Gondwana Research 19 (2011) 141149

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Gondwana Research
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / g r

Tracing the position of the South China block in Gondwana: UPb ages and Hf isotopes of Devonian detrital zircons
Liang Duan a,, Qing-Ren Meng b, Cheng-Li Zhang a, Xiao-Ming Liu a
a b

State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, Shaanxi, China Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
UPb detrital zircon geochronology from Lower Devonian quartz arenites of the northwestern margin of the Yangtze block yields dominant early Neoproterozoic (0.851.0 Ga), Pan-African (0.50.65 Ga) and middle Neoproterozoic (0.680.8 Ga) age populations and minor Mesoproterozoic to middle Mesoarchean (1.03.0 Ga) ages. Middle Mesoarchean to Mesoproterozoic rocks, however, are widespread in the South China block. Although Hf isotopic compositions show both juvenile crustal growth and crustal reworking for all the age groupings, the crust growth, essentially mantle-derived, occurred mainly around 3.1 Ga, 1.9 Ga and 1.0 Ga, respectively. Zircon typology and youngest grain ages indicate that this suite of quartz arenites was the product of multiphase reworking. Abundant magmatic zircon detritus with concordant UPb Grenvillian and Pan-African ages, together with accompanying various Hf(t) values, indicate an exotic provenance for the quartz arenite external to the South China block. Qualitative comparisons of age spectra for the late Neoproterozoic sediments of the Cathaysian Block, early Paleozoic sediments of prerift Tethyan Himalaya sequence in North India and lower Paleozoic sandstone from the Perth Basin in West Australia, show that they all have two the largest age clusters representing Grenvillian and Pan-African orogenic episodes. The resemblance of these age spectra and zircon typology suggests that the most likely source for the Lower Devonian quartz arenites of the South China block was the East African Orogen and Kuunga Orogen for their early Grenvillian and Pan-African populations, whereas the HannanPanxi arc, Jiangnan orogen, and the Yangtze block basements might have contributed to the detrital zircon grains of the Neoproterozoic and Pre-Grenvillian ages. Hf isotopic data indicate that the crustal evolution of the drainage area matches well with the episodic crust generation of Gondwana. These results imply that the previously suggested position of the SCB in Gondwana should be re-evaluated, and the South China block should be linked with North India and West Australia as a part of East Gondwana during the assembly of Gondwana, rather than a discrete continent block in the paleo-Pacic. 2010 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 28 December 2009 Received in revised form 3 May 2010 Accepted 4 May 2010 Available online 24 May 2010 Keywords: South China block Gondwana Devonian UPb age Hf isotopes Zircon

1. Introduction UPb geochronology is a powerful technique for extracting source information from detrital zircon grains (e.g. DeCelles et al., 2000; DeGraaff-Surpless et al., 2002; Gehrels et al., 2003; DeCelles et al., 2004, 2007; Leier et al., 2007; Dickinson and Gehrels, 2009). Zircon also contains considerable amount of HfO2, which can be used as an indicator of crustal residence and growth via Hf isotope analysis (Hawkesworth and Kemp, 2006; Scherer et al., 2007). Therefore, the combination of UPb and Hf isotope analysis of detrital zircons can reveal the relative contributions of juvenile (directly mantle-derived) crust versus recycled continental crust, making zircon a one-stop shop for assessing crustal evolution (Scherer et al., 2007).

Corresponding author. E-mail address: duanliang1985@gmail.com (L. Duan).

