Age and growth of the Archean Kongling terrain, South China, with emphasis on 3.3 ga granitoid gneisses

Abstract

The North China craton and the Yangtze craton (South China) both contain Archean rocks in eastern China. Unlike the North China craton, where Archean rocks are widespread, in the Yangtze craton the exposed Archean rocks are only known in the Kongling terrain (360 km²). Zircon U-Pb ages and Lu-Hf isotopic compositions of three granodioritic-trondhjemitic gneisses and three metasedimentary rocks from the Kongling terrain were analyzed by LA-ICP-MS and LA-MC-ICP-MS. Igneous zircons in one trondhjemitic gneiss in the north of the Kongling terrain have an age of 3302±7 (1σ) Ma. Evidence from cathodoluminescence imaging, variations in Th/U and degree of U-Pb age discordance suggest that apparently younger zircons in the same population are variably disturbed 3302 Ma grains. Thus, this trondhjemitic gneiss is the oldest known rock in South China and predates the earlier reported ∼2900 Ma granitoid magmatism by 400 Ma. Zircon cores from one granodioritic gneiss in the north of the Kongling terrain also give a concordant age group at 3200 to 3300 Ma. Regardless as inherited or not, these cores crystallized from a magma indistinguishable in age with the trondhjemite. Concordant U-Pb ages for igneous zircons in one granodioritic gneiss in the south of the Kongling terrain yielded a weighted average ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb age of 2981±13 Ma (2σ, MSWD=9.7, n=21). The zircon age and initial Hf isotopic compositions are similar to those of widespread granitoid gneisses from the north of the Kongling terrain (2903-2947 Ma), and indicate that the south and north of the Kongling terrain are correlative. The results also reinforce that magmatism of the whole Kongling terrain mainly occurred at 2900 Ma. Available Hf isotopic data from the Kongling terrain show that juvenile crustal additions occurred mainly between 3150 and 3800 Ma with a significant peak at 3300 to 3500 Ma. The ∼3300 Ma zircons from the trondhjemitic gneiss have Hf crust formation ages of 3450 to 3730 Ma, some of which have nearly chondritic ε_Hf (t). The whole-rock depleted mantle Nd model age of this rock is 3400 Ma, close to its age of magmatism and consistent with the Hf model age. Its ε_Nd value at 3300 Ma is nearly chondritic (1.26). These lines of evidence suggest that the 3300 Ma trondhjemite represent juvenile crust additions to the pre-existing continental crust.