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Detrital zircon evidence for the antiquity of Taiwan

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Abstract

In-situ U-Pb geochronology and Hf isotopic studies of zircons from the Pre-Tertiary basement complex and Eocene rocks of the Central Range of Taiwan were carried out to elucidate the history of detrital zircons older than 2.3 Ga. Zircons from the eastern Backbone Range and Eastern Central Range show Paleoproterozoic to late Neoarchean ages (2.3−≥2.5 Ga), whereas those from the Hsuehshan Range yield Neoarchean to Mesoarchean ages (2.6–3.2Ga). The ɛHf(T) for the Paleoproterozoic to late Neoarchean zircons varies from −7.4 to +5.1, implying both juvenile crustal growth and reworking of old crusts. This dual origin could extend back to Mesoarchean-Paleoarchean (3.0–3.4 Ga) based on Hf isotopic model ages. Consistent but narrower ɛHf(T) values and Hf crustal model ages for zircons from Taiwan compared to Cathaysia suggest a possible common origin for these zircons, although Taiwan has a generally younger crustal evolution history than SE China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 115, Republic of China

    Ching-Ying Lan, Tadashi Usuki, Kuo-Lung Wang & Tzen-Fu Yui

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Saitama University, Saitama, 388-8570, Japan

    Kazuaki Okamoto

  3. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, National Chung Cheng University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, 621, Republic of China

    Yuan-Hsi Lee

  4. Laboratory for Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, 152-8551, Japan

    Takafumi Hirata & Yoshitaka Kon

  5. Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-0032, Japan

    Yuji Orihashi

  6. Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Juhn G. Liou

  7. Department of Earth Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, 117, Republic of China

    Chun-Sun Lee

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  1. Ching-Ying Lan
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  2. Tadashi Usuki
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Correspondence to Ching-Ying Lan.

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Lan, CY., Usuki, T., Wang, KL. et al. Detrital zircon evidence for the antiquity of Taiwan. Geosci J 13, 233–243 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-009-0023-3

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