Palaeomagnetism of Precambrian dyke swarms in the North China Shield: The ∼1.8 Ga LIP event and crustal consolidation in late Palaeoproterozoic times

Abstract

The North China Shield (NCS) is cut by a laterally-extensive dyke swarm emplaced at 1.78–1.76 Ga when an extensional regime succeeded regional metamorphism and completion of cratonisation by ∼1.85 Ga. Palaeomagnetic study of these dykes and adjoining metamorphic country rocks identifies a dominant shallow axis comprising a contiguous population with NE to N declinations and rare opposite polarity. Dykes with NE shallow magnetic declination (A1, D/ I = 36/−1°) recognised from previous study and emplaced in granulite terranes in the north are displaced by more northerly declinations (A2, D/ I = 8/2°) in lower grade metamorphic terranes to the south. Contact tests indicate a primary cooling-related origin to these magnetisations although tests are in part ambiguous because magnetisations in the granulite basement are comparable. Petrologic and rock magnetic considerations imply that magnetisation of the dykes occurred during uplift from depths as deep as 20 km following the peak of metamorphism at ∼1.85 Ga. A temporal migration A2 → A1 is implied by the higher crustal level and earlier acquisition of the former, and the deeper source and later acquisition of the latter. A third population of dyke magnetisations (A3, D/ I = 18/43°) is distributed towards steeper inclinations and close to the Mesozoic-Recent palaeofield. These are either partial or complete overprints of A1–A2 magnetisations with greater degrees of alteration indicated by demagnetisation and thermomagenetic spectra, or are much younger dykes of Mesozoic-Tertiary age. A minority fourth (later Precambrian but presently undated) dual polarity population has a magnetisation (11 dykes, D/ I = 108/7°) with contact tests indicating a primary cooling-related origin. The ∼1.78–1.76 Ga time of emplacement of the dominant dyke swarms in this study is widely represented by contemporaneous igneous rocks in other major shields linked to major Large Igneous Province (LIP)-related events. The new definition of a ∼1.83–1.76 Ga APW swathe from the North China Shield permits a comparison with other shields and yields a constraint to continental configurations during the late Palaeoproterozoic. A quasi-integral reconstruction of Palaeopangaea is tested here and supported by conformity of predominantly of uplift-related palaeopoles from the ∼1.90–1.70 Ga tectono-thermal belts and from SW → NE trending APW implied by the distribution of poles from the ∼1.80 Ga igneous suites including the LIP events. This trend incorporates the A2 → A1 migration and the granulite terrane cooling polar swathe from North China. The reconstruction indicates that continental crust consolidated in Palaeoproterozoic times by accretion of ∼2.3–1.7 Ga orogenic belts around a hemispheric and crescent-shape core already established by Late Archaean times. The North China Shield is interpreted to have bordered the western cratonic margin of the Indian Shield in a proximity supported by correlation of geological features and suggested by a number of previous workers. The Central Orogenic Zone of the North China shield characterised by tectono-thermal activity prior to ∼1.85 Ga was then contiguous with a comparable zone running through the centre of the Indian Shield and continuing into the Capricorn Belt of Western Australia. The ∼1.78–1.76 Ga dykes in North China continue into dyke swarms in the South India Shield and may have been sourced in a plume-related LIP focussed near the continental margin in the Xiong’er Aulacogen.