Provenance and tectonic-paleogeographic evolution: Constraints from detrital zircon U–Pb ages of Late Triassic-Early Jurassic deposits in the northern Sichuan basin, central China

Abstract

U–Pb ages of 290 new detrital zircons from five Late Triassic-Early Jurassic sandstone samples in the northern Sichuan basin, along with other geological data, are used to constrain the sediment provenance and evaluate tectonic-paleogeographic evolution for the adjacent orogens through/from which these sediments were potentially derived. The Upper Triassic depocenter was located at the front of the Longmen Shan belt, and sediments in the western, southern and eastern Sichuan basin shared the southern North China block (NCB) and Qinling belt with the eastern Songpan-Ganzi terrane of Middle-Upper Triassic via the Longmen Shan belt, whereas the northern part of the basin was fed by dominant South Qinling belt (SQB) and northern Yangtze block and possibly subordinate southern NCB. Also, the youngest population in the northern Sichuan basin has a slightly younger age peak (∼235Ma) than those (∼270Ma) in other parts of the basin. During the Early Jurassic, the depocenter was still at the front of the Longmen Shan belt but only northern regions (e.g., SQB and northern Yangtze block) fed the basin. The northern Sichuan basin received less sediments from the southern NCB and more from the SQB and northern Yangtze block during the Early Jurassic than during the Late Triassic. The middle Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons, which likely originated from the North Qinling belt and northern Yangtze block where rocks with these zircons may be unexposed, occur more widely in the Lower Jurassic than in the Upper Triassic. These facts suggest that from the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic, it was increasingly difficult for sediments to transport from the NCB into the northern Sichuan basin and the provenance transferred progressively from the southern NCB to both the SQB and northern Yangtze block, implying the continuous South China block-NCB collision during that time.