Middle-Late Mesozoic sedimentary provenances of the Luxi and Jiaolai areas: Implications for tectonic evolution of the North China Block

Provenances of sedimentary rocks may provide important constraints on the tectonic evolution of the North China Block (NCB). Previous studies have demonstrated that the northern NCB (NNCB) and the Xing-Meng orogenic belt (XMOB) supplied massive detritus southward into the hinterland of the NCB during the Jurassic. In order to study the evolution of sedimentary provenance during the Middle-Late Mesozoic, U-Pb geochronology and Hf isotopic geochemistry of detrital zircon grains and chemical compositions of detrital garnets from sandstones in the Luxi and Jiaolai areas, eastern NCB, were analyzed in combination with published data on the Jurassic sandstones. The Late Paleozoic-Mesozoic (367-139 Ma) zircons in the lowermost Cretaceous Mengyin Formation samples from the Luxi area show εHf(t) values of −15.3 to −3.2 and +1.3 to +10.0, which are very similar to the results of analyses of the Jurassic formations. Further, the increased amount of Mesozoic zircons and granulite-derived garnets in the Mengyin Formation samples, compared to those in the Jurassic samples, indicates there was more detritus supply from the NNCB than from the XMOB. In the overlying Qingshan Formation samples, zircon grains do not exhibit Paleozoic ages, but most of them have Early Cretaceous ages and negative εHf(t) values, which are similar to the zircon grains extracted from the widespread Early Cretaceous igneous rocks in the NCB. This suggests that the provenance might have changed to a locally derived source. In contrast, the zircon population of the Early Cretaceous sandstones from the Jiaolai basin is dominated by grains of mid-Neoproterozoic age (700-900 Ma) which signifies contribution from the Sulu orogen. Moreover, the detrital garnet assemblages of sandstones in the Luxi area are not consistent with those from representative metamorphic rocks in the Sulu orogen. The above results seem to confirm that the Mesozoic sedimentary provenance of the Luxi area had no evident connection with the Sulu orogen. Instead, the differential uplifting and exhumation of deep crustal rocks in the NNCB and the XMOB, associated with closure of the Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean, might exert a dominant control on sedimentary provenances in the wide hinterland of the NCB from the Jurassic period to ∼136 Ma (the upper boundary age of the Mengyin Formation).