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Zircon is the most useful mineral for studies in U-Pb geochronology and Hf and O isotope geochemistry. Matrix effect is a major problem of the microbeam techniques such as SIMS and LA-(MC)-ICPMS. Therefore, external standardization using well-characterized natural zircon standards is fundamental for accurate microbeam measurements. While the isotopic geochronology and geochemistry laboratories equipped with microbeam analytical facilities have been increasingly established in China during the past decade, applications of the isotopic microanalysis are still limited due to shortage of available standards. We report here the Qinghu zircon as a potential new working reference for microbeam analysis of zircon U-Pb age and O-Hf isotopes. This zircon was separated from the Qinghu quartz monzonite from the western Nanling Range, Southeast China. It is fairly homogeneous in U-Pb age and Hf and O isotopes in terms of large amounts of mircobeam measurements by LA-MC-ICPMS and SIMS at the scales of 20–60 μm. SIMS measurements yield consistent 206Pb/ 238U age within analytical uncertainties with that obtained by ID-TIMS. Precise determinations of O isotopes by IRMS and Hf isotopes by solution MC-ICPMS are in good agreement with the statistical mean of microbeam measurements. We recommend U-Pb age of = 159.5 ± 0.2 Ma (2SE), δ18O = 5.4‰± 0.2‰ (2SD) and 176Hf/ 177Hf = 0.283002 ± 0.000004 (2SD) as the best reference values for the Qinghu zircon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poorly studied Douling Complex is a crystalline basement that developed in the Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic weakly metamorphosed to non-metamorphosed strata at the South Qinling tectonic belt. Five banded dioritic-granitic gneiss samples from the Douling Complex were chosen for LA-MC-ICPMS U-Pb zircon dating, which yielded protolith emplacement ages of 2469 ± 22 Ma, 2479 ± 12 Ma, 2497 ± 21 Ma, 2501 ± 17 Ma and 2509 ± 14 Ma, respectively. An important peak age of ∼2.48 Ga was also obtained for a metasedimentary rock in the same region. These discoveries suggest the occurrence of magmatic activity of 2.51-2.47 Ga at the northern margin of the Yangtze craton. The age-corrected ɛ( t) values obtained from in situ zircon Hf isotopic analysis are mainly between −5.5 and +0.3, and the two-stage zircon Hf model ages range from 3.30 to 2.95 Ga. Considering two important periods of ∼3.3-3.2 Ga and ∼2.95-2.90 Ga for the continental crustal growth in the Yangtze craton, we infer that the dioritic-granitic gneisses from the Douling Complex are the products of reworking of Paleo- to Mesoarchean crust at the northern margin of the Yangtze craton at ∼2.5 Ga. In addition, metamorphic ages of 837 ± 8 Ma and 818 ± 10 Ma were obtained for zircon overgrowth rims from a dioritic gneiss and a metasedimentary rock, indicating that the main phase amphibolite facies metamorphism of the Doulng Complex occurred during the Neoproterozoic, although its geological meaning remains ambiguous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Huashanguan rapakivi pluton in Zhongxiang, Hubei Province, China, is the first discovered Proterozoic rapakivi pluton in the Yangtze block. Based on field and petrographical observations, a typical rapakivi texture was found in the northern portion of the Huashanguan granitic pluton. Almost all the K-feldspar phenocrysts were round to oval in shape and most had plagioclase coatings known as rapakivi phenocrysts. Alkali feldspars and quartz had two or more generations. Petrochemically, the Huashanguan rapakivi granites were characterized as having high values of Si, K, Fe, Th, U, La, Ga, Ce, Sm and LREE, low values of Ca, Mg, Sr, Nb, Y and HREE, and a negative Eu anomaly. These geochemical characteristics of the Huashanguan granites were concordant with typical rapakivi granites, and had an affinity to A-type granites. LA-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon dating also was conducted. The dating yielded a207Pb/206Pb weighted mean age of 1851±18 Ma (MSWD =1.2), which represents the age of the pluton emplacement. The age of 803±170 Ma at the lower intercept in the concordia diagram corresponds to the age of a later deformation event which affected the pluton, and suggests that the Huashanguan pluton was influenced by Neoproterozoic thermo-tectonic events after its formation. The discovery of Paleoproterozoic Huashanguan rapakivi granites indicates continental rifting or a post-orogenic