Multistage Deformation in the Northeastern Segment of the Jiangshao Fault (Suture) Belt: Constraints for the Relationship between the Yangtze Plate and the Cathaysia Old Land

Multistage deformation events have occurred in the northeastern Jiangshao Fault （Suture） Belt. The earliest two are ductile deformation events. The first is the ca. 820 Ma top-to-the-northwest ductile thrusting, which directly resulted from the collision between the Cathaysia Old Land and the Chencai Arc （？） during the Late Neoproterozoic, and the Jiangnan Orogenic Belt that formed as the ocean closed between the Yangtze Plate and the jointed Cathaysia Old Land and the Chencai Arc due to continuous compression. The second is the ductile left-lateral strike-slipping that occurred in the latest Early Paleozoic. Since the Jinning period, all deformation events represent the reactivation or inversion of intraplate structures due to the collisions between the North China and Yangtze plates during the Triassic and between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates during the Cenozoic. In the Triassic, brittle right-lateral strike-slipping and subsequent top-to-the south thrusting occurred along the whole northeastern Jiangshao Fault Zone because of the collision between the North China and Yangtze plates. In the Late Mesozoic, regional extension took place across southeastern China. In the Cenozoic, the collision between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates resulted in brittle thrusts along the whole Jiangnan Old land in the Miocene. The Jiangshao Fault Belt is a weak zone in the crust with long history, and its reactivation is one of important characteristics of the deformation in South China; however, late-stage deformation events did not occur beyond the Jiangnan Old Land and most of them are parallel to the strike of the Old Land, which is similar to the Cenozoic deformation in Central Asia. In addition, the Jiangnan old Land is not a collisional boundary between the Yangtze Plate and Cathaysia Old Land in the Triassic.

The final collision of the CAOB:Constraint from the zircon U-Pb dating of the Linxi Formation,Inner Mongolia

The Linxi Formation occupies an extensive area in the eastern Inner Mongolia in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt （CAOB）. The Linxi Formation is composed of slate, siltstone, sandstone and plant, lamellibranch microfossils in the associated strata. Major and trace element data （including REE） for sandstones from the formation indicate that these rocks have a greywacke protolith and have been deposited during a strong tectonic activity. LA-ICPMS U-Pb dating of detrital zircons yield ages of 1801 to 238 Ma for four samples from the Linxi Formation. 425-585 Ma, together with the ~500 Ma age for the metamorphism event previously determined for Northeast China, indicates that their provenance is the metamorphic rocks of Pan-African age that have a tectonic affinity to NE China. A few older zircons with U-Pb ages at 1689-1801 Ma, 1307 1414 Ma, 593-978 Ma are also present, revealing the Neoproterozoic history of NE China. The youngest population shows a peak at ca. 252 Ma, suggesting that the main deposition of the Linxi Formation was at late Permain. Moreover, the ca. 250 Ma zircon grains of all four samples yield weighted mean ^206pb/^238U ages of 250 ± 3 Ma, 248 ± 3 Ma, 249 ± 3 Ma, and 250 ± 2 Ma, respectively. These ages, together with the youngest zircon age in the sample ZJB-28 （ca. 238 Ma）, suggest that the deposition of the Linxi Formation extended to the early Triassic. Combining with previous results, we suggest that the final collision of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt （CAOB） in the southern of Linxi Formation, which located in the Solonker-Xra Moron-Changchun suture, and the timing for final collision should be at early Triassic.

High-Pressure Eclogite-Blueschist Metamorphic Belt and Closure of Paleo-Tethys Ocean in Central Qiangtang, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The high-pressure metamorphic belt （HPMB） of eclogite-blueschist in Central Qiangtang （羌塘） lies in the Longmu Co （龙木错）-Shuanghu （双湖） suture zone. To the west, the HPMB extends 500 km from Hongjishan （红脊山） to Caiduochaka （才多茶卡）, east of Shuanghu; to the east it extends to Baqing （巴青） and Jitang （吉塘） in Qamdo （昌都）, and then bends southward to Yunnan （云南） Province. Including the Lancangjiang （澜沧江） blueschist belt, the entire HPMB is about 2 000 km long. In Central Qiangtang, the belt is mainly composed of blueschist and eclogite, whereas in West Yunnan it contains only blueschist. The Baqing-Jitang segment is dominated by garnet phengite schist. 40Ar-39Ar dating of glaucophane and phengite from the blueschists yielded plateau ages ranging from 223 to 215 Ma, whereas SHRIMP U-Pb dating of zircon from the eclogites gives metamorphic ages of 243-217 Ma. The calculated metamorphic conditions for the blueschists are 410-460 ℃ and 0.67-0.75 GPa, and for the eclogites, 〈500℃ and 1.56-2.35 GPa. The metamorphic ages suggest that the Longmu Co-Shuanghu suture closed in the Late Triassic. The region south of the Longmu Co-Shuanghu- Lancang suture consists of the pan-African basement overlain by Condwana sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks, whereas the region north of the suture is dominated by the Jinning （晋宁） basement and Yangtze sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks. The Qiangtang HPMB marks the closure of the paleo-Tethys Ocean.