New geochronological results from late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic successions in the eastern North China Craton and implications for the reconstruction of Rodinia

Abstract

Late Stenian to Tonian stratum of the Xihe and Jinxian groups, the Sangwon system, the Penglai Group, the Tumen Group, and the Huaibei and Langan groups located at the eastern margin of the North China Craton provide an excellent record of changes in sediment provenance related to the amalgamation and dispersal of Rodinia and therefore the paleogeographic position of the craton. To decipher their protosource changes over time, we evaluated 7510 U-Pb and 963 Lu-Hf analyses from 92 samples across the entire eastern North China Craton, of which 1746 U-Pb and 415 Lu-Hf analyses from 18 samples are newly reported here. The detrital zircon results indicate two stratigraphic intervals with internally consistent lithostratigraphy, event stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, depositional age, and detrital zircon age patterns: the late Stenian to early Tonian strata and the late Tonian strata, of which the former mainly consists of the Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons with juvenile Hf isotopic features and the latter’s detritus chiefly derived from the Neoarchean to late Paleoproterozoic basement of the North China Craton. In consideration of the paleomagnetic and geochronological data from the coeval strata in other cratons, the Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons of the late Stenian to early Tonian strata are interpreted to be derived from the Musgrave Province in central Australia during the Rodinia amalgamation, and the transition to the autochthonic protosources in the late Tonian possibly indicated the breakup of the North China Craton and North Australian Craton connection.