Zircon U–Pb age, trace element and Hf isotope composition of Kongling terrane in the Yangtze Craton: refining the timing of Palaeoproterozoic high-grade metamorphism

U–Pb age, trace element and Hf isotope compositions of zircon were analysed for a metasedimentary rock and two amphibolites from the Kongling terrane in the northern part of the Yangtze Craton. The zircon shows distinct morphological and chemical characteristics. Most zircon in an amphibolite shows oscillatory zoning, high Th/U and ¹⁷⁶Lu/¹⁷⁷Hf ratios, high formation temperature, high trace element contents, clear negative Eu anomaly, as well as HREE-enriched patterns, suggesting that it is igneous. The zircon yields a weighted mean ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of 2857 ± 8 Ma, representing the age of the magmatic protolith. The zircon in the other two samples is metamorphic. It has low Th/U ratios, low trace element concentrations, variable HREE contents (33.8 ≥ Lu_N≥2213; 14.7 ≤ Lu_N/Sm_N ≤ 354) and ¹⁷⁶Lu/¹⁷⁷Hf ratios (0.000030–0.001168). The data indicate that the zircon formed in the presence of garnet and under upper amphibolite facies conditions. The metamorphic zircon yields a weighted mean ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of 2010 ± 13 Ma. These results combined with previously obtained Palaeoproterozoic metamorphic ages suggest a c. 2.0 Ga Palaeoproterozoic collisional event in the Yangtze Craton, which may result from the assembly of the supercontinent Columbia. The zircon in two samples yields weighted mean two-stage Hf model ( T _DM2) ages of 3217 ± 110 and 2943 ± 50 Ma, respectively, indicating that their protoliths were mainly derived from Archean crust.     

西藏结则茶卡湖岸沉积物中铀系年龄及意义

通过对藏北高原西北部结则茶卡湖泊及其沿岸地质地貌调查,发现其为一个富含硼、锂、钾、锶的封闭型盐湖,沿岸海拔4 850 m拔湖325 m有一条明显的高位湖岸线,该湖岸线到湖面之间有六级湖积阶地发育,六级以上阶地保存零星。沿湖岸不同高度上的湖积物U系年龄分别为(14.2±1.2)ka BP(T2)、(38.0±3.5)ka BP(T4)和(41.6±3.2)ka BP(T5)。湖面下降的幅度是藏北高原迄今所知最大。根据湖面平均下降速度推算高位湖岸线和高位湖积层的形成年龄在(120~90)ka BP,与东部的纳木错和西部的甜水海基本一致,说明藏北高原在晚更新世初期有一个明显的泛湖期。大约100 ka BP结则茶卡湖面开始下降,晚更新世以来湖泊演化是在封闭体系干旱环境下进行的,盐湖形成于14 ka BP左右,藏北高原在晚更新世以来气候变化可能为自西向东逐渐变为干寒。     

Pan-African eclogite facies metamorphism of ultramafic rocks in the Shackleton Range, Antarctica

In the Shackleton Range of East Antarctica, garnet-bearing ultramafic rocks occur as lenses in supracrustal high-grade gneisses. In the presence of olivine, garnet is an unmistakable indicator of eclogite facies metamorphic conditions. The eclogite facies assemblages are only present in ultramafic rocks, particularly in pyroxenites, whereas other lithologies – including metabasites – lack such assemblages. We conclude that under high-temperature conditions, pyroxenites preserve high-pressure assemblages better than isofacial metabasites, provided the pressure is high enough to stabilize garnet–olivine assemblages (i.e. ≥18–20 kbar). The Shackleton Range ultramafic rocks experienced a clockwise P–T path and peak conditions of 800–850 °C and 23–25 kbar. These conditions correspond to ∼70 km depth of burial and a metamorphic gradient of 11–12 °C km⁻¹ that is typical of a convergent plate-margin setting. The age of metamorphism is defined by two garnet–whole-rock Sm–Nd isochrons that give ages of 525 ± 5 and 520 ± 14 Ma corresponding to the time of the Pan-African orogeny. These results are evidence of a Pan-African suture zone within the northern Shackleton Range. This suture marks the site of a palaeo-subduction zone that likely continues to the Herbert Mountains, where ophiolitic rocks of Neoproterozoic age testify to an ocean basin that was closed during Pan-African collision. The garnet-bearing ultramafic rocks in the Shackleton Range are the first known example of eclogite facies metamorphism in Antarctica that is related to the collision of East and West Gondwana and the first example of Pan-African eclogite facies ultramafic rocks worldwide. Eclogites in the Lanterman Range of the Transantarctic Mountains formed during subduction of the palaeo-Pacific beneath the East Antarctic craton.     

