A visage of early Paleozoic Japan: Geotectonic and paleobiogeographical significance of Greater South China

Abstract

The current state of knowledge on the early Paleozoic evolution of Japan is reviewed. Although early Paleozoic Japan marked the foundation of long‐lasting subduction‐related orogenic growth throughout the Phanerozoic, details of this have not been fully revealed. Nevertheless, U‐Pb dating of zircons both in Paleozoic granitoids and sandstones is revealing several new aspects of early Paleozoic Japan. The timing of the major tectonic change, from a passive continental margin setting (Stage I) to an active one (Stage II), was constrained to the Cambrian by identifying the oldest arc granitoid, high‐P/T blueschist, and terrigenous clastics of arc‐related basins. Ages of recycled zircons in granitoids and sandstones provided critical information on the homeland of Japan, i.e. the continental margin along which proto‐Japan began to grow. The early Paleozoic continental margin that hosted the development of an arc‐trench system in proto‐Japan had cratonic basement composed mostly of Proterozoic crust with a minor Archean component. The predominant occurrence of Neoproterozoic zircons in Paleozoic rocks, as xenocrysts in arc granitoids and also as detrital grains in terrigenous clastics, indicates that the relevant continental block was a part of South China, probably forming a northeastern segment of Greater South China (GSC) together with the Khanka/Jiamsi/Bureya mega‐block in Far East Asia. GSC was probably twice as large as the present conterminous South China on mainland Asia. Paleozoic Japan formed a segment of a mature arc‐trench system along the Pacific side of GSC, where the N–S‐trending Pacific‐rim orogenic belt (Nipponides) developed with an almost perpendicular relationship with the E–W‐trending Central Asian orogenic belt. The faunal characteristics of the Permian marine fauna in Japan, both with the Tethyan and Boreal elements, can be better explained than before in good accordance with the relative position of GSC with respect to the North China block during the late Paleozoic.

The Paleozoic evolution of the Korean Peninsula and Japan: An introduction

“…These new fossil data have enabled integration of the Japanese rock succession into existing high‐resolution Silurian chitinozoan and conodont biozonation schemes, including correlation with the type Silurian of the Welsh Borderland in the UK (Vandenbroucke et al, ). Furthermore, a more precise understanding of the paleogeographical context of proto‐Japan as an evolving arc situated close to Greater South China during the early Paleozoic (Isozaki, ), supports the contention of several papers presented here that paleoenvironment, paleoecology and paleoclimate exert strong controls on the paleobiogeographical signatures of the faunas and that these factors need to be considered in assessments of paleogeographical affinity. Thus, the faunas of the SKT, HGT, and KT show affinities, sometimes at the species‐level, with fossil assemblages of the North China paleocontinent, the South China paleocontinent, and the Australian segment of East Gondwana, though limestone and siliciclastic lithofacies display contrasting signatures (cf.…”

Zircon record of an Archaean crustal fragment and supercontinent amalgamation in quaternary back-arc volcanic rocks

“…4 B).

Figure 4 ( a ) The overall framework of the adjacent, major continental blocks and schematic profile across the OT and the China Block; modified from Isozaki 45 . The five-pointed stars show the sampling locations for this study, Li et al 31 and Yuan et al 30 .

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Syn‐Subduction Strike‐Slip Faults Shape an Accretionary Orogen and its Provenance Signatures: Insights From Sikhote‐Alin in NE Asia During the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

“…With regard to the origin and affinity of the Khanka Block, Isozaki et al (2017) suggested that the Khanka Block (as well as the Sergeevka blocks/nappes in the Russian Far East) may be the northern extension of SW Japan that originally formed of Greater South China. The major evidence is that the Neoproterozoic zircon ages from the Late Paleozoic strata in the Primorye, Russian Far East are very similar to those from the older components in SW Japan, which were typical of the South China Block (Isozaki, 2019;Isozaki et al, 2017). On the other hand, Zhou et al (2010Zhou et al ( , 2018 linked the Jiamusi-Khanka Block to the southern margin of the Siberia Craton according to similar rock assemblages of Neoproterozoic/early Phanerozoic age.…”

“…Liu, Zhang, Wilde, Zhou, et al, 2017;Zhou & Li, 2017;Zhou et al, 2009Zhou et al, , 2014. However, the early subduction history was dated to the early Permian (Sun, Xu, Wilde, Chen, & Yang, 2015), or even the Cambrian as evidenced by arc-like granitoids and blueschists in SW Japan (Isozaki, 2019;Isozaki et al, 2015). 3a was drawn using software GMT 6.0 and Figure 3b is modified after Khanchuk et al (2016).…”