Sedimentary response to the paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the southern North China Craton during the late Paleozoic and Mesozoic

摘要

Abstract With the aim of constraining the influence of the surrounding plates on the Late Paleozoic–Mesozoic paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the southern North China Craton (NCC), we undertook new U–Pb and Hf isotope data for detrital zircons obtained from ten samples of upper Paleozoic to Mesozoic sediments in the Luoyang Basin and Dengfeng area. Samples of upper Paleozoic to Mesozoic strata were obtained from the Taiyuan, Xiashihezi, Shangshihezi, Shiqianfeng, Ermaying, Shangyoufangzhuang, Upper Jurassic unnamed, and Lower Cretaceous unnamed formations (from oldest to youngest). On the basis of the youngest zircon ages, combined with the age-diagnostic fossils, and volcanic interlayer, we propose that the Taiyuan Formation (youngest zircon age of 439Ma) formed during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian, the Xiashihezi Formation (276Ma) during the Early Permian, the Shangshihezi (376Ma) and Shiqianfeng (279Ma) formations during the Middle–Late Permian, the Ermaying Group (232Ma) and Shangyoufangzhuang Formation (230 and 210Ma) during the Late Triassic, the Jurassic unnamed formation (154Ma) during the Late Jurassic, and the Cretaceous unnamed formation (158Ma) during the Early Cretaceous. These results, together with previously published data, indicate that: (1) Upper Carboniferous–Lower Permian sandstones were sourced from the Northern Qinling Orogen (NQO); (2) Lower Permian sandstones were formed mainly from material derived from the Yinshan–Yanshan Orogenic Belt (YYOB) on the