Jurassic detrital zircon U–Pb and Hf isotopic geochronology of Luxi Uplift, eastern North China, and its provenance implications for tectonic–paleogeographic reconstruction

Middle–Late Mesozoic sedimentary provenances of the Luxi and Jiaolai areas: Implications for tectonic evolution of the North China Block

“…Combining previous samples from the Jurassic Fangzi and Santai Formations (Xu et al, 2013b), this paper carried out work mainly focused on the Early Cretaceous sandstone samples from the type sections at Mengyin County in the Luxi area and from the Zhucheng sag in the southwestern Jiaolai basin (Fig. 3).…”

“…1. Geologic map of Luxi and adjacent areas (modified after Xu et al, 2013b). The inset shows the regional tectonic background (modified from Liu et al (2007)), in which the LX, JB, LD, WL, and TLF, respectively, denote the Luxi area, Jiaobei terrane, Liaodong Peninsula, western Liaoning Province, and Tan-Lu fault, while the letters C and N indicate location of the Chengde basin and Ningwu-Jingle basin, respectively.…”

“…183 Ma) and Kimmeridgian (ca. 155 Ma), respectively, constrained by the youngest detrital zircon U-Pb ages Xu et al, 2013b;Yang et al, 2013). Liu (1995) discovered that the Fangzi Formation also existed in the Mengyin area, underlying the Wennan (Sub-)Formation, and thus the author suggested the Wennan Formation should be replaced by the Santai Formation as they are synonyms.…”

“…The NNCB together with the XMOB or the Sulu orogen has been proposed as the major source area of the Jurassic sediments in the Luxi area (Bu et al, 2012a(Bu et al, , 2012bXu et al, 2013b;Yang et al, 2013). During the provenance analysis, the Precambrian detrital zircons may not be able to indicate their direct derivation because of the possibility of recycling, but the diagnostic zircons with U-Pb ages clustering in the mid-Neoproterozoic (700-900 Ma) can be used to distinguish between the Sulu orogen and the NCB as a source area.…”

“…Recently, several scholars conducted provenance studies on the Jurassic deposits in the Luxi area and had presented various explanations. The key dispute was focused on whether there were additional detritus supplied from the Xing-Meng orogenic belt (XMOB) and/or the Sulu orogen and/or the northern Qinling orogen, in addition to the contribution from the main source, the northern NCB (NNCB) Xu et al, 2013b;Yang et al, 2013). Detrital zircon geochronology has been widely used for provenance studies, as one prevalent and efficient approach (e.g.…”