Early Permian volcano-sedimentary successions, Beishan, NW China: Peperites demonstrate an evolving rift basin

• Early Permian peperites are identified and interpreted in Beishan.
• Early Permian basalts are not dismembered ophiolitic components.
• Peperites were originated in rift basins during Early Permian in Beishan.

The Lower Permian volcano-sedimentary Zhesi Group has been investigated in the Hongliuhe and Liuyuan areas in Beishan, China, which is significant for the reconstruction of Late Paleozoic evolution in the southern part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. A variety of volcanic facies were distinguished in the Upper Zhesi Group: pillow basalt with interstitial limestone, thin-interbedded limestone and basalt, closely packed pillows, pillow-fragmented hyaloclastite breccia, and peperite. Laser 40Ar/39Ar whole-rock dating of the basalt yielding an age of 277 ± 11 Ma, as well as Early Permian brachiopod fossils in the limestone interbedded with the basalt, indicate that basalt was erupted in the Early Permian. The identification of the peperite and other facies originating from magma-sediment mingling reveals that the basaltic lava flows were derived from autochthonous basaltic magmatism and formed as part of the Lower Permian succession. The peperite also indicates that these subaqueous basaltic lava flows are not dismembered ophiolitic components, but formed in an autochthonous extensional setting in the Early Permian. The clastic rocks in the Lower Zhesi Group underlying the basaltic flows and peperites in the Hongliuhe and Liuyuan areas show a general fining-upwards sequence, indicating that they were deposited in a progressively deepening basin overlying the Devonian Hongliuhe suture zone. Subaqueous volcanism in a rift basin or basins, accompanied by coeval deposition of carbonate sediment and mud, built up the peperite-bearing volcanogenic-sedimentary successions. From among the various tectonic hypotheses for the Beishan region, this study demonstrates that by Early Permian the region was developing post-collisional rift basins.