Transition from a passive to active continental margin setting for the NE Asian continental margin during the Mesozoic: Insights from the sedimentary formations and paleogeography of the eastern Jiamusi Massif, NE China

Abstract

Abstract The Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the NE Asian continental margin has received much attention in recent years. However, previous studies focused mainly on the petrogenesis of igneous rocks and their relationship with Mesozoic tectonics, and there have been few studies of the Mesozoic sedimentary formations of the NE Asian continental margin. We combined zircon U-Pb ages with Hf isotopic and biostratigraphic data to reconstruct the Mesozoic paleogeography of the NE Asian continental margin. The results indicate that Mesozoic strata of the eastern Jiamusi Massif, NE China, include the Upper Triassic Nanshuangyashan Formation (Norian), Lower Jurassic volcanic rocks, and Lower Cretaceous Longzhaogou Group. The Upper Triassic Nanshuangyashan Formation consists of a suite of alternating marine and terrestrial sedimentary rocks with abundant fossils that formed in a passive continental margin setting. The Lower Jurassic strata comprise a suite of calc-alkaline volcanic rocks that include basaltic andesites, andesites, and rhyolites that formed in an active continental margin setting related to initial subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate beneath Eurasia. The Lower Cretaceous Longzhaogou Group belong to alternating marine and terrestrial sedimentary formations that formed in an active continental margin setting related to subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate. Here, we integrate these data to reconstruct the Mesozoic tectonic history of the NE Asian continental margin, which comprises a Late Triassic passive continental margin, the initiation of subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate in the Early Jurassic, and westward subduction and rollback of the Paleo-Pacific Plate in the Early Cretaceous.