Abstract
The South China Block (SCB) is formed by the amalgamation of the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks during the Early Neoproterozoic along the Jiangnan Orogen. However, the precise amalgamation time of these two blocks and the location of the united SCB in the Rodinia supercontinent remain highly debatable. Various tectonic models have been proposed and they may have different implications for the crustal thickness evolution of the central SCB in Early Neoproterozoic. To evaluate these models, this paper uses a recently calibrated Eu/Eu*-in-zircon proxy to reconstruct crustal thickness evolution of the central SCB during Early Neoproterozoic. I compiled and screened U–Pb ages and trace elements of 900–700 Ma detrital zircons from the central SCB and then calculated the zircon Eu/Eu* values. The age-binned average zircon Eu/Eu* displays a decreasing trend from 870 to 790 Ma, and thus indicates no significant crustal thickening event occurred during this time interval. This finding seems to be inconsistent with tectonic models that the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks amalgamated during this time interval. Yet, given that available coupled detrital zircon U–Pb and trace element datasets are very limited, additional studies are warranted to further evaluate this hypothesis.
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This research was financially supported by Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. E221110015).
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Table S1
Age and selected trace element compositions of 900−700 Ma detrital zircons from central South China (XLSX 53 kb)
Figure S1
a Comparison of crustal thickness evolution of central SCB during 900–700 Ma reconstructed from age-binned average and median Eu/Eu* in detrital zircons (bin size 20 million years). b Number of detrital zircons within each 20-million-year bin during 900–700 Ma (PDF 137 kb)
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Chen, Z. Europium anomalies in detrital zircons reveal the crustal thickness evolution of South China in Early Neoproterozoic. Acta Geochim 42, 739–746 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-023-00605-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-023-00605-x