Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T09:06:08.395Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rifting in SW China: structural and sedimentary investigation of the initial crustal response to emplacement of the Permian Emeishan LIP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2018

YU WANG ,
INGRID UKSTINS PEATE ,
ZHAOHUA LUO ,
SHUZHI WANG ,
LILU CHENG ,
JINHUA HAO  and
YE WANG
YU WANG*
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
INGRID UKSTINS PEATE
Affiliation:
Earth and Environmental Sciences, 115 Trowbridge Hall, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
ZHAOHUA LUO
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
SHUZHI WANG
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
LILU CHENG
Affiliation:
Earth Observatory of Singapore, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
JINHUA HAO
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
YE WANG
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
*
†Author for correspondence: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Detailed structural, volcanic, and sedimentary investigations of the crustal response to the emplacement of the Middle–Late Permian Emeishan large igneous province show that a rifting system developed prior to the main stage of flood basalt eruptions, in the form of sedimentary breccias, clastic sedimentary deposits and mafic hydromagmatic units. Detrital zircon grains from sandstones yield ~750–800 Ma LA-ICP-MS 206Pb/238U age clusters, showing that material was sourced from the Yangtze crystalline basement. Gabbros and pegmatites intruded along the normal faults of the rift system yield zircon ages of 264–260 Ma, and thus constrain the timing of rifting. N–S-trending rift zones developed along the western flank of the Pan-Xi palaeo-uplift, with NE–SW- and NNE–SSW-trending rifts on the eastern side and along the western and eastern margins of the Yangtze Block. The rifting progressed in pulses, with an initial phase of normal faulting followed by rapid deposition of breccias. Later there was lower-energy deposition of sandstone, with accompanying rhyolitic eruptions. This was followed by low-energy sedimentation of mudstones and dolomites, with accompanying hydromagmatic deposits. Rift system formation was constrained by a combination of far- and near-field tectonic stresses due to plate motions and lithospheric interaction with initial Emeishan volcanism.

Keywords

Emeishan LIPSW Chinainitial lithospheric responseriftingPermianpulses of rift processesfar-field and near-field stresses
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 156 , Issue 4 , April 2019 , pp. 745 - 758
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ali, J. R., Fitton, J. G. & Herzberg, C. 2010. Emeishan large igneous province (SW China) and the mantle-plume up-doming hypothesis. Journal of the Geological Society 167, 953–9.Google Scholar
Ali, J. R., Lo, C. H., Thompson, G. M. & Song, X. Y. 2004. Emeishan Basalt Ar-Ar overprint ages define several tectonic events that affected the western Yangtze Platform in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 23, 163–78.Google Scholar
Ali, J. R., Thompson, G. M., Zhou, M.-F. & Song, X. Y. 2005. Emeishan large igneous province, SW China. Lithos 79, 475–89.Google Scholar
Bryan, S. E. & Ernst, R. E. 2008. Revised definition of large igeous provinces (LIPs). Earth-Science Reviews 86, 175–202.Google Scholar
Buiter, S. J. H. & Torsvik, T. H. 2014. A review of Wilson Cycle plate margins: a role for mantle plumes in continental break-up along sutures? Gondwana Research 26, 627–53.Google Scholar
Campbell, I. H. 2005. Large igneous provinces and the mantle plume. Elements 1, 265–9.Google Scholar
Campbell, I. H. 2007. Testing the plume theory. Chemical Geology 241, 153–76.Google Scholar
