Origin and tectonic implications of the early Middle Triassic tuffs in the western Yangtze Craton: Insight into whole-rock geochemical and zircon U-Pb and Hf isotopic signatures

Abstract

The tuff layer steadily distributed in the western Yangtze Craton is a regional marker for the Early–Middle Triassic (Olenekian–Anisian) boundary. Integrated studies of whole-rock geochemistry and zircon geochronology reveal that the parental magma of the tuff is of felsic composition, generated via volcanic eruptions in the continental arc setting along the southwestern margin of the Yangtze Craton at ~247 Ma. The syn-depositional zircons in the tuff layers and in the coeval igneous rocks exhibit uniform negative εHf(t) values of approximately −20 to −6, indicating the significant input of crustal materials. Massive crustal assimilation implies a large-scale remelting of the pre-existing continental crust, triggered by the intensive arc–continental collision during that time. This intensive collisional tectonomagmatic event is an important signal for the closing of the eastern Paleo-Tethys branch and points to the initial collision of the Indochina Block and the Yangtze Craton. Xenocrystic zircons in the Precambrian-age offer insight into the early evolution of the southwestern Yangtze Craton, which shows episodic crustal growth and reworking of ~2.9–2.2 Ga, crustal reworking of ~1.9–1.7 Ga, rifting-related tectonomagmatism of ~1.6–1.4 Ga, and crustal growth of ~1.1–0.8 Ga. The older crystallization ages (3.4–2.5 Ga), lower initial 176Hf/177Hf values (0.2805–0.2813), negative εHf(t) values (−15.7 to −1.6), and two-stage Hf model ages (3.9–2.8 Ga) of zircons further suggest that an unexposed Archean basement exists beneath the southwestern Yangtze Craton. Significant contributions of mantle-derived materials occur at ~1.3–1.0 Ga, implying that the southwestern Yangtze Craton may not be involved in the Grenvillian-aged continental–continental collision orogeny. Comparable age spectrums and Hf isotopic data suggest that the Paleoproterozoic igneous rocks are a non-negligible provenance for Proterozoic metasedimentary in the Kangdian region.