Cooling History of Mesozoic Magmatism and Implications for Large-Scale Gold Mineralization in the Jiaodong Peninsula, East China: Constraints from T-t Paths Determined by U-Pb Thermochronology of Zircon and Apatite

The Mesozoic intrusions of the Jiaodong Peninsula, eastern China, host giant gold deposits. Understanding the genesis of these deposits requires the determination of the source of the parental auriferous fluid and the timing of gold mineralization, which are strongly influenced by the cooling/uplift histories of the hosting intrusions. We performed an integrated U-Pb geochronology study on both zircon and apatite from four major magmatic episodes of the Jiaodong Peninsula. The zircon and apatite U-Pb ages are 156.9 ± 1.2 and 137.2 ± 2.4 Ma for the Linglong intrusion, 129.9 ± 1.0 and 125.0 ± 3.8 Ma for the Qujia intrusion, 119.5 ± 0.7 and 117.2 ± 1.8 Ma for the Liulinzhuang intrusion, 118.6 ± 1.0 and 111.6 ± 1.6 Ma for the Nansu intrusion, respectively. The coupled zircon and apatite data of these granitoids indicate a slow cooling rate (11.9 °C/Ma) in the Late Jurassic, and rapid uplift and cooling (35.8–29.2 °C/Ma) in the Early Cretaceous. The dramatically increased uplift and cooling period in the Early Cretaceous are contemporaneous with large-scale gold mineralization in the Jiaodong Peninsula. This implies that thermal upwelling of asthenosphere and related tectonic extension played an important role in gold remobilization and precipitation.