Tectonics of an ultrahigh‐pressure metamorphic terrane: The Dabie Shan/Tongbai Shan Orogen, China

Abstract

Ultrahigh‐pressure metamorphic rocks with coesite and diamond form a tectonic slice over 20 km thick, called the eclogite zone, within the Dabie Shan complex in the Qinling orogen in central China. The orogen separates the Sino‐Korean block in the north from the Yangtze block in the south. The Dabie Shan Complex is a composite terrane made up of eclogite facies and amphibolite facies gneiss slices and represents fragments of the lower continental crust of the Yangtze block. The Dabie Shan Complex is bounded in the south by a Triassic foreland fold‐thrust belt and in the north by a greenschist facies metaclastic unit, the Foziling Group, which probably represents the passive continental apron deposits of the Yangtze block. Farther north is a granulite facies gneiss complex, the Qinling Group, which has ultramafic slivers and includes the remnants of an island arc with two bounding suture zones. North of the Qinling Group are early Paleozoic active margin deposits of the Sino‐Korean block. The eclogite zone in the Dabie Shan Complex is sandwiched between amphibolite facies gneiss slices. Dating by Sm‐Nd, Rb‐Sr, and Ar‐Ar of two eclogite samples from the eclogite zone gives early to middle Triassic ages (236–246 Ma); the initial εNdvalues indicate reworking of a 2.11 and 1.55 Ga continental crust. A Himalayan‐type tectonic evolution is envisaged for the Qinling orogen with the creation of a 100‐km‐thick crustal thrust wedge through continuous underplating during the subduction of the Yangtze continental lithosphere. Exhumation of the ultrahigh‐pressure metamorphic rocks was chiefly achieved by the southward propagation of the thrust planes, thereby isostatically uplifting and eroding the earlier deeply subducted parts of the orogen. A total of 680 km of southward thrusting in front of Dabie Shan is inferred, based on the abrupt termination of the Tanlu fault. Normal faulting possibly caused by gravitational collapse probably also had a role in the exhumation process.