Campbell, I. H. & Griffiths, R. W. 1990. Implications of mantle plume structure for the evolution of flood Basalts. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 99, 79–93.Google Scholar
Cloetingh, S., Burov, E., Matenco, M., Beekman, F., Roure, F. & Ziegler, P. A. 2013. The Moho in extensional tectonic settings: insights from thermo-mechanical models. Tectonophysics 609, 558–604.Google Scholar
Coffin, M. F. & Eldholm, O. 1994. Large igneous provinces: crustal structure, dimensions and external consequences. Reviews of Geophysics 32, 1–36.Google Scholar
Corti, G. 2009. Continental rift evolution: from rift initiation to incipient break-up in the Main Ethiopian Rift, East Africa. Earth-Science Reviews 96, 1–53.Google Scholar
Corti, G., Bonini, M., Conticelli, S., Innocenti, F., Manetti, P. & Sokoutis, D. 2003. Analogue modelling of continental extension: a review focused on the relations between the patterns of deformation and the presence of magma. Earth-Science Reviews 63, 169–247.Google Scholar
Courtillot, V., Jaupart, C., Manighetti, I., Tapponnier, P. & Besse, J. 1999. On causal links between flood basalts and continental breakup. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 166, 177–95.Google Scholar
DePaolo, D. J. & Manga, M. 2003. Deep origin of hotspots: – the mantle plume model. Science 300, 920–1.Google Scholar
Dickinson, W. R. & Gehrels, G. E. 2009. U-Pb ages of detrital zircons in Jurassic Eolian and associated sandstones of the Colorado Plateau: evidence for transcontinental dispersal and intraregional recycling of sediment. Geological Society of America Bulletin 121, 408–33.Google Scholar
Elkins-Tanton, L. T. 2007. Continental magmatism, volatile recycling, and a heterogeneous mantle caused by lithospheric gravitational instabilities. Journal of Geophysical Research Planets 110, 219–32.Google Scholar
Ernst, R. E. 2014. Large Igneous Provinces. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 653 pp.Google Scholar
Farnetani, C. G. & Richards, M. A. 1994. Numerical investigations of the mantle plume initiation model for flood basalt events. Journal Geophysical Research 99 (B7), 13813–33.Google Scholar
Geng, Y. S., Yang, C. H., Wang, X. S., Ren, L. D., Du, L. L. & Zhou, X. W. 2007. Age of crystalline basement in western margin of Yangtze terrane. Geological Journal of China Universities 13, 429–41 (in Chinese with English abstract).Google Scholar
Griffiths, R. W. & Campbell, I. H. 1991. Interaction of mantle plume heads with the Earth's surface and onset small-scale convection. Journal of Geophysical Research 96 (B11), 18275–310.Google Scholar
He, B., Xu, Y. G., Chung, S. L. & Wang, Y. 2003. Sedimentary evidence for a rapid crustal doming before the eruption of the Emeishan flood basalts. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 213, 389–403.Google Scholar
Huang, B. C., Zhou, X. & Zhu, R.X. 2008. Discussions on Phanerozoic evolution and formation of continental China, based on paleomagnetic studies. Earth Science Frontiers 15, 348–59 (in Chinese with English abstract).Google Scholar
Isozaki, Y. 2009. Illawarra reversal: the fingerprint of a superplume that triggered Pangean breakup and the end-Guadalupian (Permian) mass extinction. Gondwana Research 15, 421–32.Google Scholar
Isozaki, Y. 2010. Reply to the comment by Ali J. R. on ‘Illawarra reversal: the fingerprint of a superplume that triggered Pangean breakup and the end-Guadalupian (Permian) mass extinction’ by Yukio Isozaki. Gondwana Research 17, 718–20.Google Scholar
Isozaki, Y., Kawahata, H. & Minoshima, K. 2007. The Capitanian (Permian) Kamura cooling event: the beginning of the Paleozoic–Mesozoic transition. Palaeoworld 16, 16–30.Google Scholar
Jerram, D. A., Widdowson, M., Wignall, P. B., Sun, Y. D., Lai, X. Y., Bond, D. P. G. & Torsvik, T. H. 2016. Submarine palaeoenvironments during Emeishan flood basalt volcanism, SW China: implications for plume–lithosphere interaction during the Capitanian, Middle Permian (‘end Guadalupian’) extinction event. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 441, 65–73.Google Scholar
