Evolution and provenance of the Xuefeng intracontinental tectonic system in South China: Constraints from detrital zircon fission track thermochronology.

• Zircon fission track analyses of the pre-Cretaceous sandstones are reported. • ZFT data constrain the low-temperature evolution or sediment provenance. • The westward decreasing trend in age represents a Mesozoic intracontinental orogeny. • Sediments source from the Qinling orogen due to its multistage evolution. The Xuefeng Intracontinental Tectonic System (XITS) is a large-scale compressional tectonic system in the central South China block. It is characterized by northeast-trending fold-thrust belts involving the Xuefeng zone, the Chevron syncline fold-thrust zone, the Chevron anticline fold-thrust zone and the Central Sichuan basin. This paper reports detrital zircon fission track (ZFT) analyses of the sandstones sampled from Neoproterozoic to Middle Jurassic sequences, and further discusses their relation with low-temperature tectonic evolution and sediment provenance. The totally annealed ZFT data of 452–377 Ma from the Neoproterozoic and Devonian sandstones were related to an Early Paleozoic low-temperature exhumation of the Jiangnan orogen due to intracontinental orogeny in the South China block. Those annealed ZFT components from Triassic to Jurassic sandstones, grouped 236–189 Ma, 189–142 Ma, and 142–124 Ma decreasingly from east to west structurally imply a northwestward progressively squeezing by the Xuefeng intracontinental orogeny as a result of the Paleo-Pacific subduction. The unannealed age components (411 Ma, 362–377 Ma, 270–216 Ma, and 209–183 Ma) of the Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic sandstones, are comparable to the multistage tectonic evolution of the Qinling orogen through subduction, accretion and collision and are therefore indicative of sample potential provenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]