Sediment Provenance of the Intracontinental Ordos Basin in North China Craton Controlled by Tectonic Evolution of the Basin-Orogen System

Detrital zircon U–Pb ages from the Middle to Late Permian strata of the Yiyang area, southern North China Craton: Implications for the Mianlue oceanic crust subduction

“…As mentioned above, numerous published detrital zircon data demonstrate that the source of the Upper Carboniferous Benxi Formation (Cai et al, ; Q. F. Wang et al, ; W. Y. Zhou, Jiao, et al, ) and Lower Permian Taiyuan Formation (D. B. Yang et al, ; Zhu et al, ) within the southern NCC was derived from the NQB, indicating that the NQB was uplifted during the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian. However, the source region changed dramatically as a result of the intense uplift along the northern margin of the NCC since the depositional stage of the Lower Permian Shanxi Formation (W. Y. Zhou, Jiao, et al, ; Zhu et al, ). This conclusion is supported by the sediment provenance of the Shihezi Formation in the Yiyang area that was sourced from the IMPU, reflecting that the NQB should experience relative subsidence during the Early–Middle Permian.…”

“…(b) In contrast, some authors suggest that the Shangdan Ocean did not close until the Carboniferous (L. Y. Chen, Liu, Qu, & Hu, ; Z. Yan et al, ; Z. Yan, Wang, Yan, Wang, & Guo, ; S. J. Zhao et al, ). Thus, the uplift of the NQB during the Late Carboniferous was widely interpreted as the succedent collision along the Shangdan Suture, based on the detrital zircon record of the Benxi and Taiyuan formations in the Ordos Basin (W. Y. Zhou, Jiao, et al, ), Qinshui Basin (Zhu et al, ), and Dengfeng area in the southern NCC (D. B. Yang et al, ). (c) Another viewpoint suggests that the Shangdan Ocean was continuously subducted and successively closed with the Mianlue Ocean until the Indosinian (S. Z. Li, Jahn, et al, ; S. F. Liu & Zhang, ; W. T. Yang, Wang, Zheng, & Du, ; S. M. Zhang, Jiang, Liu, & Wang, ).…”

“…Initially, seawater intruded in the north‐east NCC and subsequently expanded to the hinterland, which indicates that the NCC entered an epicontinental sea depositional evolutionary stage (Ma, Li, & Lv, ). During the Early Permian, the NCC underwent a large‐scale structural transformation with northern uplift and southern subsidence (S. Z. Li, Jahn, et al, ; Ma et al, ; W. Y. Zhou, Jiao, et al, ; Zhu et al, ). The epicontinental sea gradually retreated to the south‐eastern margin of the NCC, characterized by the coal‐bearing sedimentary architecture in the marine–terrestrial transition stage (Shao et al, ).…”

“…During the Early Permian, the NCC underwent a large-scale structural transformation with northern uplift and southern subsidence (S. Z. Li, Jahn, et al, 2017;Ma et al, 2010;W. Y. Zhou, Jiao, et al, 2017;Zhu et al, 2014).…”

“…Based on the detrital zircon geochronology analyses of the Benxi and Taiyuan formations, the NQB provided the primary detritus for the southern NCC during the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian (Cai, Wang, Liu, Feng, & Zhang, ; Q. F. Wang, Deng, Liu, Zhao, & Cai, ; W. Y. Zhou, Jiao, & Zhao, ; Zhu, Zhu, Ge, & Wang, ). In contrast, the sediments in the Early Permian to Triassic strata were widely considered to originate from the Inner Mongolia Palaeo‐Uplift (IMPU) along the northern margin of the NCC (H. Y. Li, He, Xu, & Huang, ; W. Y. Zhou, Jiao, et al, ; Zhu et al, ). However, the Ordos Basin had bidirectional sources that consisted of the IMPU and the NQB during the Late Palaeozoic (Q. H. Chen et al, ; He et al, ; H. Y. Li et al, ; S. X. Li, Xiang, Zhang, Wang, Wang, ).…”