Discovery of the mid-Cretaceous sedimentary rocks from the ultrahigh-pressure terrane, Dabie Orogenic Belt, and its tectono-paleogeographic implications

The Dabie Orogenic Belt, located in east-central China, is known for the greatest outcrop area of the ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks in the world and is typical for studying deep continental subduction and continent–continent collision. However, since lower-grade metamorphic rock occurrence in the core of the ultrahigh-pressure terrane was reported, it has become a new point of concern. This study reported new results. The so-called lower-grade metamorphic rocks are divided into sedimentary rocks and meta-volcanics. The sedimentary rocks consist mainly of fine-grained turbidites formed under an anoxic deep-water lacustrine basin. Laser Ablation–Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry U–Pb detrital zircon dating indicates that their maximum deposit age is 119.0 ± 1.1 Ma belonging to the mid-Cretaceous Aptian. U–Pb detrital zircon ages from the sedimentary rocks cluster in three age groups: 1) 2773.8–1550.0 Ma (45.0%); 2) 868.8–622.3 Ma (23.0%); 3) 147.0–100.0 Ma (31.5%). And the provenance and tectonic settings of these sedimentary rocks are discussed by synthesizing U–Pb detrital zircon ages, initial Hf isotope ratios, and trace elements of the zircons. Source rocks of the first group were mainly composed of the Paleoproterozoic basement derived from the reworking of the Paleoarchean–Neoarchean Yangtze continental crust. For the second group, its source rocks consisted of Neoproterozoic volcanics mainly from an island arc system, which derived from the reworking of older continental crust in the northern Yangtze Block. The third group's source rocks were chiefly composed of Cretaceous rift igneous rocks derived from the derivation through melting of middle-aged continental crust in the Dabie Orogenic Belt. The meta-volcanics have weighted mean U–Pb ages from 751.0 ± 16 Ma to 786.3 ± 5.9 Ma, and their protoliths formed under a Middle Neoproterozoic island arc system in the northern Yangtze Block. The meta-volcanics underwent a Triassic subduction of different depths and then an exhumation, but the sedimentary rocks did not. The findings suggest that the ultrahigh-pressure terrane had suffered violent subsidence during the mid-Cretaceous, and a four-stage evolution model of the Dabie Orogenic Belt was established accordingly.