Zircon provenances of the late Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rock in the South Yangtze Block: Implications for paleogeographic reconstruction

ABSTRACT

The zircon provenances of the late Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks are important for assembling Proto-Yangtze and its reconstruction in the Nuna supercontinent. We present a dataset involving 363 detrital zircon U-Pb dating and 165 Hf isotope analyses from the Laochanghe Formation of the Dahongshan Group in the southwestern Yangtze Block. New detrital zircon U-Pb ages, combined with the heterogeneity of sedimentary strata and available magmatic age data, suggest that the maximum depositional age of the Laochanghe Formation cloud be younger than 1.81 Ga and older than 1.74 Ga. The zircon U-Pb-Hf isotope compositions of the volcanic and metamorphic rocks overlap with those of the late Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rock, suggesting the southwestern Yangtze Block provided provenance at 1.9, 2.3, and 2.7 Ga. This characteristic is significantly different from the northern Yangtze Block only provided partial provenance at 1.9 and 2.7 Ga. The northern and southwestern of the Yangtze Block jointly provide material for the late Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks, combining synchronous late Paleoproterozoic magmatism and metamorphism, indicative of the formation of the proto-Yangtze Block in response to the accumulation of the Nuna supercontinent. Additionally, the potential provenance areas of the late Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rock in the southwestern Yangtze include the northwestern Laurentia and southern Siberia, excluding the northern Australian, and Cathaysia. These findings indicate that the southwestern Yangtze may have been located between northwestern Laurentia and southern Siberia during the partial fragmentation of the Nuna supercontinent, enhancing our understanding of changes in the Nuna supercontinent over time.

KEYWORDS:

• The Yangtze Block
• Provenance
• Paleogeographic reconstruction
• Nuna supercontinent
• U-Pb-Hf isotope

Acknowledgments

We appreciate Ms. Hongfang Chen for her kind assistance with zircon U-Pb-Hf isotope analyses. We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and Journal Editor Dr. Robert J. Stern for their constructive comments that helped to improve the presentation and interpretation greatly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00206814.2024.2333001

Additional information

Funding

This study was co-supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41802137), the China Geological Survey (DD20221635-005, and DD20190054), and Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (2019QZKK0706).