The distinctive topography in western Shandong province consists of several NW-WNW-trending mountain ranges and intervening basins. Basins, in which late-stage sediments to the south have progressively overlapped the earlier sediments and “basement” rocks of the hanging-wall block, are bounded by S-SW-dipping normal faults to the north. Basin analysis reveals the Jurassic-Cretaceous sedimentary rocks accumulated both within the area of crustal extension and during extensional deformation; they contain a record of a sequence of tectonic events during stretching and can be divided into four tectonic-sequence episodes. These basins were initially developed as early as ca. 200 Ma in the northern part of the study area, extending dominantly N-S from the Early Jurassic until the Late Cretaceous. Although with a brief hiatus due to changes in stress field, to keep uniform N-S extensional polarity in such a long time as 130 Ma requires a relatively stable tectonic controlling factor responsible for the NW- and E-W-extensional basins. The formation of the extensional basins is partly concurrent with regional magmatism, but preceded magmatism by 40 Ma. This precludes a genetic link between local magmatism and extension during the Mesozoic. Based on integrated studies of basins and deformation, we consider that the gravitational collapse of the early overthickened continental crust may be the main tectonic driver for the Mesozoic extensional basins. From the Early Jurassic, dramatic reduction in north-south horizontal compressive stress made the western Shandong deformation belt switch from a state of failure under shortening to one dominated by extension and the belt gravitationally collapsed and horizontally spread to the south until equilibrium was established; synchronously, the normal faults and basins were developed based on the model of simple-shear extensional deformation. This may be relative to the gravitational collapse of the Mesozoic plateau in eastern China.
The Xinqiao S-Fe-Cu-Au orefield is located in the Tongling ore cluster in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in East China. There have been many researches regarding the genesis of the Xinqiao orefield in recent years, showing that it belongs to various types, such as sedimentary-reformed type, stratabound-skarn type, sedimentary submarine rocks-hosted exhalative type. We propose that it was formed in two periods of mineralization base on systematic field observation and Pb and S isotopic analyses in nearly ten years. The first period was formed during a syngenetic sedimentary process, whereas the massive sulphide orebodies are mainly related to the Yanshanian granitic magmatism. Sulfide metallic mineral associations show zoning around a granite intrusion, i.e. magnetite and pyrite →pyrite, chalcopyrite and native gold→ pyrite, sphalerite and galena. Gold orebodies occur outside the contact zone of the granite intrusion.
This paper selected five typical Mesozoic intrusives from the Tongling metallogenic cluster (Xiaotongguanshan, Fenghuangshan, Xinqiao, Dongguashan, and Shatanjiao plutons), and made a systemic SHRIMP zircon U-Pb dating for the five plutons, which produced an age range of 151.8±2.6- 142.8±1.8 Ma. This work put an accurate constraint on the formation age of the intrusives in the Tongling metallogenic cluster. These age data indicate that magmatic activity reached a peak during Late Jurassic. The intrusive sequence of magma is generally from quartz monzonite (porphyry) through monzonite to granodiorite to quartz monzodiorite to pyroxene monzodiorite to gabbro-diabase. The intrusives of different lithology differed in crystallization age, probably implying the intrusives in the Tongling area underwent an evolutional process of magma, which was closely related to geodynamical setting in the depths of the area. A dynamic model was presented for the origin of the igneous rocks in the study area as follows. The assembly between the Yangtze craton and the North China craton fini- shed at the end of T3, and then the stage of another compressional orogeny began in the Tongling area, i.e., Pacific dynamic system. Along with the subduction of the Izanagi plate underneath the Eurasian plate at J2-J3, NW-trending compression toward the East China continent was produced, and compres- sional deformation also took place, forming NE-trending fold and resulting in thickening of the crust in the Tongling area. High-density eclogite-facies rocks were produced in the low part of the crust, re- sulting in the delamination of mantle lithosphere and lower crust, and upwelling of materials in as- thenosphere. Decompression melting produced basaltic magma, and the materials in lower crust were heated by the underplating of the basaltic magma. Thus, melting of lower crust yielded granitic magma, which intruded along deep and large faults through various geological processes (J3-K1). The SHRIMP U-Pb zircon age of 151.8±2.6-142.8±1.8 Ma fo
GanGuo Wu Da Zhang YongJun Di WenShuan Zang XiangXin Zhang Biao SongZhongYi Zhang