Jian, P., Liu, D. Y., Kröner, A., Zhang, Q., Wang, Y. Z., Sun, X. M. & Zhang, W. 2009. Devonian to Permian plate tectonic cycle of the Paleo-Tethys Orogen in southwest China (II): insights from zircon ages of ophiolites, arc/back-arc assemblages and within-plate igneous rocks and generation of the Emeishan CFB province. Lithos,113, 767–84.Google Scholar
Jin, Y. & Sheng, Q. 2000. The Permian of China and its interregional correlation. In Permo–Triassic Evolution of Tethys and Western Circum-Pacific (eds Yin, H. F., Dickins, J. M., Shi, G. R. & Tong, J. N.), pp. 71–98. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Jin, Y., Wardlaw, B. R. & Wang, Y. 1998. Permian Stratigraphy, Environments and Resources, vol. 2: Palaeoworld. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press.Google Scholar
Lassiter, J. C. & DePaolo, D. J. 1997. Plume/lithosphere interaction in the generation of continental and oceanic flood basalts: chemical and isotopic constraints. In Large Igneous Provinces: Continental, Oceanic, and Planetary Flood Volcanism (eds Mahoney, J. J. and Coffin, M. F.), pp. 335–55. The American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Monograph no. 100.Google Scholar
Li, X.-H., Li, Z.-X., Zhou, H., Liu, Y. & Kinny, P. D. 2002. U-Pb zircon geochronology, geochemistry and Nd isotopic study of Neoproterozoic bimodal volcanic rocks in the Kangdian rift of South China: implications for the initial rifting of Rodinia. Precambrian Research 113, 135–54.Google Scholar
Li, H. B., Zhang, Z. C., Ernst, R., Lu, L. S., Santosh, M., Zhang, D. Y. & Cheng, Z. G. 2015. Giant radiating mafic dyke swarm of the Emeishan Large Igneous Province: identifying the mantle plume centre. Terra Nova 27, 247–57.Google Scholar
Liang, D. Y., Nie, Z. T. & Song, Z. M. 1994. Extensional Dongwu movement in western margin of Yangtze region. Earth Science Journal of China University of Geosciences 19, 443–53 (in Chinese with English abstract).Google Scholar
Liu, Y. S., Gao, S., Yuan, H. L., Zhao, L., Liu, X. M., Wang, X. C., Hu, Z.C. & Wang, L. S. 2004. U–Pb zircon ages and Nd, Sr, and Pb isotopes of lower crustal xenoliths from North China Craton: insights on evolution of lower continental crust. Chemical Geology 211, 87–109.Google Scholar
Ludwig, K. R. 2005. Isoplot: A Plotting and Regression Program for Radiogenic Isotope Data, Version 3.23. Berkeley, California: Berkeley Geochronology Center.Google Scholar
Luo, Z. L., Zhao, X. K., Liu, S. G. & Yong, Z. Q. 2001. Establishment and development of ‘Chinese Taphrogeny Outlook’. Petroleum Geology and Experiment 23, 232–41 (in Chinese with English abstract).Google Scholar
Munteanu, M., Yao, Y., Wilson, A. H., Chunnett, G., Luo, Y. N., He, H., Cioaca, M. & Wen, M. L. 2013. Panxi region (South-West China): tectonics, magmatism and metallogenesis. A review. Tectonophysics 608, 51–71.Google Scholar
Peterman, Z. E. & Sims, P. K. 1998. The Goodman swell: A lithospheric flexure caused by crustal loading along the midcontinent rift system. Tectonics 7, 1077–90.Google Scholar
Pierce, K. L. & Morgan, L. A. 2009. Is the track of the Yellowstone hotspot driven by a deep mantle plume? – Review of volcanism, faulting, and uplift in light of new data. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 188, 1–25.Google Scholar
Qin, J. X., Chen, H. D. & TianJ, C. J, C. 1999. The Permian stratigraphic and paleogeography and their evolution. Regional Geology of China 18, 289–97 (in Chinese with English abstract).Google Scholar
Ren, J. S., Wang, Z. X., Jiang, C. F. & Niu, B. G. 1999. Chinese Tectonics and its Evolution – 1:5000000 Tectonic Map. Beijing, China: Geological Publishing House (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Sachau, T. & Koehn, D. 2010. Faulting of the lithosphere during extension and related rift-flank uplift: a numerical study. International Journal of Earth Sciences 99, 1619–32.Google Scholar