The link between sedimentary maturity and detrital zircon ages is not certain yet (Fedo et al., 2005), but samples of high-maturity sediments are suitable for researching information for large regions. Quartz arenites are characterized by super-mature texture and composition and thus indicative of continental derivation for all the units sampled (Fergusson et al., 2007). Quartz arenites consist almost entirely of sand-sized monocrystalline quartz grains and other resistant grains like chert, metaquartzite, and heavy minerals, such as zircon (Prothero and Schwab, 2004). These characteristics of quartz arenites show that they must have experienced long-term transportation and sedimentation, and thus serve as a proxy for unraveling regional geological evolution (e.g. Sircombe et al., 2001; Gehrels et al., 2002; Avigad et al., 2005; Zimmermann and Spalletti, 2009). The history of supercontinents and their conguration have been the focus of many investigations (e.g.: Hoffman, 1991; Condie, 1998; Meert, 2001; Meert and Torsvik, 2003; Cawood et al., 2007; Meert and Lieberman, 2008; Li et al., 2008a; Rino et al., 2008; Stern, 2008;

1342-937X/$ see front matter 2010 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2010.05.005

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Santosh et al., 2009a,b). Although some paleogeographic models were advanced, the position of the South China block (SCB) in the Gondwana supercontinent has been of considerable controversy (Dalziel, 1997; Li and Powell, 2001; Cocks and Torsvik, 2002; Powell and Pisarevsky, 2002; Yang et al., 2004; Li et al., 2008b; Yu et al., 2008). For instance, it was inferred that the SCB was adjacent to the western AntarcticAustralia region of Gondwana (Huang et al., 2000a; Yang et al., 2004; Huang et al., 2008), most probably located close to western Australia based on paleomagnetic analysis. Li and Powell (2001) and Li et al. (2008b), however, plotted the SCB as a discrete plate in the paleo-Pacic, far away from the northeastern margin of East Gondwana. In practice, the SCB was omitted in many Precambrian paleogeographic reconstructions of the Gondwanaland (e.g.: Dalziel, 1997; Boger et al., 2001; Powell and Pisarevsky, 2002; Cocks and Torsvik, 2002; Collins and Pisarevsky, 2005). This paper presents a study of detrital zircon UPb geochronology and Hf isotope geochemistry of quartz arenites of the Lower Devonian Pingyipu Formation in the northwestern margin of the Yangtze block, and puts some constraints on their provenance and the evolution of the drainage area. Of importance is that the results also provide insights into the positions of the SCB during the assembly of Gondwana. 2. Geological background The South China block is bordered on the north by the North China block, with the QinlingDabie orogen located in between (Fig. 1A, B)

(Meng and Zhang, 2000; Li et al., 2007). It is actually a composite continental block formed by the assembly of the Yangtze and Cathaysian blocks amalgamated through the Jiangnan orogen (Fig. 1B), although the timing and evolution of the orogeny are still controversial. Some researchers suggested that the Jiangnan orogen belongs to part of the worldwide Grenvillian orogenic belts associated with the assembly of Rodinia (e.g., Li et al., 1995, 2002b; Greentree et al., 2006; Ye et al., 2007; Li et al., 2008b,c), whereas others considered that the amalgamation lasted until ca. 820 Ma or even younger (e.g., Li, 1999; Zhao and Cawood, 1999; Zhou et al., 2002a,b; Wang et al., 2006; Wu et al., 2006; Zheng et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2007, 2008). The Yangtze block comprises a crystalline basement overlain by Neoproterozoic to Middle Triassic marine sedimentary sequences (Yan et al., 2004). The Cathaysian block, however, is characterized by widespread distribution of JurassicCretaceous granites and Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous continental basins (Ji et al., 2009). Geochronological studies show that Neoproterozoic magmatism, ranging in ages from 830 to 740 Ma (e.g.: Zhou et al., 2002a,b; Li et al., 2003a,b; Zheng et al., 2004; Li et al., 2005; Zheng et al., 2006a; Zhou et al., 2006a,b; Zhu et al., 2006; Wu et al., 2006; Wu et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2008; Li et al., 2008a,c), is widespread in the SCB, especially along the Jiangnan orogen (e.g.: Li et al., 2003a,b, 2005; Wang et al., 2006; Wu et al., 2006, 2007; Zhou et al., 2007; Li et al., 2008a,b; Wang et al., 2008; Zhou et al., 2009) and at the western edge of the Yangtze block (e.g., Li et al., 2002a,b; Zhou et al., 2002a,b, 2006a,b; Zhao and Zhou, 2007; Sun and Zhou, 2008; Munteanu et al., in press), which is often

Fig. 1. (A) Sketch map showing the main tectonic units of China; (B) Map showing the South China block consisting of the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks, separated by a Jiangnan orogen; (C) Simplied tectonic map of the northwestern margin of the Yangtze block and adjoining regions. NCB = North China block; SCB = South China block; HPA = Hannan Panxi arc; PM = Pengguan massif; HD = Hannan dome; FTB = fold-thrust belt.

