Neoproterozoic tectonic evolution of the Precambrian Aksu blueschist terrane, northwestern Tarim, China: Insights from LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb ages and geochemical data

Detrital zircons from Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks in the Yili Block: Constraints on the affinity of microcontinents in the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt

“…In Fig.12, ε Hf (t) values of the igneous rocks and detrital zircon grains of the Tarim Craton match well with each other and define a specific crustal evolution trend ( Fig. 12) (Long et al, 2010;Zhu et al, 2011;Long et al, 2011b,c;Lei et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2012b;He et al, 2013;Ge et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2014;He et al, 2014a,b). This conclusively demonstrates that the detrital grains in the Tarim Craton were derived from a local source, and ε Hf (t) values of these detrital zircons and the igneous rocks perfectly represent the Hf isotopic compositions of the Craton.…”

“…11. Precambrian age distributions for the Yili Block, Chinese Central Tianshan Block, Siberian Craton, North China Craton and Tarim Craton (data from this study, Khudoley et al, 2001;Wan et al, 2006;Xia et al, 2006a,b;Luo et al, 2008;Zhu et al, 2011;Glorie et al, 2014;He et al, 2014a,b,c;Powerman et al, 2015). Fig.…”

Provenance of Early Paleozoic metasediments in the central Chinese Altai: Implications for tectonic affinity of the Altai-Mongolia terrane in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt

“…The oldest age peak of the Siberia Craton is related to its cratonization, whereas the 1.87 Ga age peak is likely due to the assembly of the Columbia supercontinent. In the Tarim Craton, detrital zircons dominantly formed in three periods (2.6-2.3, 2.1-1.7 and 1.1-0.7 Ga) with a simple age spectrum characterized by three age peaks at 2.48, 1.88 and 0.84 Ga Zhang et al, 2011Zhang et al, , 2012Zhu et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2013). The major Neoproterozoic age peak of the Tarim Craton marks a period of magmatism different from the North China and Siberia Cratons, possibly recording the breakup of Rodinia (Zhang et al, 2009;Long et al, 2011).…”

“…Comparing relative probability plots for detrital zircons from the Paleozoic metasediments in the Chinese Altai and detrital zircons from several other blocks. Original data are from the references: the Chinese Altai ; and data in this study), the North China Craton (Darby and Gehrels, 2006;Zhou et al, 2008;Wan et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2012bLiu et al, , 2013, the Siberia Craton (Khudoley et al, 2001;Wang et al, 2011;Gladkochub et al, 2013), the Tarim Craton Zhang et al, 2011Zhang et al, , 2012Zhu et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2013), the Yilgarn Craton (Cawood et al, 2003;Veevers et al, 2005;Pidgeon and Nemchin, 2006), the Gawler Craton (Swain et al, 2005;Belousova et al, 2009), the East Antarctica Block (Bisnath et al, 2006;Clark et al, 2012;Grew et al, 2012;Marschall et al, 2013), the northern India Block (Decelles et al, 2004;Gehrels et al, 2006;Kaur et al, 2011;McKenzie et al, 2011;Ravikant et al, 2011), and the South China Block (Wan et al, 2007;Wang et al, 2007Wang et al, , 2010bXu et al, 2007;Sun et al, 2009;Yu et al, 2010;Li et al, 2011). materials for the Early Paleozoic metasediments in the Chinese Altai. Therefore, we suggest that the Tarim Craton is most likely the main source of old detritus of the Early Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks in the Chinese Altai, which therefore suggests that the whole AltaiMongolia terrane has a close tectonic affinity to the Tarim Craton.…”

New geochemical and combined zircon U–Pb and Lu–Hf isotopic data of orthogneisses in the northern Altyn Tagh, northern margin of the Tibetan plateau: Implication for Archean evolution of the Dunhuang Block and crust formation in NW China

“…Compared to the NCC and YC, the early Precambrian geology of the TC is poorly studied because of limited exposures along the margins of the Tarim Basin. Although there are some reliable age data for the Tarim basement rocks, little is known about the early geological evolution of the different blocks of the TC (BGMRX, 1993;Guo et al, 2003Guo et al, , 2005Hu and Rogers, 1992;Hu et al, 1997Hu et al, , 2000Long et al, 2010;Lu and yuan, 2003;Lu et al, 2008a;Shu et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2007aZhang et al, , 2012aZhang et al, , 2012bZhang et al, , 2013aZhu et al, 2011aZhu et al, , 2011bZong et al, 2013). More importantly, whether the entire TC underwent the same evolution and has a uniform Precambrian basement still remains unclear, and this has hampered a better understanding of the tectonic relationship between the TC and the other two Chinese cratons.…”