New 40Ar/39Ar age constraints on the Late Palaeozoic tectonic evolution of the western Tianshan (Xinjiang, northwestern China), with emphasis on Permian fluid ingress

Koenraad de Jong 1 Bo Wang 1, 2 Michel Faure 1 Liangshu S. Shu 2 Dominique Cluzel 1, 2 Jacques Charvet 1 Gilles Ruffet 3 Yan Chen 1
1 ISTO - Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans
2 Department of Earth Sciences [Nanjing]
3 GR - Géosciences Rennes
Abstract : Laser-probe dating of mylonite whole-rock samples from the North Tianshan—Main Tianshan fault zone that cross-cuts the North Tianshan domain's southern margin yielded 40Ar/39Ar spectra with 255–285 Ma ages. Biotite from an undeformed, Early Carboniferous granite, which cuts the steep mylonitic foliation in the Proterozoic basement of the Yili arcs's southern margin, gave a 263.4 ± 0.6 Ma plateau age (1σ). Pre-Carboniferous metasediments overlying this basement yielded plateau ages (1σ) of 253.3 ± 0.3 (muscovite) and 252.3 ± 0.3 (biotite) Ma. The Permian ages of mylonites date movement on these ductile, dextral strike-slip shear zones, whereas the mica ages are interpreted by recrystallisation as a result of fluid flow around such transcurrent faults. We propose that the Tianshan's Permian syn-tectonic bimodal magmatism was created in a non-plume-related Yellowstone-like extensional–transtensional tectonic regime. Gold mineralisation, tracing aqueous flow in the crust, peaked in Permian time and continued locally into the Triassic. The picture is emerging that a convective fluid system partly driven by magmatic heat, existed in a strongly fractured and weakened crust with an elevated heat flow, leading to regional-scale isotope resetting. We suggest that surprisingly young isotopic ages in the literature for early orogenic (ultra)high-pressure metamorphism are similarly due to fluid-mediated recrystallisation.
Keywords : Isotope resetting Fluids Central Asia Chinese Tianshan 40Ar/39Ar geochronology
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Journal articles
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Koenraad de Jong, Bo Wang, Michel Faure, Liangshu S. Shu, Dominique Cluzel, et al.. New 40Ar/39Ar age constraints on the Late Palaeozoic tectonic evolution of the western Tianshan (Xinjiang, northwestern China), with emphasis on Permian fluid ingress. International Journal of Earth Sciences, Springer Verlag, 2009, 98 (6), pp.1239-1258. ⟨10.1007/s00531-008-0338-8⟩. ⟨insu-00325416⟩

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