Discovery of ophiolite in southeast Yunnan,China

The Babu ophiolite in Malipo County, SE Yunnan, consists of three units: ultramafic, mafic and basaltic rocks. Studies of geological mapping, petrology and geochemistry reveal that the gabbro is similar to that in the Troodos ophiolite, and the diabase and basalt belong to a normal MORB-type,analogous to the Shuanggou ophiolite in west Yunnan. The ophiolite studied as a thrust tectonic slab,was overthrust northwards onto the Late Paleozoic-Triassic deep marine deposits of continental margin.It is inferred to be relics of Paleotethyan ocean; namely, a branch of Paleotethys occurs in South China, where the tectonic nature and evolutional history of the area should be reconsidered.

Using a Gaussian mathematical model to define eruptive stages of young volcanic rocks in Tengchong based on laser 40Ar/39Ar dating

Reconstruction of Quaternary environments,late Cenozoic geodynamics and evaluation of volcanic hazards,all depend on the precise delineation of eruptive stages.In recent years,laser 40Ar/39Ar dating methods have been widely used for dating young volcanic rocks,given their stable automated testing process,very low background level and high sensitivity,which meet the requirements for precise dating of young samples.This paper applied high-precision laser 40Ar/39Ar dating to the main volcanic units in the Tengchong area and obtained ages in the range of 0.025–5.1 Ma using conventional data processing methods.However,conventional dating highlighted issues related to very low radiogenic 40Ar content,accidental errors and poor data stability,which led to huge age deviations.Moreover,lacking a unified timescale,conventional methods were unable to strictly define the stages of the Tengchong volcanic eruptions,leading to ongoing controversy.In this study,we applied a Gaussian mathematical model to deal with all 378 original ages from 13 samples.An apparent age-probability diagram,consisting of three independent waveforms,have been obtained.The corresponding isochron ages of these three waveforms suggest there were three volcanic eruptive stages,namely during the Pliocene(3.78±0.04 Ma),early Middle Pleistocene(0.63±0.03 Ma)and late Middle Pleistocene to early Late Pleistocene(0.139±0.005 Ma).These results accurately define eruptive stages in the Tengchong area.

Zircon U-Pb geochronology of the Chinese continental crust: a preliminary analysis of the Elsevier science database

The amount of zircon U-Pb geochronological data for China has grown rapidly in recent years.Nearly 410,000 items of zircon U-Pb geochronological data,representing more than 7,000 relevant articles in the Elsevier Science Database,have been collected to a database in this research.Statistics on the ages and absolute errors of these collated data,yielded smallest standard errors for(206Pb/238U),(207Pb/235U),and(207Pb/206Pb)ages within respective time intervals of<1388.96 Ma,1388.96–3282.52 Ma,and>3282.52 Ma.The ages and their absolute errors were determined using three main geochronology methods,based on laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometer(LA-ICP-MS),sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe(SHRIMP),and secondary ion mass spectrometer(SIMS)measurements.We compared the influence of these different methods on errors for each age interval.In addition,using a Gaussian model of multi-peak fitting of zircon U-Pb age frequencies,we identified seven growth peaks in zircons from the Chinese continental crust,which are 48.60 Ma,131.49 Ma,249.91 Ma,444.27 Ma,835.95 Ma,1860.65 Ma,and 2505.54 Ma.It is clear that there are correspondences between these ages and various geological events,namely,the Wutai movement,Lvliang movement,Jinning movement,Caledonian movement,Indo-China movement,Yanshan movement,and Himalayaorogeny movement,respectively.The time and spatial distributions of these zircons correspond to distinct geological events on the Chinese continent,reflecting its crustal evolution.

Crustal evolution events in the Chinese continent: evidence from a zircon U-Pb database

The zircon U-Pb chronology database provides a good opportunity to obtain important zircon growth peak periods in the Earth’s history so as to study the origin and evolution of the crust.It should be noted that research preference affects the objectivity of zircon sampling,leading to hot data in the database and age statistics.To evaluate the influence of hot data on statistical results,the W and Y indexes are introduced.Using a Gaussian model of multipeak fitting of zircon U-Pb age frequencies,we identify seven major growth peaks in zircons from the Chinese continental crust,which are 2498.95,1855.82,828.88,444.29,249.46,131.96,and 58.21 Ma.Due to differences in the time scales of zircon growth peaks,these peaks can be divided into two categories:first-order zircon growth peaks(Ⅰ)and second-order zircon growth peaks(Ⅱ),which represent longer and shorter time scales,perhaps due to different kinds of geological dynamics,respectively.In addition,there are clear correspondences between these ages and various geological events recognized by most scholars,namely,the Wutai orogeny,Lvliang orogeny,Jinning orogeny,Caledonian orogeny,Indosinian orogeny,Yanshanian orogeny,and Himalayan orogeny,respectively.