Early Neoproterozoic accretionary assemblage in the Cathaysia Block: Geochronological, Lu–Hf isotopic and geochemical evidence from granitoid gneisses

• The granitic gneisses from Wuyi-Yunkai yield zircon U–Pb age of 913–982 Ma.
• The early Neoproterozoic S-type granitic magmatism is identified in Cathaysia.
• They originated from the metapelitic and metaigneous source with little input of juvenile materials.
• They are petrogenetically related to the closure of the Wuyi-Yunkai arc-back-arc system.
• The arc-basin system is finally closed at ∼920 Ma and the SCB is placed to the Rodinia margin.

The South China Block (SCB) is composed of the Yangtze Block in the northwest and the Cathysia Block in the southeast. The earliest Neoproterozoic granitic rocks in the SCB are important for our understanding of the tectonic regime and location of this ancient continent in relation to the Rodinia supercontinent. However, such rocks have rarely been reported for the Cathaysia Block so far. In this study, six granitic gneisses from the Wuyi-Yunkai domain gave zircon U–Pb ages of 985–913 Ma, indicating the presence of the early Neoproterozoic granitic magmatism in the Cathaysia interior. These granitic gneisses are peraluminous with high FeOt, MgO, TiO2 and CaO/Na2O but low SiO2, Al2O3/TiO2, Al2O3/(MgO + FeOt) and Rb/Sr ratios. They show steep REE chondrite-normalized patterns with δEu values of 0.35–0.70. These samples have strongly negative Ba, Sr, Nb-Ta, P and Ti anomalies in primitive mantle-normalized diagrams, and ɛNd(t) values of −9.54 to −3.81, similar to those of the Kwangsian granitic rocks and Precambrian volcanosedimentary package in the Cathysia Block. The zircon grains with the earliest Neoproterozoic age gave ɛHf(t) values of −9.64 to +2.78 with the peak values at −2.5 and −7.5, and Hf model ages of 1.35–2.00 Ga with the two-peaks of 1.57 Ga and 1.75 Ga, respectively. These data suggest that the granitic gneisses originated dominantly from a binary mixing of metapelitic and metaigneous components, with insignificant input of juvenile materials. We consider that these rocks are closely related to the closure of the earliest Neoproterozoic (∼980 Ma) Wuyi-Yunkai back-arc basin in an accretionary continental margin setting. In combination with other data, it is proposed that the previously-defined Cathaysia block might consist of various sub-blocks separated by the arc-back-arc basin prior to the early Neoproterozoic period. The Wuyi-Yunkai arc-back-arc system was finally closed at ∼920 Ma, significantly younger than the classical Grenvillian Orogenic event, and thus the SCB was located on the margin of the Rodinia supercontinent.