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termed as the HannanPanxi arc (HPA) in the literature (Zhou et al., 2002b) (Fig. 1B). The HPA was a Neoproterozoic continental arc, with ages of igneous rocks from 860 to 740 Ma (Zhou et al., 2002a,b, 2006a, b; Zhao and Zhou, 2007; Sun and Zhou, 2008; Sun et al., 2009). In addition, the Archean (2.53.8 Ga) rocks and inherited zircons are also found in the SCB (Qiu et al., 2000; Liu et al., 2006; Zhang et al., 2006a,b,c; Zheng et al., 2006b). Abundant UPb ages and Hf isotopic compositions of detrital zircons from the Neoproterozoic strata and igneous zircons from the Archean basement suggested that the Precambrian crustal growth of the Yangtze block is characterized by obvious crustal additions between 3.2 and 3.8 Ga, and between 720 and 910 Ma, with a peak at 830 Ma (Liu et al., 2008). The basement metamorphic rocks of the Cathaysian block, are dominantly of Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic ages (Yu et al., 2008), with the oldest rocks in the eastern Cathaysian block being about 1.9 Ga (Gan et al., 1995). This study deals with Devonian rocks that are well preserved in the middle segment of the Longmenshan thrust belt at the northwestern margin of the Yangtze block (Fig. 1C). The Longmenshan was a sinistral wrench zones active in the Late Triassic (Burchel et al., 1995; Worley and Wilson, 1996), and probably related to the clockwise rotation of the SCB (Meng et al., 2005). The Lower Devonian rests unconformably over the Middle Silurian phyllite, and can be divided into the Pingyipu, Guixi and Yangmaba formations from bottom upward. The Pingyipu Formation is composed primarily of quartz arenite, greywacke, siltstone, mudstone and shale, as interpreted as coastal deposits (Chen 2007; Zheng et al., 1997), and its age is assigned mainly on the basis of marine fossils, (Zheng et al., 1997). 5 kg quartz arenites were sampled from a succession cropping out near Guixi village in the northern Sichuan province (N: 315839.3, E: 1043834.1; Fig. 1C). Given the high specic gravity of zircon (4.65), as compared to quartz (2.65), hydraulically equivalent zircon is expected to be approximately one sand grade ner than accompanying quartz grains (Komar, 2007; Dickinson and Gehrels, 2009). Accordingly, samples of medium-grained quartzose arenites were chosen. 3. Analytical methods Zircon crystals were extracted from samples by standard density and magnetic separation techniques and then puried by hand picking under a binocular microscope, and N 1000 zircon grains recovered. Representative zircon grains were handpicked and mounted in epoxy resin discs, then polished and coated with gold. All analyzed zircon grains were documented using cathodoluminescence (CL) images for internal morphology prior to analyses, which were acquired with a Mono CL3+ (Gatan, USA) attached to a scanning electron microscope (Quanta 400 FEG). Before analysis, the surface was cleaned using dilute HNO3 (3%, v/v) and pure alcohol to remove any lead contamination. CL imaging, UPb dating and Hf isotope analysis were carried out in the State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Northwest University, Xi'an. 3.1. UPb dating UPb geochronology of 100 individual zircon grains was conducted by laser-ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The ICP-MS used is a Varian 820-MS (Varian, Inc., USA), and the analyses involve ablation of zircon with the GeoLas 2005 laser-ablation system (MicroLasTM Beam Delivery Systems, Lambda Physik AG, Germany) (operating at a wavelength of 193 nm) using a spot diameter of 44 m. In this technique, zircons are sampled using a focused UV laser, and the ablated microparticulate material is transferred in a continuous ow of helium to an ICPMS for isotopic quantication. The used laser frequency was 10 Hz. Raw count rates were measured for 29Si, 204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb,