extensional event that took place in the Paleoproterozoic in the Yangtze block. These events may be related to the breakup of the Paleoproterozoic Columbia supercontinent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the "Central Uplift" of Qiangtang, Northern Tibet, a large scale of mafic dyke swarms extended in E-W direction. Zircon SHRIMP U-Pb dating on two representative samples of diabase dyke yield weighted mean ages of 284 ± 3 Ma and 302 ± 4 Ma, respectively, suggesting they emplaced in the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian. Zircon 176Hf/177Hf ratios range from 0.282852 to 0.283041, with ϵHf(f) values of +12.1 to +12.2 and Hf modal (TDM) ages of -440-460 Ma. These data indicate that these mafic dykes were mainly derived from the depleted mantle. In addition, geochemical data suggest that these mat ic dyke swarms are of intra-plate origin. Therefore, the mafic dyke swarms represent products during the extensional process associated with the opening of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zircon LA-ICP MS U-Pb dating of six metamorphic rocks and a metagranite (breccia) from southern basement of the Songliao Basin are reported In order to constrain the formation ages of basement. The basement metamorphic rocks in the Songliao Basin mainly consist of metagabbro (L45-1), amphibolite (SN117), metarhyolitical tuff (G190), sericite (Ser) schist (N103), chlorite (ChI) schist (T5-1), blotite (Bi)-actlnolite (Act)-quartz (Q) schist (Y205), and metagranite (L44-1). The cathodoluminesence (CL) Images of the zircons from metagabbro (L45-1) and metagranite (L44-1) Indicate that they have cores of magmatic origin and rims of metamorphic overgrowths. Their U-Pb isotopic ages are 1808±21 Ma and 1873±13 Ma, respectively. The zircons with oscillatory zoning from amphibolite (SN117) and Chi schist (T5-1), being similar to those of mafic igneous rocks, yield ages of 274 ± 3.4 Ma and 264 ± 3.2 Ma, respectively. The zircons from metarhyolitical tuff (G190) and Ser schist (N103) display typical magmatic growth zoning and yield ages of 424 ± 4.5 Ma and 287 ± 5.1 Ma, respectively. Most of zircons from Bi-Act-Q schist (Y205) are round in shape and different in absorption degree in the CL Images, Implying their sedimentary detritals. U-Pb dating yield concordant ages of 427 ± 3.1 Ma, 455 ± 12 Ma, 696 ± 13 Ma, 1384±62 Ma, 1649±36 Ma, 1778±18 Ma, 2450±9 Ma, 2579±10 Ma, 2793±4 Ma and 2953±14 Ma. The above-mentioned results indicate that the Precambrian crystalline basement (1808-1873 Ma) exists in the southern Songliao Basin and could be related to tectonic thrust, and that the Early Paleozoic (424-490 Ma) and Late Paleozoic magmatisms (264-292 Ma) also occur in the basin basement, which are consistent with the ages of the detrital zircons from Bi-Act-Q schist in the basement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bangong Lake ophiolite is located in the westernmost part of the Bangong Lake-Nujiang River suture zone. It is a tectonic mélange consisting of numerous individual blocks of peridotite, pillowed and massive lavas and mafic dykes with SSZ-type ophiolitic geochemical affinity formed at the end of a Wilson circle. The SHRIMP U-Pb ages of the co-magmatic zircon domains from one gabbroic dyke (Sample 01Y-155) range from 162.5±8.6 Ma to 177.1±1.4 Ma with an average of 167.0±1.4 Ma (n = 12, MSWD = 1.2), suggesting that the subduction of the Bangong Lake Neo-Tethyan Ocean started before the Middle Jurassic. It is inferred that the tectonic transform from spreading to subduction of the Neo-Tethyan Ocean began before the Middle Jurassic in the Bangong Lake area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating was carried out for the Daohugou Biota near Ningcheng of Inner Mongolia and for lavas overlying or underlying salamander-bearing strata at Reshuitang in Lingyuan of West Liaoning. The results suggest that the Daohugou Biota occurred at an interval from 168 Ma to 164 – 152 Ma. Both the Daohugou Biota and the salamander-bearing fossil assemblage are the same biota and thus developed from 168 to 152 Ma, i.e. from late Middle Jurassic to the early Late Jurassic. The Daohugou Biota-bearing rocks, resting on the Jiulongshan Formation in disconformity and being overlain in unconformity by Late Jurassic Tuchengzi Formation and Early Cretaceous rocks containing the Jehol Biota, are mainly composed of volcanic-sedimentary rocks in a normal sequence. It is recommended that the Daohugou Biota and the related stratigraphy should be correlated