REVIEWS OF GEOGRAPHIC SOFTWARE

Reviews of geographic software in this article: DEMO-GRAPHICS: WORLD POPULATIONS AND PROJECTIONS. ESP GAUSS. CEMODEL S. Damus LIMDEP. William H. Greene MICROSTAT 4.1 OTIS PCIPS. (Personal Computer Image Processing System) . H.J. Meyers and R. Bernstein. REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF TIME SERIES (RATS) SPSS/PC+ URBAN DATA MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE (UDMS)     

The Lower Permian Wasp Head Formation,Sydney Basin: high‐latitude,shallow marine sedimentation following the late Asselian to early Sakmarian glacial event in eastern Australia

The Lower Permian Wasp Head Formation (early to middle Sakmarian) is a ～95 m thick unit that was deposited during the transition to a non‐glacial period following the late Asselian to early Sakmarian glacial event in eastern Australia. This shallow marine, sandstone‐dominated unit can be subdivided into six facies associations. (i) The marine sediment gravity flow facies association consists of breccias and conglomerates deposited in upper shoreface water depths. (ii) Upper shoreface deposits consist of cross‐stratified, conglomeratic sandstones with an impoverished expression of the Skolithos Ichnofacies. (iii) Middle shoreface deposits consist of hummocky cross‐stratified sandstones with a trace fossil assemblage that represents the Skolithos Ichnofacies. (iv) Lower shoreface deposits are similar to middle shoreface deposits, but contain more pervasive bioturbation and a distal expression of the Skolithos Ichnofacies to a proximal expression of the Cruziana Ichnofacies. (v) Delta‐influenced, lower shoreface‐offshore transition deposits are distinguished by sparsely bioturbated carbonaceous mudstone drapes within a variety of shoreface and offshore deposits. Trace fossil assemblages represent distal expressions of the Skolithos Ichnofacies to stressed, proximal expressions of the Cruziana Ichnofacies. Impoverished trace fossil assemblages record variable and episodic environmental stresses possibly caused by fluctuations in sedimentation rates, substrate consistencies, salinity, oxygen levels, turbidity and other physio‐chemical stresses characteristic of deltaic conditions. (vi) The offshore transition‐offshore facies association consists of mudstone and admixed sandstone and mudstone with pervasive bioturbation and an archetypal to distal expression of the Cruziana Ichnofacies. The lowermost ～50 m of the formation consists of a single deepening upward cycle formed as the basin transitioned from glacioisostatic rebound following the Asselian to early Sakmarian glacial to a regime dominated by regional extensional subsidence without significant glacial influence. The upper ～45 m of the formation can be subdivided into three shallowing upward cycles (parasequences) that formed in the aftermath of rapid, possibly glacioeustatic, rises in relative sea‐level or due to autocyclic progradation patterns. The shift to a parasequence‐dominated architecture and progressive decrease in ice‐rafted debris upwards through the succession records the release from glacioisostatic rebound and amelioration of climate that accompanied the transition to broadly non‐glacial conditions.     

Time scale of an early to mid-Paleozoic orogenic cycle of the long-lived Central Asian Orogenic Belt, Inner Mongolia of China: Implications for continental growth

We present a detailed, new time scale for an orogenic cycle (oceanic accretion–subduction–collision) that provides significant insights into Paleozoic continental growth processes in the southeastern segment of the long-lived Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). The most prominent tectonic feature in Inner Mongolia is the association of paired orogens. A southern orogen forms a typical arc-trench complex, in which a supra-subduction zone ophiolite records successive phases during its life cycle: birth (ca. 497–477 Ma), when the ocean floor of the ophiolite was formed; (2) youth (ca. 473–470 Ma), characterized by mantle wedge magmatism; (3) shortly after maturity (ca. 461–450 Ma), high-Mg adakite and adakite were produced by slab melting and subsequent interaction of the melt with the mantle wedge; (4) death, caused by subduction of a ridge crest (ca. 451–434 Ma) and by ridge collision with the ophiolite (ca. 428–423 Ma). The evolution of the magmatic arc exhibits three major coherent phases: arc volcanism (ca. 488–444 Ma); adakite plutonism (ca. 448–438 Ma) and collision (ca. 419–415 Ma) of the arc with a passive continental margin. The northern orogen, a product of ridge-trench interaction, evolved progressively from coeval generation of near-trench plutons (ca. 498–461 Ma) and juvenile arc crust (ca. 484–469 Ma), to ridge subduction (ca. 440–434 Ma), microcontinent accretion (ca. 430–420 Ma), and finally to forearc formation. The paired orogens followed a consistent progression from ocean floor subduction/arc formation (ca. 500–438 Ma), ridge subduction (ca. 451–434 Ma) to microcontinent accretion/collision (ca. 430–415 Ma); ridge subduction records the turning point that transformed oceanic lithosphere into continental crust. The recognition of this orogenic cycle followed by Permian–early Triassic terminal collision of the CAOB provides compelling evidence for episodic continental growth.     

