Exhumation history of the Red River shear zone in northern Vietnam: New insights from zircon and apatite fission-track analysis

Abstract

A new set of zircon and apatite fission-track ages from the Ailao Shan and Day Nui Con Voi (DNCV) metamorphic massifs of the Red River shear zone (RRSZ) and neighboring rocks in northern Vietnam is presented. A complex, along-strike diachronous, denudation history is revealed. The southern sector of the DNCV cooled to about 100 °C by the Late Oligocene, whereas its central compartment was affected by the later thermotectonic evolution of the Song Chay dome to the E of the RRSZ, whose final exhumation occurred during the Early Miocene. The northern sector of the RRSZ is characterized by the 35 Ma Phan Si Pang pre- to synkinematic intrusion. Fission-track ages from a vertical section within the Phan Si Pang granite indicate rapid exhumation and cooling. The Paleozoic tectonic block to the west of the RRSZ (fission-track ages between 40 and 30 Ma) was exhumed and cooled earlier than the fault mylonite belt (fission track ages of 30 Ma and younger) and also than the eastern block. Its structural level is consistent with field observations that suggest the RRSZ in northern Vietnam to be a transtensional system, with a regional NE–SW oriented extension component.