with the Tiaojishan Formation (Lanqi Formation in West Liaoning) or its synchronous rocks. It is suggested that the Daohugou Biota and the Jehol Biota would be neither taken into one biota nor considered as the earliest elements of the Jehol Biota. The Daohugou Biota and the related rocks and the Yixian Formation were respectively formed in different periods of volcanic-sedimentary tectonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alkali-feldspar syenites from the Maomaogou area of Huili County in Panxi of Sichuan Province, SW China are sodium alkaline rocks, the minerals of which are mainly composed of calcic ferroaugite, ferroamphibole and biotite. Most of the zircons (>80%) selected for SHRIMP U-Pb dating are magmatic compound zircons and they have relict inner cores and growing outer shells. The age of zircon SHRIMP U-Pb dating is 224±8 Ma, suggesting that the Maomaogou alkali-feldspar syenite was formed in the late Triassic period. At the same time, two old age periods of relict cores of zircon are determined, they are the Archean age (2692–2818 Ma) and Neoproterozoic age (622–691 Ma), respectively. These periods indicate that the cores derived from the crystal basement. Furthermore, the Archean age of zircon provides the first reliable SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating evidence of >2.8 Ga basement in the Xikang-Yunnan Axis of southwest China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monazite dating is an important technique in geochronological studies. However, monazite U-Pb dating by SHRIMP is much less popular than zircon in geochronological applications. This paper compares the results of SHRIMP U-Pb dating of monazites and zircons separated from two granite samples, indicating that monazite SHRIMP U-Pb dating at the Beijing SHRIMP Centre is feasible and provides identical results within error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an analyzation about the use of the in situ zircon U-Pb dating method of LA-ICPMS. Consideration of the investigation of a 31 Ma old SHRIMP U-Pb age of the Yongsheng nepheline syenite from southern Jilin Province under different spot sizes; Reference to how the obtained ages are comparable with that of SHRIMP in both accuracy and precision; Findings that the age is also identical to that of the Yinmawanshan gabbro from the Liaodong Peninsula within error; Trend for both the Yongsheng nepheline syenite and the Yinmawanshan gabbro to represent the youngest known exposed intrusions in northeastern and even eastern China; Indication from the results that the Eocene mantle-derived magmatic underplating, and the rapid crustal uplifting of this region since 30 Ma; How the analyses also document extremely high LREE concentrations and relatively flat REE patterns for the zircons from the Yongsheng nepheline syenite, which represent a new type of zircon REE pattern.

Presents the in situ analysis of oxygen isotopes carried out by ion microprobe for zircons from localities of HP-UHP metamorphic rocks including eclogites in the Dabie-Sulu terrane. Significance of zircon isotopes in archeological dating; Possibility to trace zircon value with a particular geological time or event for complicated evolution of given rocks; Interest from international geoscientists of the Dabie-Sulu terrain for its coesite and diamond-bearing eclogites.

Discusses the Zircon SHRIMP uranium-lead dating for the Cangshuipu volcanic rocks and its implications for the lower boundary age of the Nanhua strata in South China. Occurrence of the continental volcanic rocks and volcaniclastic sedimentary conglomerates of the Cangshuipu Formulation in Yiyang of Hunan Province; Configuration of the strata in the Yiyang region; Representation of the lower boundary with a younger age than previously reported.

Presents research on zircon and garnet ages of a mafic granulite from the Variscan belt in the Black Forest of Germany. The isotope closure temperature of garnet Sm-Nd and U-Pb systems; The age of zircon grains found by the U-Pb and evaporation methods; The Sm-Nd and Pb-Pb isochron ages of garnet; Suggestion that many zircons might have lost radiogenic Pb due to metamictization or recrystallisation during the granulite-facies metamorphism at ∼340 Ma; Evidence of pro-grade metamorphism in the garnet Sm-Nd and U-Pb systems; Possibility of a fluid-absence metamorphic environment; Assertion that garnet mineral could be a better candidate than zircon when dating high-grade metamorphism by the U-Pb and Sm-Nd methods.