Late Miocene Yellow River formation in Qingtongxia area, North China: Detrital zircon and heavy mineral analysis at Niushou Mountain, Ningxia

Abstract

The development and formation times of the Yellow River, the second largest drainage system in China, remain controversial. The Ganhegou Formation, a set of Upper Miocene-Pliocene fluvial facies sediments, developed around Niushou Mountain in the outermost edge of the arcuate structural belt in the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau and has a sediment composition very similar to that of the Yellow River. In this article, the relationship between the deposition of the Ganhegou Formation and the Yellow River is confirmed through the analysis and comparison of sediment composition, detrital zircons, and heavy mineral characteristics of the Ganhegou Formation, a Yellow River terrace, and the modern Yellow River. The sediments of the Ganhegou Formation contain abundant well-ground and sorted fluvial pebbles that are largely consistent with Yellow River sediments. The analysis of the composition of zircons and heavy minerals shows that the age peaks of all detrital zircons are primarily among 200-300 Ma, 400-500 Ma, and 1,700-2,000 Ma and that all the heavy minerals are generally characterized by the combination of 'haematite + garnet + zircon + epidote + quartz and altered minerals'. Therefore, the Ganhegou Formation in the Niushou Mountain area of Ningxia is a likely sediment of the ancient Yellow River, which has existed at Qingtongxia since at least the Late Miocene.

How Was the Late Neogene Red Clay Formed in the Ordos Plateau (Northwest China)?

“…The zircon U-Pb age composition of the Late Miocene-Pliocene (10-2.6 Ma) strata in the Yinchuan Basin exhibits similarities with those of the Qilian Shan and the upper reaches of the Yellow River [52,55,64,96,98] (Figure 6l-p). This implies that the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau served as a source for the upper reaches of the Yellow River, which subsequently flowed into the Yinchuan Basin during this period [62,109].…”

“…The red clay profile, which includes zircon U-Pb samples, stretches across the Ordos Plateau from east to west, encompassing Dongwan [10], Chaona [40], Xifeng [31], Lingtai [48], Jingbian [13], Jiaxian [41], Baode [10], Lantian [10,49], and Shilou [47] (Figure 5b-i). The sampled locations of potential sources span the Miocene to Pliocene strata within the Yumen Basin at the western end of the northern foothills of the Qilian Shan [69], as well as the Wuwei [95] and Yinchuan basins [52,55] in the eastern region. Additionally, we included data from Miocene strata in the Wushan [88], Tianshui [88], and Weihe basins [54,57] along the northern foothills of the Qinling Shan.…”

“…Furthermore, the evolution of the Wei River in the Miocene and Pliocene provided ample clastic materials for the deposition of red clay in the Lantian section. Throughout the Miocene and Pliocene, the Wei and Yellow rivers accumulated a substantial amount of detrital material [52,53,55], which did not reach the sea but rather served as the foundational material for the development of red clay in the Ordos Plateau. This pattern of aeolian sediment development is also observed in various regions, including the northern foothills of the Altun Shan in the northern Tibetan Plateau ( [47]; Figure 1), the Tajik Basin in the western Pamir Plateau (Wang et al, 2016b; Figure 1), the Pannonian Basin in the Carpathian Mountains [132], and the Pampas Plain east of the Andes [133].…”

“…Extensive documentation of zircon U-Pb age data from these Neogene strata provides valuable spatial provenance information [10,13,18,31,40,41,[47][48][49]. Additionally, the evolution of the upper and middle Yellow River and the Wei River during the Neogene has been thoroughly studied [16,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Detailed records of the U-Pb ages of detrital zircons from diluvial fans [49,59,60], deserts [39,[61][62][63][64], and sandy lands [61,62,65] in Northwest China have been reported.…”

Active tectonics and palaeo‐environmental change in West China ‐ Preface

“…Bao, Chen, and Zhao (2020) suggest that the Yellow River occurred in Qingtongxia, North China in the Late Miocene. The relationship between the deposition of the Late Miocene–Pliocene Ganhegou Formation and the Yellow River is confirmed in the Niushou Mountain area of Ningxia.…”