Abstract
ABSTRACTThe amount of zircon U-Pb geochronological data for China has grown rapidly in recent years. Nearly 410,000 items of zircon U-Pb geochronological data, representing more than 7,000 relevant articles in the Elsevier Science Database, have been collected to a database in this research. Statistics on the ages and absolute errors of these collated data, yielded smallest standard errors for (206Pb/238U), (207Pb/235U), and (207Pb/206Pb) ages within respective time intervals of < 1388.96 Ma, 1388.96–3282.52 Ma, and > 3282.52 Ma. The ages and their absolute errors were determined using three main geochronology methods, based on laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometer (LA-ICP-MS), sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP), and secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) measurements. We compared the influence of these different methods on errors for each age interval. In addition, using a Gaussian model of multi-peak fitting of zircon U-Pb age frequencies, we identified seven growth peaks in zircons from the Chinese continental crust, which are 48.60 Ma, 131.49 Ma, 249.91 Ma, 444.27 Ma, 835.95 Ma, 1860.65 Ma, and 2505.54 Ma. It is clear that there are correspondences between these ages and various geological events, namely, the Wutai movement, Lvliang movement, Jinning movement, Caledonian movement, Indo-China movement, Yanshan movement, and Himalayaorogeny movement, respectively. The time and spatial distributions of these zircons correspond to distinct geological events on the Chinese continent, reflecting its crustal evolution.
Highlights
Since the introduction of a “Digital Earth”, digitization of the Earth has undergone rapid progress, providing a new perspective from big datasets and meta-data, and greatly enhancing our understanding of the Earth
Data for the solid earth layer are very limited. This constitutes a strong imbalance in the study of the interaction between layers in Earth System science
Because the half-life of 235U decaying to 207Pb is long, the radiogenic 207Pb content of young samples is small and difficult to measure, making it better to use the 206Pb/238U age
Summary
Since the introduction of a “Digital Earth”, digitization of the Earth has undergone rapid progress, providing a new perspective from big datasets and meta-data, and greatly enhancing our understanding of the Earth. With the introduction of precision isotope dating instruments, such as Cameca’s Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (SIMS), the Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Microprobe (SHRIMP), and Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (LA-ICP-MS), the study of zircon U-Pb geochronology in China has been greatly enhanced, especially on the Chinese continent. These geochronological data have supported investigations in solid earth science. Geochronological big data make geochronology more quantitative and allow us to study geochronology from time, space, or higher dimensions, to obtain a greater understanding of geodynamics and Earth System science
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