A database of detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology and Hf isotopes from the Songpan–Ganzi and Western Qinling terranes

Abstract

Since the advent of detrital geochronology, significant progress has been made in the study of sedimentary sources. The detrital zircon U–Pb age spectrum, especially when combined with zircon Hf isotopes, provides a powerful tool for determining the provenance location, nature, and evolutionary history of sediments. The Western Qinling–Songpan tectonic junction, located in central China, is a giant structure on the crustal scale. A total of 20,640 zircon U–Pb ages of 281 sandstone samples from the Songpan–Ganzi and Western Qinling terranes were obtained. Among these, 1,636 zircons from 33 samples contained Hf isotopic data. Moreover, we compiled data on papers, samples, analytical methods, and results and obtained a total of 76 zircon U–Pb and 60 Hf isotope data heads. The obtained dataset has multiple data interfaces, which can be well associated with research or applications in different fields, for provenance analysis, climate change, and paleogeographic reconstruction studies.