Detrital zircon U–Pb ages and Hf isotopes of Permo-Carboniferous sandstones in central Inner Mongolia, China: Implications for provenance and tectonic evolution of the southeastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt

• Depositional environment was shallow water with two events of increasing water depth.
• Provenance was Early to Mid-Paleozoic magmatic arc and Late Paleozoic igneous rocks.
• Southeastern CAOB entered stages of extension and rifting during the Late Paleozoic.

The tectonic setting of the southeastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) during the Late Paleozoic has been debated for many years. Provenance analysis of Permo-Carboniferous sedimentary rocks can effectively address this issue. In this study, eight sandstone samples were collected for zircon U–Pb and Lu–Hf isotopic analyses combined with petrographic analysis. Framework petrography and zircon morphology suggest that the samples were from recycled orogen of an igneous origin. Carboniferous rocks, with a significant age peak at 432 Ma and εHf (t) values of − 9.0 to 13.6, were mainly derived from Early to Mid-Paleozoic magmatic rocks and deposited in a piedmont zone, namely, the margin of an inland sea. Permian rocks, mostly with age peaks at 445 Ma and/or 280 Ma and εHf (t) values of − 25.2 to 11.4, dominantly originated from a pre-existing Early to Mid-Paleozoic magmatic arc and Late Paleozoic igneous rocks. These rocks formed in restricted basins of the piedmont and intermountain zones. Based on zircon spectral discrimination, sedimentary environmental analysis, and previous studies, this study supports the interpretation that the southeastern CAOB entered stages of extension and rifting during the Late Paleozoic. In the end, this study proposes a tectonic-paleogeographic reconstruction to explain the tectonic evolution of the southeastern CAOB and the exhumation–transportation–deposition processes between the basins and ranges developed in this orogen.