Th and 238U. U, Th and Pb concentrations were calibrated by using Si as an internal standard and NIST 610 as the reference standard. 207 Pb/206Pb, 206Pb/238U, 207Pb/235U and 208Pb/232Th ratios, and then calculated using the GLITTER 4.0 program (Macquarie University). Finally they were corrected for both instrumental mass bias and depth-dependent elemental and isotopic fractionation using Harvard zircon 91500 as external standard. The detailed analytical technique refers to Yuan et al. (2004). Age calculations and plotting of concordia diagrams were made using ISOPLOT 3.0 (Ludwig, 2003) for results with 1 errors. Our measurements of GJ-01 as an unknown yielded weighted 206Pb/238U ages of 603.0 5.5 Ma (MSWD = 0.16, n = 11), which is in good agreement with the recommended ID-TIMS 206Pb/ 238 U ages (Jackson et al., 2004). Because the 204Pb isotope cannot be precisely measured with this technique, due to a combination of low signal and interference from small amounts of 204Hg in the Ar gas supply, common-Pb contents were calculated using the method described by Andersen (2002). In most cases, the samples analyzed in this study did not need correction or the common-Pb correction was insignicant.
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3.2. LuHf isotope analysis In-situ zircon Hf isotopic analyses were conducted using a Nu Plasma HR MC-ICP-MS (Nu Instruments Ltd., UK), coupled to a GeoLas 2005 excimer ArF laser-ablation system. In this study, we use technique of simultaneous determinations of UPb age, Hf isotopes and trace element compositions of zircon by combining excimer laserablation quadruple and multiple collector ICP-MS, where age, LuHf isotopic and trace element data were collected simultaneously from the same spot of zircon (Yuan et al., 2008). During analyses, the energy density applied is 1520 J/cm2 and spot sizes of 44 m, with a laser repetition rate of 10 Hz, were used. The detailed analytical technique was described by Yuan et al. (2008). Raw count rates for 172 Yb, 173Yb, 175Lu, 176(Hf + Yb + Lu), 177Hf, 178Hf, 179Hf, 180Hf and 182 W were collected. Interference of 176Lu on 176Hf was corrected by measuring the intensity of the interference-free 175Lu isotope and using the recommended 176Lu/175Lu ratio of 0.02655 (Chu et al., 2002). A 176Yb/172Yb of 0.5887 and mean Yb obtained during Hf analysis were applied for the interference correction of 176Yb on 176Hf (Iizuka and Hirata, 2005). During analyses, Harvard zircon 91500 was used as the reference standard, the obtained 176Hf/177Hf ratio was 0.282304 14 (2, n = 19), similar to the recommended 176Hf/177Hf ratio of 0.282306 10 measured using the solution method (Woodhead et al., 2004). The measured 176Lu/177Hf ratios and the 176Lu decay constant of 1.867 10 11 yr 1 reported by Soderlund et al. (2004) were adopted to calculate initial 176Hf/177Hf ratios. The chondritic values of 176Hf/177Hf and 176Lu/177Hf reported by Bichert-Toft and Albarde (1997) were used for the calculation of Hf values. Singlestage model ages (TDM1) were calculated relative to the depleted mantle with a present-day (176Lu/177Hf)DM = 0.0384 and (176Hf/ 177 Hf)DM = 0.28325 (Grifn et al., 2000); two-stage continental 176 model age (TC Hf/ DM) was also calculated by projecting the initial 177 Hf of zircon back to the depleted mantle growth curve using 176Lu/ 177 Hf = 0.015 for the average continental crust (Grifn et al., 2000; C Yang et al., 2006). The notations of Hf(t), fLu/Hf, T1 DM and TDM are dened as same as those in Yang et al. (2006). 4. Results Zircons extracted from the sample are light yellow to colorless, rounded or prismatic with rounded edges, and moderately to highly spherical, generally rounded fragments of larger crystals, suggesting a long-distance transport and multiphase reworking (Fig. 2). The internal structure of these detrital zircons varies from strong oscillatory zoning to almost homogeneous, being always faint and weak in CL images (Fig. 2). These variable internal structures suggest

