Early Paleozoic Magmatism and Gold Mineralization in the Northern Altun, NW China

This paper discusses the relationships between granitic magmatism and gold mineralization and the exhumation history of the Dapinggou gold deposit in northern Altun, NW China based on the geochronological data, including zircon U-Pb ages, Rb-Sr isochron age and 40Ar-39Ar dating and MDD modeling data. The main granitic magmatism age in this area is attained from the ID TIMS U-Pb geochronology of zircons from the Kuoshibulak granite, the biggest granite in the northern Altun area, which gives a concordant age of 443±5 Ma in the Late Ordovician. Zircon ID TIMS U-Pb geochronology of the West Dapinggou biotite granite west of the Dapinggou gold deposit gives concordant ages around 485±10 Ma, representing the early stage of Ordovician magmatism. The Rb-Sr isochron age (487±21 Ma) of 6 quartz inclusion samples from quartz veins in this gold deposit is very close to that of the West Dapinggou granite. MDD modeling of step heating 40Ar-39Ar data of K-feldspar from the same West Dapinggou biotite granite gives a rapid cooling history from 300℃ to 150℃ during 200-185 Ma. According to the age data and the geological setting of this area, we conclude that the Dapinggou gold deposit was formed at the early stage of the Early Paleozoic granitic magmatism in northern Altun, and exhumed in the Early Jurassic due to the normal faulting of the Lapeiquan detachment. The Early Paleozoic magmatism may provide heat source and produce geological fluids, which are very important for gold mineralization. Exhumation in the Mesozoic caused the uplift of the deposit towards the ground surface.

Origin, Age and Significance of Pseudotachylites from the Eastern Dabieshan Orogenic Belt, China

Recent field survey in the eastern Dabieshan Mountains has revealed extensive occurrences of pseudotachylite. The pseudotachylite tends to occur as simple veins and injected networks along the NE-SW-trending fracture zones or shear zones, which are parallel to the Tanlu fault zone and cut all the pre-Cretaceous geological bodies. The characteristics of both the microstructures gained by the optical microscope and SEM imaging and the geochemistry between the pseudotachylites and their host rocks show that the pseudotachylites were formed mainly by ultracataclasis of their wall rocks in which they occur. The bulk K-Ar ages of the pseudotachylites yielded a narrow range of 81 -93 Ma, and moreover the laser-probe 40Ar/39Ar dating of phengite overprinting on the pseudotachylite gave a weighted mean age of 78.9 Ma. These results show that the pseudotachylites from the eastern Dabieshan Mountains formed along the NE-SW-trending fault zone during the uplifting of the orogenic belt at 80-90 Ma, which places important constrains on the cooling and exhumation history of the Dabieshan Mountains during and after the late Cretaceous.