NEOPROTEROZOIC OROGENY-RELATED MAGMATIC EVENT IN THE NORTHWESTERN YANGTZE BLOCK AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE UNIFICATION OF SOUTH CHINA
The igneous suite is located at the Wangcang area, NE Sichuan province. It consists of tholeiitic- and alkali mafic rocks, and adakitic to calc-alkali felsic intrusions. They are dated at 8554Ma to 8675 Ma by U-Pb zircon, and show arc-related geochemical affinities with highly variable whole rock εNd (up to +7.78) and zircon εHf(t) values. The Wangcang suite is featured by high deformation and metamorphism of upper greenschist to amphibolitic facieses, which is contrast to the low grade ~820-750 Ma igneous suites in the same region. It suggests that the northwestern Yangtze block experienced an arc-continental orogenic event occurred during ~860-820 Ma.
Our recent work has revealed that the Shennongjia terrain and the Yangtze continental nucleus was welded between ~1100-950Ma. These findings suggest that the unification of South China comprises a set of collision events. This work provides a new clue for our understanding of the connection between the Neoproterozoic evolution of South China and Rodinia cycle.
This study was supported by the NSFC (Grants 41173048 and 41373037).