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Fig. 2. CL images of representative detrital zircon grains. The results are marked using a circle with ages. Scale bar in each image is 50 m.

several different origins. The majority of the zircons have Th/U N 0.3, indicating an igneous origin (Hanchar and Hoskin, 2003), and few grains show typical metamorphic Th/U ratio below 0.1. The results are consistent with the CL images predominated by oscillatory zoning typical of igneous origin and irregular sector zoned domains of metamorphic zircons. Grains with Pan-African and Grenvillian age (Fig. 2A, B, E, F) are moderately to highly spherical. Grains with ages from 830 to 740 Ma (Fig. 2C, D) show sub-angular or sub-rounded edges, implying relative close provenance. Pre-Grenvillian grains (Fig. 2G, H) are rounded to prismatic and show strong oscillatory zoning or homogeneous internal structure indicating different origins.

from Gehrels et al. (2003)). A complete list of the UPb ages and Hf isotopic data is presented in the Supplementary Data table. The majority of the grains from our sample are clustered in the following time intervals: ca. 500650 Ma, ca. 680800 Ma and ca. 8501000 Ma. The age distribution exhibits a typical Gondwana signature (Fig. 4), with the clusters mainly at ca. 975 Ma and ca. 552 Ma. Zircons with age N 1.0 Ga are widely distributed, though their contributions are sparse. The youngest zircon yields a 206Pb/238U age of 507 9 Ma. The interval between the youngest zircon crystallization age and the depositional age constrained by fossils are indicative of slow erosion of the source rocks and long-distance transport. 4.2. Hf isotope geochemistry

4.1. Zircon UPb geochronology Concordia and frequency distribution plots of UPb geochronology of the sample are presented in Figs. 3 and 4. Analyses that were N 10% discordant (by comparison of 206Pb/238U and 206Pb/207Pb ages) are not considered or discussed further (81 grain ages retained). We use 207 Pb/206Pb ages of N 1.0 Ga zircons and 206Pb/238U ages of b 1.0 Ga zircons, and apply the same approach to the compilation of ages from other studies for comparison (except for ages in Tethyan Himalaya Zircon laser-ablated Hf isotope geochemical data are presented graphically in Fig. 5. The Hf(t) values exhibit a wide range from negative to positive ( 49.8 to 16.1), with 176Hf/177Hf ratios varying from 0.280658 to 0.282648. Few zircons have an Hf isotope composition indicative of their origin from a depleted mantle (Fig. 5), suggesting that the magmas from which most zircons formed were derived by melting pre-existing, rather than juvenile, crustal rocks. Of importance, several zircons with the ages of 2.8 Ga, 1.8 Ga, and 1.0 Ga show values similar to the depleted mantle, and the twostage continental model ages (TC DM) of the two grains with UPb age of 2.8 Ga and 1.8 Ga, are 3.1 Ga and 1.9 Ga, indicating the occurrence of juvenile crustal addition at 3.1 Ga and 1.9 Ga. 5. Discussion 5.1. Sources of detrital zircons Assemblies of the Rodinia and Gondwana supercontinents were completed during the Grenvillian and Pan-African orogenic episodes, and the two orogenic events were well recorded around East Gondwana. However, the event related to Pan-African orogenesis in the SBC was rarely reported. The existence of a Grenvillian orogenic belt in the South China block is equivocal. Li et al. (1995, 1997, 2002b) considered the Jiangnan orogen as a typical Grenvillian orogenic belt, but granitoids or high-grade metamorphic rocks with Grenville ages are absent in that region. Furthermore, metamorphic ages of the zircon rims provided by Li et al. (2002b) cannot be regarded as compelling geochronological evidence for the Grenvillian continental collision (Wang et al., 2007). Although several lines of evidence suggest that the Grenvillian high-grade metamorphism occurred

Fig. 3. UPb concordia plots of single zircon grains from the Early Devonian quartz arenites in the northwestern margin of the Yangtze block. Inset was the enlarged plot of the ages between 0.4 and 1.2 Ga.

