Late Mesozoic ductile deformation and exhumation along the Shangdan suture zone in the Qinling Orogenic Belt, China

The Qinling Orogenic Belt (QOB) is a multi-stage orogenic belt recording subduction and collision processes. The ductile shearing deformation with different properties and ages is developed on the boundary of the different litho-tectonic units, which can be used to decipher the tectonic evolution of the QOB. Previous studies mainly concentrated on the pre-Late Mesozoic shearing deformation, while the Late Mesozoic shearing deformation received less attention. It restricts the understanding of the Late Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the QOB. Hence, we conducted detailed field structural analysis and laboratory analysis of the Shagou shear zone (SGSZ) in the middle part of the Shangdan suture zone (SDSZ). The SGSZ, developed in the southern margin of the Baliping pluton, is an S–SSW-dipping sinistral strike-slip ductile shear zone with a top-to-the-ESE shear sense. The mylonite protoliths are voluminous Late Triassic granites (200–215 Ma) and a small amount of Neoproterozoic granites (759 Ma) and Early Cretaceous granites (145 Ma). Microstructures and geothermobarometer results suggest that the ductile shearing deformation occurred under high greenschist–low amphibolite-facies conditions (400–650°C) at middle crustal depths (13–21 km). Zircon U–Pb and amphibole-biotite ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating results constrain the timing of shearing deformation to 135–145 Ma and the rapid exhumation of the SGSZ to 115–135 Ma. Combining with the regional data, we consider that the sinistral strike-slip shearing deformation in the SGSZ controls and accommodates the south-eastward extrusion of the East SQB under the intracontinental compression. Subsequently, the intracontinental extension led to the rapid exhumation of the SGSZ.