, 2010;Cao et al, 2013;Shi et al, 2019;Shi et al, 2020). The positive ε Hf (t) values (7.1 to 17), and Hf two-stage model ages (284-652 Ma and 210-890 Ma) of zircons from the Early-Midlle Permian rhyolitic-andesitic sequence, suggest that the primary magma for these volcanic rocks, was probably derived from partial melting of a depleted lithospheric mantle of the CAOB (Fig.…”

“…In fact, the area underwent Early Permian subduction of the Paleo-Asian oceanic plate beneath the northern margin of the NCC (Fig. 10a) (Shi et al, 2020), and the subsequent regional sedimentation indicates that the Paleo-Asian Ocean evolved into an intercontinental remnant marine basin at the end of the Early Permian period due to the continuous subduction of the Paleo-Asian oceanic plate (Shi et al, 2019;Shi et al, 2020), which represents the initial collision between the microcontinents of NE China and northern margin of the NCC (Li, 2006). This strongly suggests that the formation of the Early-Middle Permian rhyolitic-dacitic volcanic rocks was associated with a subduction in the central Jilin Province (Fig.…”