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Fig. 4. Detrital zircon UPb age relative probability diagrams plotted for comparison, with the data from this study and others, including: Yu et al. (2008) for Cathaysian Block; Cawood and Nemchin (2000) for Perth Basin in West Australia; DeCelles et al. (2000), Gehrels et al. (2003) and Myrow et al. (2003) for Tethyan Himalaya; Qiu et al. (2000), Zhang et al. (2006a), Zheng et al. (2006a) and Li et al. (2008) for the Yangtze craton. Uniform standard (207Pb/206Pb ages for zircons of ages N 1.0 Ga and 206Pb/238U ages for zircons of age b 1.0 Ga) is used in data compilation except for ages from Gehrels et al. (2003) for Tethyan Himalaya. Note that the data used for comparison are only extracted from the early Paleozoic and late Neoproterozoic strata.

along the northern to western edges of the Yangtze block (e.g.: Qiu et al., 2000; Xu et al., 2004; Zheng et al., 2006b), the sparse distribution and rounded and moderately to highly spherical nature of larger zircon crystals (Fig. 2) preclude those regions as a major source. In addition, the age distribution of studied detrital zircons is inconsistent with those of the Yangtze block, which are characterized by

predominant age groups between 720 Ma and 910 Ma, with a peak at 830 Ma (Liu et al., 2008) (Fig. 4). In contrast, we propose that the Neoproterozoic grains (680800 Ma) were probably derived from the Jiangnan orogen or the HannanPanxi arc. The reason is that the zircon grains with ages in this range are sub-angular or sub-rounded (Fig. 2), implying that their sources must have been nearby. PreGrenvillian detrital zircons older than 1.0 Ga show various internal structures from strong oscillatory zoning to almost homogeneous, and different typologies from prismatic with rounded edges to moderately or highly spherical (Fig. 2). In addition, their distribution does not match the dispersal of Pre-Grenvillian grains in the Yangtze block. These characters suggest that zircons in this group have different origins. As a result, it is considered that the detrital zircons from the Lower Devonian in the northwestern margin of the Yangtze block were only partially derived from the SBC, and their main sources should be exotic to the SCB. 5.2. Position of the SBC It is known that Early Palaeozoic shallow marine fauna of the SBC have close afnities with those of eastern Gondwanaland, especially Australian Gondwanaland (Burrett, 1973; Burrett and Stait, 1985; Metcalfe, 1988; in press; Burrett et al., 1990), and belong to the AsiaAustralian and Austral realms in the Cambrian and Ordovician, respectively (Li, 1994; Yang, 1994). However, the position of the SCB in the NeoproterozoicEarly Palaeozoic is still under debate. A preliminary Early Ordovician pole was obtained from the SCB, which places the SCB in an intermediate paleolatitude compared with Baltica

Fig. 5. Plots of Hf(t) value versus UPb age for detrital zircons of this study. Gray elds show evolution of typical zircons (with a 176Lu/177Hf ratio of 0.0015) with depleted mantle model ages between 500 and 1000 Ma, 1500 and 2000 Ma, and 2500 and 3000 Ma.

