Proterozoic rapakivi granites from the North Qaidam orogen, NW China: Implications for basement attribution

Continuity of the Western Qinling and Qaidam‐Qilian blocks: Evidence from Precambrian and Permian–Triassic strata around the Gonghe Basin area, NW China

“…(f) Compilation of zircon ages from igneous rocks in the Qilian Block (Chen et al, ; Huang et al, ; Tseng et al, ; Tung et al, , ; Xia et al, ; Xia, Song, & Niu, ; Xu et al, ; Yu, Zhang, del Real, et al, ; Zhang, Chen, et al, ). (g) Compilation of zircon ages from igneous rocks in the North Qaidam UHPM belt (Chen, Liu, Sun, & Liou, ; Chen et al, ; Gong et al, ; Liao et al, ; Liu et al, ; Song et al, , Song, Niu, Su, Wei, & Zhang, ; Wang et al, , , ; Xiong et al, ; Yu, Zhang, del Real, et al, , Yu, Zhang, Li, et al, , Yu et al, ; Zhang, Mattinson, Meng, Yang, & Wan, ;). (h) Compilation of detrital zircon ages from the North Qilian Orogenic Belt (Xu et al, ; Xu, Du, Cawood, & Yang, ; Yang, Du, Cawood, & Xu, ; Zhang et al, ) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

“…The Qilian Block north to the North Qaidam Ultra-high Pressure Metamorphic (UHPM) belt ( Figure 1b) is a Precambrian basement overlain by thick and large area Palaeozoic-Early Mesozoic sedimentary sequences. Precambrian magma movement in the Qilian Block is similar to those in the North Qaidam UHPM belt (Liao et al, 2014;Song, Su, & Li, X.-h., Niu, Y., & Zhang, L., 2012;Wang et al, 2013Wang et al, , 2015. In the Qilian Block, Palaeoproterozoic orthogneiss and rapakivi FIGURE 2 Simplified geological map showing the spatial distribution of multiple stages of intrusions, Precambrian to Triassic strata, and sample locations around the Gonghe Basin (revised from Chen, Zhou, Pi, Wang, & Li, 2009;Feng et al, 2002) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] granites Lu, Yu, & Zhao, 2002;Wang, Pan, Chen, Li, & Chen, 2009) and Neoproterozoic granitic plutons that intruded into the Neoproterozoic strata have been identified ( Figure 2; Huang et al, 2015;Tung et al, 2012Tung et al, , 2013,.…”

“…Different colours represent various deposition periods of these strata, that is, brown for Precambrian strata, yellow for Permian strata, and green for Triassic strata [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] FIGURE 6 Plot of epsilon Hf versus U-Pb ages of detrital zircons around the Gonghe Basin. The previously reported zircons from igneous rocks in the Qilian Block Yu, Zhang, del Real, et al, 2013), the Eastern Kunlun Orogen Li, Pei, et al, 2015), and the North Qaidam UHPM belt (Liao et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2014;Song, Niu, Su, Wei, & Zhang, 2014;Wang et al, 2015;Wang, Song, Niu, & Su, 2014;Xiong, Zheng, Griffin, O'Reilly, & Pearson, 2014;Xiong, Zheng, Griffin, O'Reilly, & Zhao, 2011;Yu et al, 2014;Yu, Zhang, del Real, et al, 2013;, from Triassic intrusions around the Gonghe Basin of the Western Qinling Block Luo et al, 2012), and from (meta-) sedimentary rocks in the Qaidam-Qilian Block (Xiong, Zheng, Griffin, O'Reilly, & Pearson, 2012;Yu, Zhang, del Real, et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2012) were also plotted for comparison. DM represented the depleted mantle 176 Hf/ 177 Hf growth line, the present-day Hf isotopic composition of which was defined by mid-ocean ridge basalts (Griffin, Belousova, Shee, Pearson, & O'Reilly, 2004).…”

“…The Qilian Block north to the North Qaidam Ultra‐high Pressure Metamorphic (UHPM) belt (Figure b) is a Precambrian basement overlain by thick and large area Palaeozoic–Early Mesozoic sedimentary sequences. Precambrian magma movement in the Qilian Block is similar to those in the North Qaidam UHPM belt (Liao et al, ; Song, Su, & Li, X.‐h., Niu, Y., & Zhang, L., ; Wang et al, , ). In the Qilian Block, Palaeoproterozoic orthogneiss and rapakivi granites (Chen et al, ; Lu, Yu, & Zhao, ; Wang, Pan, Chen, Li, & Chen, ) and Neoproterozoic granitic plutons that intruded into the Neoproterozoic strata have been identified (Figure ; Huang et al, ; Tung et al, , ; Yu et al, ),.…”

“…In the past decade, the Qaidam‐Qilian Block south to the North Qilian Orogen has received much attention as it preserves robust records of the tectonic evolution from oceanic subduction to continental collision and the related ultra‐high pressure metamorphism (e.g., Song et al, , ; Song, Niu, Su, Wei, & Zhang, ; Song, Niu, Su, Zhang, & Zhang, ; Yu, Zhang, & del Real, ; Zhang et al, ; Zhang, Mattinson, Yu, & Li, ; Zhang, Meng, & Wan, ). Moreover, the tectonic origin (Huang et al, ; Ping, Zheng, Zhao, Tang, & Griffin, ; Tung et al, , ; Wang, Wang, Castro, & Hu, ) and the disassembly processes from Rodinia (Li et al, ) of the Qaidam‐Qilian and Western Qinling blocks were fully studied.…”