A refined late-Cryogenian – Ediacaran Earth history of South China: : phosphorous-rich marbles of the Dabie and Sulu orogens
Abstract
The late-Cryogenian – Ediacaran geological framework for South China is constructed principally from sedimentary successions preserved in the central and western regions of the Yangtze Block. New stratigraphic and carbonate-carbon isotope data allow us to extend that framework into the exhumed HP-UHP subduction complexes of the eastern Dabie and Sulu orogens that separate the South and North China cratons. Those data show that marble and phosphorous-rich (P-rich) units in those complexes were originally part of an Ediacaran shallow-marine shelf-carbonate platform. The basal pebbly schist (metadiamictite) and lowermost P-rich marble of the Jinping Formation (Haizhou Group) in the Sulu Orogen matches in both facies character and C-isotope profile that of the Marinoan-equivalent glacial-cap carbonate couplet of the Nantuo and Doushantuo formations. The Daxinwu Formation (Susong Group) in the eastern Dabie Orogen contains a marble unit that has, for several hundreds of metres, a strikingly uniform C-isotope profile of low δ13C positive values and is overlain by a P-rich graphitic schist; these features match those of the late Ediacaran to early Cambrian Dengying Formation. These correlations establish that the HP-UHP metasedimentary rocks, many of which were once considered to be Palaeo- to Mesoproterozoic in age, are a Neoproterozoic-age cover sequence of the continental margin of the Yangtze Block. Further, their widespread development limits their utility as indicators of offset across the Tan-Lu fault zone and, instead, favours tectonic models that interpret that feature as a continental-scale tear fault formed during the Mesozoic collision and suturing of the North and South China cratons.
Citation
Prave , A R , Meng , F , Lepland , A , Kirsmäe , K , Kreitsmann , T & Jiang , C Z 2018 , ' A refined late-Cryogenian – Ediacaran Earth history of South China: phosphorous-rich marbles of the Dabie and Sulu orogens ' , Precambrian Research , vol. 305 , pp. 166-176 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2017.11.022
Publication
Precambrian Research
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0301-9268Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2017.11.022
Description
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant Numbers 41473039 and 4151101015, and by the Estonian Science Agency project PUT0696.Collections
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