Influence of a tectonically active mountain belt on its foreland basin: Evidence from detrital zircon dating of bedrocks and sediments from the eastern Tibetan Plateau and Sichuan Basin, SW China

Abstract

The tectonically active eastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) impacts the populous Sichuan Basin in the form of dust and exhumed detrital materials. To better understand a detailed transport process of detrital material from the eastern TP to the Sichuan Basin, eight samples were collected from the upper reaches of the Min River in the eastern TP to the Sichuan Basin, for zircon U-Pb chronological and grain-size analysis. The results are compared with those of previously studies. Zircon grains are comparatively coarse in three bedrock samples, one fluvial sand sample and one dust sample, but are distinctly fine in three lacustrine samples. Intriguingly, the zircon grain-size parameters from the fluvial sand and dust samples are similar to each other. Consistent with previous studies of this area, the analysis of our U-Pb zircon ages indicates five major age populations at 180–350Ma, 350–550Ma, 700–1000Ma, 1600–2000Ma, and 2200–2600Ma, which broadly correspond to five known granitoid magmatic events within the Yangtze Block. The Min River links lacustrine sediments from Lixian, fluvial sands from Wenchuan, Leshan, Yibin, and from the Dadu River and the Dayi conglomerate, implying the Dayi conglomerate was transported by fluvial rather than glacial processes. The denuded detrital material, mainly generated by seismic events in the eastern TP, was transported by water flow into the western Sichuan Basin, where two thick sedimentary depocenters developed, and the relatively fine grains were then transported by wind to the northern Sichuan Basin. Thus, the thick sediments in the western Sichuan Basin mainly transported by the Min River probably exerted a major influence on dust deposition in the northern Sichuan Basin. In contrast, the Jialing and Dadu rivers made a minor contribution.