Precambrian Tectonic Affinity of Hainan and Its Evolution from Columbia to Rodinia

Abstract

The assembly and break-up of supercontinents have been hot research topics in international earth sciences because they represent a breakthrough in reconstructing the history of continental evolution and deepening the theory of plate tectonics, which is of indispensable importance to the development of earth sciences. With the continuous enrichment of paleomagnetic, paleontological, chronological, and geochemical data in the last two decades, the evolution of the supercontinent from Columbia to Rodinia has gradually gained unified understanding, and the reconstruction of the major plates within the supercontinent has basically been constrained. In contrast, the reconstruction of microplates, such as South China, Tarim, and Kabul, is controversial and has now become a popular topic and frontier area of supercontinent reconstruction. Hainan lies at the southern tip of South China, and a few Proterozoic units are exposed on the island. At present, Hainan is often taken as a part of the Cathaysia Block. However, due to the lack of exposed Mesoproterozoic igneous and supercrustal rocks in Cathaysia, the reconstruction model of the Cathaysia Block and even the South China Craton based solely on Mesoproterozoic units in Hainan are distinct from those based on units in the Yangtze Block and younger Proterozoic units within the Cathaysia Block, which makes the paleoposition of the South China Craton controversial. In this paper, we provide new detrital zircon U–Pb age data for the Baoban Complex, Hainan, together with the available data to comment on the affinities between Hainan and the Yangtze and Cathaysia Blocks in the Proterozoic, and on this basis, we can reconstruct the South China Craton within the Proterozoic supercontinents.