U-Pb zircon dating of the granitic conglomerates of the Hutuo Group: affinities to the Wutai granitoids and significance to the tectonic evolution of the Trans-North China Orogen

Abstract

The Wutai Complex associated with the adjacent Fuping and Hengshan Complexes represents the best and classical cross-section in the middle segment of the Trans-North China Orogen, generally divided into Eastern and Western Blocks. Unconformably overlying the Wutai and Fuping Complexes is the Hutuo Group considered as the youngest lithostratigraphic unit in the region and important both for interpreting Precambrian history as well as the overall evolution of the Trans-North China Orogen. Lack of knowledge about provenance of the sedimentary rocks in this group has hindered understanding of the depositional environments and tectonic significance. LA-ICP-MS was applied to obtain U-Pb zircon ages for the granitic pebbles, the lowest lithostratigraphic rock of the Hutuo Group, which, combined with previous lithostratigraphic, geochronological, structural and metamorphic data, provides new constraints on the sedimentary provenance and tectonic evolution of the region. The sequence of the Hutuo Group ranges upward from lower basal conglomerates and volcaniclastic rocks (Doucun Subgroup), through clastic sediments, slates, dolomites and marbles (Dongye Subgroup), to sandstones and conglomerates at the top (Guojiazhai Subgroup). Zircons from granitic pebbles preserved in the Doucun Subgroup basal conglomerates give weighted mean 207Pb/206Pb ages between 2517 Ma and 2566 Ma, which are the same as those for the late Archean Wutai Granitoids, indicating that the pebbles were derived from the Wutai granitic intrusions (2566-2515 Ma). Based on the new data and previous studies, combined with an igneous zircon crystallization age of 2087±9 Ma obtained for volcanics in the Hutuo Group, the Hutuo Group was deposited in a subduction-related retro-arc foreland basin environment that developed behind the Wutai arc during the eastward-directed subduction of the Western Block beneath the western margin of the Eastern Block. This basin underwent long-lived sedimentation and finally closed during the ∼1850 Ma collisional event that resulted in the final amalgamation of the North China Craton.