Zircon U-Pb ages and geochemical composition of gneisses from the Mesozoic foreland basin in the Yellow Sea,China

The South Yellow Sea basin in eastern China has experienced a multi-stage tectonic evolution history. The major structures were created when the basin was a foreland basin during the Mesozoic. However the geological evolution of the basin has not yet been corroborated by direct evidence from the underlying basement rocks. Qianliyan Island in the southern Yellow Sea provides an opportunity to study the formation and evolution of the basin by means of direct geochronological and geochemical evidence. On Qianliyan Island, basement rocks are exposed that consist of granitic gneiss, felsic gneiss and minor mylonite, and lenses of eclogite. Major and trace element characteristics of these four types of gneiss indicate that they originated from crustal material, varying in composition from pelite to greywacke. SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating results of a felsic gneiss sample show that this rock crystallized between 659 and 796 Ma and underwent a metamorphic overprint at 229 ± 4 Ma. This age pattern resembles that of gneisses from the ultra-high-pressure terrain in the Dabie–Sulu belt. We conclude that the study area was part of the northern margin of the Yangtze Block during the Neoproterozoic. Neoproterozoic magmatic activity occurred along this margin and the basement sequence underwent Triassic metamorphic overprint during the northward subduction of the Yangtze Block beneath the North China Block. We further conclude that the deformation associated with this metamorphic event led to the formation of the southern Yellow Sea foreland basin.