Timing, duration and role of magmatism in wide rift systems: Insights from the Jiaodong Peninsula (China, East Asia)

In East Asia, widespread extensional sedimentary basins together with the close association of Metamorphic Core Complexes and magmatism are prominent features of the large-scale wide rift system developed during late Mesozoic times. This region thus appears as a proper place to study continental extension as well as questions about the link between continental extension and magmatism. This paper primarily provides pioneer exhumation time-constraints on the Linglong MCC (Jiaodong Peninsula) including cooling and deformation ages. MCC cooling at mid-crustal levels occurred at ca. 143 Ma. Besides, last ductile deformation occurred at ca. 134 Ma while final exhumation stages, under brittle conditions, occurred as late as ca. 128 Ma. Continuous crustal stretching was then recorded by the emplacement of a synkinematic pluton in the upper crust at ca. 128 Ma that cooled fast below an intracrustal shear zone crossing the ductile–brittle transition at ca. 123 Ma. The ca. 120–118 Ma age cluster is ascribed to the fast cooling of undeformed plutons marking the end of extension that lasted, in the area, over a minimum period of ca. 30 My. Combining other MCC exhumation constraints and the onset of subsidence in the sedimentary basins, total duration of late Mesozoic extension in East Asia could be estimated at ca. 60 My, related with a rather long process for extension from 160 to at least 100 Ma. East Asian continental extension is heterogeneously distributed in space and time as revealed by fundamental differences between two end-member classes of migmatite-cored MCC already described in other wide rift systems. Extension seems to have first favoured partial melting which subsequently, in turn, maintained continental extension.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideHighlights► Cooling occurred in the Linglong MCC at ~ 143 Ma while deformation lasted until ~ 128 Ma. ► The last extensional deformation with the Linglong area dates back to 124 Ma. ► The Linglong MCC matches the main features of a fast MCC-type. ► The “Giant Igneous Event” appears as a consequence of extensional tectonics. ► Development of the East Asia wide-rift system may have lasted ~ 60 My.