Late Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic rift successions in SW China: Implication for the Yangtze Block–North Australia–Northwest Laurentia connection in the Columbia supercontinent

• The Dongchuan Group and its equivalents are rift-related units in the SW China.
• They represent continuous sedimentation in a rift cycle.
• They were associated with the fragmentation of the supercontinent Columbia.
• The Yangtze Block was connected to northern Australia and northwestern Laurentia.
• The Yangtze Block drifted away from adjacent continents before ca. 1590 Ma.

The late Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic Dongchuan Group in the southwestern Yangtze Block formed in a series of fault-controlled, rift-related basins associated with the fragmentation of the Columbia supercontinent. The Dongchuan Group is composed, from the base upward, of the Yinmin, Luoxue, Etouchang and Luzhijiang formations. The Yinmin Formation has a basal layer of conglomerate and coarse sandstone, up to 2 m thick, marking initiation of rifting. It is a laterally discontinuous layer, indicative of lateral variations in the accommodation space created adjacent to juvenile normal faults in the earliest stages of rifting. Fluvial to intertidal facies sedimentary rocks of the Yinmin Formation are characterized by fining-upward patterns from sandstone to interbedded carbonate and mudstone, representing syn-rifting sedimentation. Enlargement of the basin and establishment of a carbonate platform during sedimentation of the Luoxue Formation suggest that faulting and volcanism were significantly reduced, marking a transition from syn-rifting subsidence to post-rifting subsidence. Black carbonaceous shale of the Etouchang Formation likely formed in a continental slope and deep ocean basin, generated by slow thermal subsidence of heated subcrustal materials during the post-rifting stage. Subsequent shoaling led to re-establishment of a rimmed carbonate shelf, in which massive argillaceous dolostone of the Luzhijiang Formation started to accumulate. Two major igneous events marked the ca. 1710-Ma rifting climax and 1685–1660-Ma waning phase of rifting. The rift sequence in the southwestern Yangtze Block correlates with the late Paleoproterozoic to early Mesoproterozoic sequence in the Mount Isa Basin, North Australia. These successions have identical zircon age patterns and similar igneous and sedimentary assemblages. In addition, the rifting-related 1735–1663 Ma Hornby Bay and ~ 1640–1600 Ma Wernecke successions in northwestern Laurentia show similarities with those synchronous successions in the Yangtze Block and North Australia. This correlation suggests that the Yangtze Block was likely connected to northern Australia and northwestern Laurentia during the assembly of Columbia supercontinent but drifted away from these continents before ca. 1590 Ma and showed tectonic evolution different from them after that.

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