Thermotectonic history of SE China since the Late Mesozoic: insights from detailed thermochronological studies of Hong Kong

Abstract

The late Mesozoic Yanshanian volcanic arc affected an extensive region of SE China, but the conclusion of magmatism and later evolution are not fully understood. Widespread Yanshanian ignimbrites and their contemporaneous granites exposed in Hong Kong represent a microcosm of this magmatic arc. To constrain the post-magmatic thermal history of the region, we present zircon and apatite fission-track analyses from these rocks. Double dating using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry U–Pb and fission-track techniques on detrital zircons from post-volcanic Cretaceous sediments is used to further constrain the tectonothermal evolution. The resulting dataset and thermal modelling suggest that the igneous rocks and Cretaceous sediments together experienced post-emplacement or post-depositional heating to >250 °C, subsequently cooling through 120–60 °C after c . 80 Ma. The heating reflects the combined effects of an enhanced geothermal gradient and burial. We interpret the enhanced gradient to represent continuing Yanshanian magmatic activity until c . 100–80 Ma, much later than previously considered. Our data also indicate a long-term, slow cooling ( c . 1 °C myr –1 ) since the early Cenozoic, linked to c . 2–3 km of erosion-driven exhumation. The thermotectonic history of Hong Kong reflects the mid-Cretaceous transition of SE China from an active to a passive margin bordered by marginal basins that formed in the early Cenozoic. Supplementary material: Descriptions of samples, operating conditions of the laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry system and the full dataset of U–Pb dating of detrital zircons are available at www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18750.