U-Pb dating of zircon from the Central Zone of the East Kunlun Orogen and its implications for tectonic evolution

Abstract

LA-ICP-MS and SHRIMP U-Pb dating of zircons from orthogneisses and amphibolite from the Central Zone of the Kunlun Orogen is reported in this paper. One orthogneiss sample has metamorphic zircons yielding weighted average 206Pb/238U age of 517.0 +5.0/-6.0 Ma, and the other orthogneiss sample contains zircons with inherited magmatic cores giving three population 207Pb/206Pb ages of 955 Ma, 895 Ma and 657 Ma for the magmatic protolith, and metamorphic recrystallized rims with peak 206Pb/238 U ages of 559 +12/-17 Ma and 516 ± 13 Ma. The amphibolite yielded three populations of weighted average 206Pb/238U age of 482.0 +10/-8.0 Ma, 516.2 ± 5.8 Ma and 549 ± 10 Ma for the metamorphic zircons. These dating results recorded the tectonothermal events that occurred in the early Paleozoic and the Precambrian time. The records of the Cambrian magmatic-metamorphic event in the Qinling Orogen, the Altyn Tagh belt, north margin of the Qaidam Block and the Kunlun Orogen suggest that continental assembly probably occurred in the early evolutionary history of the Proto-Tethys. © Science in China Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH 2008.