Age, geochemistry, and tectonic implications of a late Paleozoic stitching pluton in the North Tian Shan suture zone, western China

Research Article| March 01, 2010 Age, geochemistry, and tectonic implications of a late Paleozoic stitching pluton in the North Tian Shan suture zone, western China Bao-Fu Han; Bao-Fu Han † 1Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China †E-mail: bfhan@pku.edu.cn Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Zhao-Jie Guo; Zhao-Jie Guo 1Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Zhi-Cheng Zhang; Zhi-Cheng Zhang 1Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Lei Zhang; Lei Zhang 1Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Jia-Fu Chen; Jia-Fu Chen 1Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Biao Song Biao Song 2Beijing SHRIMP Center, Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, People's Republic of China Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar GSA Bulletin (2010) 122 (3-4): 627–640. https://doi.org/10.1130/B26491.1 Article history received: 19 Jun 2008 rev-recd: 15 Feb 2009 accepted: 14 Apr 2009 first online: 08 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share MailTo Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Bao-Fu Han, Zhao-Jie Guo, Zhi-Cheng Zhang, Lei Zhang, Jia-Fu Chen, Biao Song; Age, geochemistry, and tectonic implications of a late Paleozoic stitching pluton in the North Tian Shan suture zone, western China. GSA Bulletin 2010;; 122 (3-4): 627–640. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/B26491.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract The Central Asian orogenic belt is the largest tectonic assembly of continental and oceanic terranes on Earth due to closure of the paleo–Asian Ocean in the Phanerozoic. Among major suture zones in the North Xinjiang region of western China, the North Tian Shan suture zone, because of collision between the Yili terrane in the south and the Junggar terrane in the north, contains the youngest ophiolitic rocks and may represent the terminal stage of development of the Central Asian orogenic belt in western China, but the timing of the suture zone remains poorly constrained. A sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) zircon U-Pb age of 316 ± 3 Ma (i.e., the beginning of the late Carboniferous) from the undeformed Sikeshu pluton, which crosscuts the suture zone, places a crucial upper-age bound for the time of collision between the Yili and Junggar terranes. This event occurred later than, or nearly concurrent with, other accretion-collision events in the North Xinjiang region, implying that final terrane amalgamation was completed in the late Carboniferous. The Sikeshu pluton shares geochemical characteristics of the widespread late Carboniferous to Permian postcollisional A-type and I-type granitoids with depleted-mantle–like Sr-Nd isotopic signatures in the North Xinjiang region. They all occurred during a protracted (ca. 320–270 Ma) episode of postcollisional magmatism that may have been induced by basaltic underplating due to either slab breakoff or delamination of thickened mantle lithosphere beneath the Central Asian orogenic belt. The same postcollisional magmatism also generated Cu-Ni-sulfide–bearing, mafic-ultramafic magmatic complexes, adakites, and porphyry-type copper-molybdenum–bearing magmatic rocks in the North Xinjiang region. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.