Terminal suturing of Gondwana along the southern margin of South China Craton : evidence from detrital zircon U-Pb ages and Hf isotopes in Cambrian and Ordovician strata, Hainan Island
Abstract
Hainan Island, located near the southern end of mainland South China, consists of the Qiongzhong Block to the north and the Sanya Block to the south. In the Cambrian, these blocks were separated by an intervening ocean. U-Pb ages and Hf isotope compositions of detrital zircons from the Cambrian succession in the Sanya Block suggest that the unit contains detritus derived from late Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic units along the western margin of the West Australia Craton (e.g., Northampton Complex) or the Albany-Fraser-Wilkes orogen, which separates the West Australia and Mawson cratons. Thus, in the Cambrian the Sanya Block was not part of the South China Craton but rather part of the West Australian Craton and its environs. In contrast, overlying Late Ordovician strata display evidence for input of detritus from the Qiongzhong Block, which constituted part of the southeastern convergent plate margin of the South China Craton in the early Paleozoic. The evolving provenance record of the Cambrian and Ordovician strata suggests that the juxtaposition of South China and West Australian cratons occurred during the early to mid-Ordovician. The event was linked with the northern continuation of Kuungan Orogeny, with South China providing a record of final assembly of Gondwana.
Citation
Xu , Y , Cawood , P A , Du , Y , Zhong , Z & Hughes , N C 2014 , ' Terminal suturing of Gondwana along the southern margin of South China Craton : evidence from detrital zircon U-Pb ages and Hf isotopes in Cambrian and Ordovician strata, Hainan Island ' , Tectonics . https://doi.org/10.1002/2014TC003748
Publication
Tectonics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0278-7407Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2014 American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. The article: Xu, Y., P. A. Cawood, Y. Du, Z. Zhong, and N. C. Hughes (2014), Terminal suturing of Gondwana along the southern margin of South China Craton: Evidence from detrital zircon U-Pb ages and Hf isotopes in Cambrian and Ordovician strata, Hainan Island, Tectonics, 33, 2490–2504, can also be found via the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2014TC003748.
Description
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 41472086 and 41272120), “111” Project (B08030), the fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (CUG2012019240 and CUG2013019137). The first author also acknowledges China Scholarship Council (grant 201208420001) for supporting his research in the University of St. Andrews. Date of Acceptance: 20/11/2014Collections
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