ABSTRACT

The Songpan-Ganzi triangular tectonic block is surrounded by the East Kunlun-Qaidam block in the north, the Qiangtang block in the southwest, and the Longmen Shan in the southeast. The Longmen Shan is the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau in Central Asia. The tectonic affinity and relationship of these regions with the Yangtze and North China blocks have been rigorously debated. In this paper, we present our recent studies on the geochemistry of the Precambrian to Triassic clastic sedimentary rocks from this area. Detrital zircons were extracted from the sedimentary rocks for U-Pb dating by SHRIMP and LA-ICP-MS. Nd depleted mantle model ages indicate that these provenances have an affinity to the Yangtze craton and Qinling Shan, in contrast to those of the North China craton. All strata, from Cambrian to late Triassic, contain detrital zircon U-Pb ages of 1400 to 600 Ma, with most falling between 900-720 Ma. The Songpan-Ganzi block was the most important part of the Northern Tethys in the Triassic period, in addition to being the largest flysch basin in the world. The Longmen Shan thrust belt comprises both the telescoped, unmetamorphosed, shallow water carbonate-dominated passive margin of the Yangtze craton and its crystalline basement. The western and northern margins of the Yangtze craton, as well as the Qinling Shan, were the sources of sediments in the Songpan-Ganzi block and the Longmen Shan. The oldest dated detrital zircons indicate that the Yangtze craton started forming during the period 2800-2200 Ma. Because the basement of the Yangtze craton experienced multi-episodic intracrustal processes, the oldest basement components account for only a small portion of the provenance components. The detrital zircon ages of 2200-1400 Ma indicate a major contribution of the Qinling Shan and/or the northwestern margin of the Yangtze craton to the clastic sediments in the Songpan-Ganzi block. The presence of detrital zircon of Neoproterozoic to Triassic ages suggests derivation from the Qinling Shan and the western and northern margin of the Yangtze craton. Triassic tectonic movement during this time was at its most intensive and extensive, and led to exhumation of basement in the Yangtze craton and Qinling Shan, along with nascent crustal components and their erosion to the East Tethys.