The assembly of Rodinia: The correlation of early Neoproterozoic (ca. 900 Ma) high-grade metamorphism and continental arc formation in the southern Beishan Orogen, southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB)

Abstract

An early extensive Neoproterozoic (ca. 900Ma) continental magmatic arc system covering hundreds of kilometers has been reported to occur in the South Beishan Orogenic Belt (SBOB) and the Central Tianshan (CTA) in the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). However, evidence for coeval high-grade metamorphism and thus the formation of an accretionary orogen in the framework of Rodinia is ambiguous or absent. This study provides new petrological, geochemical and geochronological data for garnet-bearing schists (quartz+garnet+biotite+plagioclase±muscovite) from the SBOB in order to constrain its Neoproterozoic metamorphic history. The metamorphic zircon rims are either unzoned or display sector zoning in CL-images and reveal REE patterns with flat HREE patterns and negative Eu anomalies, which are interpreted to be in chemical equilibrium with garnet and plagioclase. The zircon U-Pb dating yields concordant U-Pb ages of 900±3Ma, 897±2Ma and 898±4Ma for the metamorphic zircon rims. The inherited detrital zircon cores of one sample display a concordant U-Pb age of 1397±5Ma that is consistent with the timing of formation for the extensive Mesoproterozoic continental arc in the SBOB and CTA. Based on phase equilibrium geothermobarometry and average P-T thermobarometric calculations, minimum amphibolite-facies P-T conditions are estimated to be >600°C at pressure >0.6GPa, which is thought to have been overprinted by subsequent Paleozoic metamorphism. However, the Ti-in-zircon thermometer still reveals temperatures of up to 840°C using the composition of metamorphic zircon rims, suggesting former ca. 900Ma granulite-facies peak metamorphic temperatures. The combined petrological and geochronological evidence in conjunction with the continental affinity of the regional metamorphic rocks suggests that the SBOB and the eastern CTA experienced an early Neoproterozoic accretionary orogenesis during the final assembly stage of Rodinia.