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(Fang et al., 1990). Based on the comparison of the SinianCambrian paleomagnetic records from South China with the counterparts from Australia, Zhang and Piper (1997), however, suggested that the SCB should be located immediately to northwestern Australia during the early Paleozoic. Taking into account the documented late Proterozoic and Silurian poles of the Yangtze Block (Evans et al., 2000; Huang et al., 2000b), Yang et al. (2004) inferred that the SCB was most likely located close to western Australia. Macouin et al. (2004) reached a similar conclusion by measuring the paleomagnetic records of Late Neoproterozoic Nantuo tillite and overlying Doushantuo carbonates, plotting the SCB close to the equator at the west side of Australia. By means of paleomagnetic results from the central Yangtze block and comparisons of Precambrian sequences between the SCB and Australia (Li et al., 1995, 1996, 2004), Li et al. (2001, 2008b), however, argued that the SCB was a discrete continent block in the paleo-Pacic during the assembly of Gondwana. They proposed that the SBC was originally located between eastern Australia and Laurentia, and linked with them during the assembly of Rodinia. Some geochronological and geochemical studies of Neoproterozoic arc-magmatism along the western margin of the Yangtze block appear to support the idea that the SCB might have been an isolated continent in Neoproterozoic (Zhou et al., 2002b). If this paleogeographic reconstruction was correct, the SCB must have separated from Rodinia by Early Cambrian times, and could not be a component of Early Palaeozoic Gondwanaland (Metcalfe, 2006). This might be the reason why the SCB was usually omitted from paleogeographic reconstructions of Gondwanaland (e.g.: Dalziel, 1997; Boger et al., 2001; Powell and Pisarevsky, 2002; Cocks and Torsvik, 2002; Collins and Pisarevsky, 2005). Our discovery of abundant magmatic zircon detritus, of Grenvillian and Pan-African ages indicating a typical Gondwana signature, is contrary to the previous paleogeographic reconstruction of the Gondwanaland supercontinent depicting the SCB as a discrete continental block in the Paleo-Pacic, far away from the northeastern margin of East Gondwana. Our result is supported by qualitative comparisons of detrital zircon age spectra of this study with those of late Neoproterozoic sediments from the southern Cathaysian block, of early Paleozoic sediments in pre-rift Tethyan Himalaya sequence, and of Ordovician sandstone from the Perth Basin in West Australia. They

all have two major age clusters representing Grenvillian and PanAfrican orogenic episodes, and show conspicuous similarity (Fig. 4). In addition, all the peak values of Grenvillian age in these distributions are less than 1.0 Ga, much younger than those reported in other regions, such as the AlbanyFraser Belt in Australia and Maud Province in West Antarctica (Fitzsimons, 2000a,b; Meert, 2003a,b). The difference between these age spectra was the age group ranging from 800 Ma to 680 Ma in the SCB, which might be due to a contribution from widespread Neoproterozoic magmatic rocks both in the Jiangnan orogen and the HannanPanxi arc. The close age spectra afnities suggest a connection of the SCB with the Himalaya region in North India and with West Australia during the assembly of the East Gondwana (Fig. 6), and thus the SCB should be a part of East Gondwana rather than far away from it. It is suggested that the most likely source of the Grenvillian and Pan-African age zircons in the west margin of the Yangtze block is the East African orogen, which was uplifted during Neoproterozoic time (Dalziel, 1997) and provided the detritus of equivalent zircons in the Tethyan Himalaya (DeCelles et al., 2000), and Kuunga orogen (Fig. 6). The Kuunga orogen was constituted mostly by Northern Prince Charles Mountains (NPCM) in Antarctica, Eastern Ghats (EG) in India and some Pan-African mobile belts (Meert, 2003a,b; Cawood and Buchan, 2007) and behaved as a major source of the equivalent zircons in the Cathaysian Block (Yu et al., 2008). The NPCM and EG have dominant age groups from 990 Ma to 950 Ma (Mezger and Cosca, 1999; Fitzsimons, 2000a), which is consistent with the peak values of the Grenvillian age groups of our study area. The localization of early Paleozoic SCB adjacent to the Himalaya and West Australian region is consistent with the majority of paleomagnetic data, which places the SCB in southern paleolatitudes and close to the equator in the early Palaeozoic (Lin et al., 1985; Burrett et al., 1990; Zhao et al., 1996; Huang et al., 2000b), indicating a long-term connection between the SCB and West Australia (Zhang and Piper, 1997; Yang et al, 2004; Macouin et al., 2004). Similarly, Zhu et al. (1998) and Huang et al. (2000a, 2008) suggested that the SCB might be close to West Australia or as a part of Gondwana in the Cambrian on the basis of paleomagnetic data. A study of the latest Neoproterozoic rocks in the Lesser Himalaya of northwestern India

