Abstract
High-pressure (HP) metamorphic terrane in the Tongbai orogen comprises two HP slices (I and II) and a tectonic mélange zone in the northeast and a blueschist-greenschist zone in the southwest. HP slice I is represented by the northern and southern eclogite zones on the two sides of the Tongbaishan antiform. HP slice II is represented by retrograded eclogite-bearing metamorphic enclaves in Cretaceous gneissic granites in the Tongbai Complex. U-Pb, Lu-Hf, Rb-Sr and 40Ar/39Ar multichronometric data indicate that the peak metamorphism of HP slice I took place at ∼255 Ma, whereas the metamorphic ages of HP slice II are as young as 232–220 Ma. By contrast, the tectonic mélange zone near the suture was metamorphosed at ∼256 Ma. Such a diachroneity of different slices across the direction of the orogen in the Hong’an-Dabie-Sulu HP/UHP terrane is ubiquitous, and it can be interpreted by a syn-subduction detachment/exhumation model. Furthermore, the metamorphic age of HP slice I in the Tongbai orogen is older than that of the equivalent HP slice in the Hong’an orogen by ∼15 Ma, suggesting that the diachroneity may have also existed along the direction of the orogen. A seesaw-type subduction/exhumation model is proposed to explain this age disparity and the subduction of the South China Block becomimg shallower towards the west.
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Liu, X., Jahn, BM. & Li, S. Diachroneity of continental subduction and exhumation: Constraints from the Permian-Triassic HP metamorphic terrane in the Tongbai orogen, central China. Chin. Sci. Bull. 58, 4397–4404 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-6067-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-013-6067-9