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Sedimentology and detrital zircon geochronology of the Nanpihe Formation in the central zone of the Changning–Menglian Belt in western Yunnan, China: revealing an allochthon emplaced during the closure of Paleo-Tethys

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Abstract

The Changning–Menglian Belt in western Yunnan, China has been widely considered as the remnants of Paleo-Tethys. However, its geological history remains waiting for further clarification. An efficient approach to this goal is to identify the tectono-sedimentary environment of different stratigraphic successions within the belt. This study examines the Nanpihe Formation, a Devonian to Early Carboniferous siliciclastics-dominated succession in the central zone of the belt. Our sedimentologic and petrographic results reveal that this formation comprises largely turbidity current deposits. Geochemical results indicate that its source area was rich in continental island arc rocks. Detrital zircon age spectra of this formation exhibit remarkable age clusters of ca. 435 Ma and ca. 950 Ma. The former is well-correlated with Silurian magmatism in the Simao and South China blocks. We thus consider that this formation was deposited in a continental slope environment along the west margin of the Simao Block, instead of the eastern margin of the Baoshan-Shan Block. We further consider that sometime in the Permian or Early Triassic, as the eastward subduction of the Paleo-Tethys progressed, the Nanpihe Formation was sheared off or collapsed from the overriding margin of the Simao Block and entered the accretionary wedge, which contained a significant amount of rock slices scraped off the subducting oceanic plate. During the closure of Paleo-Tethys in the Late Triassic, this formation and some other slices of the accretionary wedge were thrust onto the east flank of the Baoshan–Shan block.

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Acknowledgements

This study is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos. 41630104, 41872036), for which we are very grateful. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their critical review and constructive suggestions, which significantly improved the presentation of this paper.

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  1. Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, 26 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing, 100037, People’s Republic of China

    Jianbin Zheng, Xiaochi Jin, Hao Huang, Zhen Yan, Haifeng Wang & Lingqi Bai

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Zheng, J., Jin, X., Huang, H. et al. Sedimentology and detrital zircon geochronology of the Nanpihe Formation in the central zone of the Changning–Menglian Belt in western Yunnan, China: revealing an allochthon emplaced during the closure of Paleo-Tethys. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 110, 2685–2704 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-021-02074-0

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