Fig. 6. Restored position of the South China block in Gondwana. The Gondwana reconstruction is after DeCelles et al. (2000) and Boger et al. (2001). Arrow denotes transport direction of detritus from East African orogen where 650550 Ma ages dominate (Fitzsimons, 2000a,b; Krner et al., 2000; Yibas et al., 2002; Collins et al., 2003a,b), and Kuunga orogen where 990950 Ma and 600500 Ma ages dominate (Mezger and Cosca, 1999; Fitzsimons, 2000a,b). Because the geometry of past plate was modied inevitably during later rotation, accretion, collision and plate inter-actions, the SCB in Early Paleozoic is represented using dashed line. See text for detailed discussion.

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and the SCB also reveals remarkably similar facies assemblages and carbonate platform systems (Jiang et al., 2003). These similarities suggest that the SCB might have been located close to northwestern India during late Neoproterozoic time (Jiang et al, 2003). Based on faunal afnities and stratigraphic comparisons, Burrett et al. (1990), Nie (1991) and Metcalfe (1996a,b) considered that the SCB might have had its origin on the Himalaya region of the Gondwanaland margin. Our Hf isotopic data support this idea, which indicate that the crust evolution in drainage area was characterized by juvenile crustal addition at 1.9 Ga and 3.1 Ga, respectively, and was followed by longterm melting of pre-existing crustal rocks (Fig. 5). Crustal evolution of the drainage area might be related to episodic crustal generation of Gondwana around 1.9 and 3.3 Gyr ago, and then reworked repeatedly (Kemp et al., 2006). Our UPb geochronological and Hf geochemical data provide a new piece of evidence that demonstrates the connection of the South China block with the Gondwana, and therefore clarify the previous conicting paleomagnetic results. 6. Conclusions UPb ages of detrital zircons from Early Devonian quartz arenites of the northwestern margin of the Yangtze block reveal three major age groups: 0.851.0 Ga (early Neoproterozoic), 680800 Ma, and 650500 Ma (Pan-African) together with some minor but widely distributed Pre-Grenvillian populations. It is suggested that both early Neoproterozoic and Pan-African detrital zircons of Lower Devonian quartz arenites most likely came from the East African Orogen and Kuunga Orogen, whereas the Jiangnan orogen, the HannanPanxi arc and the Yangtze block basements might be the sources of the Neoproterozoic and some pre-Grenvillian detrital zircons. Although Hf isotopic compositions show both juvenile crustal growth and crustal reworking for all age groupings, crustal growth of the drainage areas, essentially mantle-derived, mainly occurred around 3.1 Ga, 1.9 Ga and 1.0 Ga, and was followed by the repeated melting of preexisting crust rocks. Qualitative comparisons of age spectra of detrital zircons of this study with other investigations show that they all have the two largest age clusters, Grenvillian and Pan-African orogenic episodes. The Hf isotopic data also indicate that the crust evolution of drainage area is comparable with the episodic crust generation of Gondwana. All these results suggest that the SCB should be linked with North India and Western Australia during the assembly of East Gondwana, challenging the previous view that envisaged the SCB as a separate continental block. Acknowledgments This research was supported by grants from the China Nature Science Foundation (grant 40830314) and the Northwest University Graduate Innovation and Creativity Funds (grant 08YZZ51). Ian Metcalfe and an anonymous reviewer are thanked for their constructive comments and suggestions that led to considerable improvement of the paper. We also thank Lu Sun and Hujun Gong for the preparation of CL images of detrital zircons, and Ben Lee, Lei Kang, Guofen He, Jing Xu, Mengning Dai and Chunrong Diwu for their lab support. Appendix A. Supplementary data Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.gr.2010.05.005. References
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