U–Pb SHRIMP zircon geochronology and T–t–d history of the Kampa Dome, southern Tibet

Structural, petrographic and geochronologic studies of the Kampa Dome provide insights into the tectonothermal evolution of orogenic crust exposed in the North Himalayan gneiss domes of southern Tibet. U–Pb ion microprobe dating of zircons from granite gneiss exposed at the deepest levels within the dome yields concordia ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age populations of 506 ± 3 Ma and 527 ± 6 Ma, with no evidence of new zircon growth during Himalayan orogenesis. However, the granite contains penetrative deformation fabrics that are also preserved in the overlying Paleozoic strata, implying that the Kampa granite is a Cambrian pluton that was strongly deformed and metamorphosed during Himalayan orogenesis. Zircons from deformed leucogranite sills that cross-cut Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks yield concordant Cambrian ages from oscillatory zoned cores and discordant ages ranging from ca. 491–32 Ma in metamict grains. Since these leucogranites clearly post-date the metasedimentary rocks they intrude, the zircons are interpreted as xenocrysts that are probably derived from the Kampa granite. The Kampa Dome formed via a series of progressive orogenic events including regional ~ N–S contraction and related crustal thickening (D₁), predominately top-to-N ductile shearing and crustal extension (D₂), top-to-N brittle–ductile faulting and related folding on the north limb of the dome, localized top-to-S faulting on the southern limb of the dome, and crustal doming (D₃), and continued N–S contraction, E–W extension and doming (D₄). Structural and geochronologic variability amongst adjacent North Himalayan gneiss domes may reflect changes in the magnitude of crustal exhumation along the North Himalayan antiform, possibly relating to differences in the mid-crustal geometry of the exhuming fault systems.     

广西大厂拉么锌铜多金属矿床成岩成矿作用年代学研究

本文对广西大厂矿田拉么矿区内出露的酸性侵入岩和矿石进行了精细的年代学研究,分别获得龙箱盖含斑黑云母花岗岩锆石原位SHRIMP UPb和全岩RbSr等时线年龄为94±4Ma（95%可信度）和98.6±1.9Ma（95%可信度）,矽卡岩成矿期锌铜矿石中石英矿物RbSr等时线年龄为98.6±6Ma（95%可信度）。上述测定结果表明,拉么锌铜多金属矿床的成矿年龄与相关岩体的成岩年龄接近,均形成于早白垩世晚期。     

辽河断陷大民屯凹陷静北潜山孢粉化石新发现

静北潜山的油气勘探始于上世纪70年代初,并将钻井揭示的未见化石的碳酸盐岩和石英砂岩沉积划归中元古界长城系,沿用至今.2002年在对该区的地层研究中,首次发现了晚古生代孢粉化石,从而证实静北潜山存在晚古生代地层.本文以孢粉化石为主要依据,对潜山地层进行了重新划分,并与邻区进行对比.在此基础上对本区的构造和沉积作一讨论.     

安徽铜陵狮子山矿田岩浆岩锆石SHRIMP定年及其成因意义

铜陵狮子山矿田发育大量岩浆岩,且与矿田中的铜金多金属成矿关系密切。锆石SHRIMP同位素精确定年表明,矿田中的岩浆侵位年龄在132.4～142.9Ma之间,即晚侏罗世—早白垩世,属燕山早期晚阶段。矿田岩浆岩体是在同期岩浆活动中多次侵位形成的,岩浆侵入活动可以划分为分别起始于140Ma前后和约136Ma的早晚两次。从岩浆上升侵位到冷却结晶的时间间隔均较短,但其中白芒山辉石二长闪长岩冷却史相对较长,且经历了早期深部岩浆房中的分离结晶作用和后期构造脉动、岩浆上升侵位、减压受热、早期晶体再熔蚀及冷却结晶的过程。结合主量元素和微量元素地球化学研究认为,狮子山矿田岩浆演化的后期,即起源于上地幔或下地壳的原生岩浆在同化了壳源物质并聚集到岩浆房中以后,在滞留的过程中发生了一定程度的分离结晶作用,但尚未固结,成分上显示了一定的带状分布,在区域构造应力松弛及构造事件诱发下,随机地沿发育的构造裂隙先后上升侵位,冷凝结晶。