Shellnutt, J. G. 2014. The Emeishan large igneous province: a synthesis. Geoscience Frontiers 5, 369–94.Google Scholar
Shellnutt, J. G., Denyszyn, S. & Mundil, R. 2012. Precise age determination of mafic and felsic intrusive rocks from the Permian Emeishan large igneous province (SW China). Gondwana Research 22, 118–26.Google Scholar
Shellnutt, J. G., Usuki, T., Kennedy, A. K. & Chiu, H.-Y. 2015. A lower crust origin of some flood basalts of the Emeishan large igneous province, SW China. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 109, 74–85.Google Scholar
Sheng, J. & Jin, Y. 1994. Correlation of Permian deposits in China. Palaeoworld 4, 14–113.Google Scholar
Silver, P. G., Behn, M. D., Kelley, K., Schmitz, M. & Savage, B. 2006. Understanding cratonic flood basalts. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 245, 190–201.Google Scholar
Storey, B. C., Alabaster, T. & Pankhurst, R. J. (eds). 1992. Magmatism and the Causes of Continental Break-up. The Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 68.Google Scholar
Sun, Y. D., Lai, X. L., Wignall, P. B., Widdowson, M., Ali, J. R., Jiang, H. S., Wang, W., Yan, C. B., Bond, D. P. G. & Védrine, S. 2010. Dating the onset and nature of the Middle Permian Emeishan large igneous province eruptions in SW China using conodont biostratigraphy and its bearing on mantle plume uplift models. Lithos 119, 20–33.Google Scholar
Ukstins Peate, I. & Bryan, S. E. 2008. Re-evaluating plume-induced uplift in the Emeishan large igneous province. Nature Geoscience 1, 625–9.Google Scholar
Ukstins Peate, I. & Bryan, S. E. 2009. Pre-eruptive uplift in the Emeishan? Reply. Nature Geoscience 2, 531–2.Google Scholar
Ukstins Peate, I., Bryan, S. E., Wignall, P. B., Jerram, D. & Ali, J. R. 2011. Comment on ‘Paleokarst on the top of the Maokou Formation: Further evidence for domal crustal uplift prior to the Emeishan flood volcanism’. Lithos 125, 1006–8.Google Scholar
Vauchez, A., Barruol, V. & Tommasi, A. 1997. Why do continents break-up parallel to ancient orogenic belts? Terra Nova 9, 62–6.Google Scholar
Wang, Y., Luo, Z. H., Wu, P., Chen, L. L. & Hao, J. H. 2014. A new interpretation of the sedimentary environment before and during eruption of the Emeishan LIP, southwest China. International Geology Review 56, 1295–313.Google Scholar
Wang, Y., Santosh, M., Luo, Z. H. & Hao, J. H. 2015. Large igneous provinces linked to supercontinent assembly. Journal of Geodynamics 85, 1–10.Google Scholar
White, R. S. & McKenzie, D. P. 1989. Magmatism at rift zones: the generation of volcanic continental margins and flood basalts. Journal of Geophysical Research 94(B6), 7685–729.Google Scholar
Wignall, P. B., Védrine, S., Bond, D. P. G., Wang, W., Lai, X. L., Ali, J. R. & Jiang, H. S. 2009. Facies analysis and sea-level change at the Guadalupian–Lopingian Global Stratotype (Laibin, South China), and its bearing on the end-Guadalupian mass extinction. Journal of the Geological Society, London 166, 655–66.Google Scholar
Xiao, L., He, Q., Pirajno, F., Ni, P. Z., Du, J. X. & Wei, Q. R. 2008. Possible correlation between a mantle plume and the evolution of Paleo-Tethys Jinshajiang Ocean: evidence from a volcanic rifted margin in the Xiaru-Tuoding area, Yunnan, SW China. Lithos 100, 112–26.Google Scholar
Xiao, L., Xu, Y. G., Mei, H. J., Zheng, Y. F., He, B. & Pirajno, F. 2004. Distinct mantle sources of low-Ti and high-Ti basalts from the western Emeishan large igneous provinces, SW China: implications of plume-lithosphere interaction. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 228, 525–46.Google Scholar
Yang, T. N., Hou, Z. Q., Wang, Y., Zhang, H. R. & Wang, Z. L. 2012. Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic tectonic evolution of northeast Tibet: evidence from the Triassic composite western Jinsha–Garzê–Litang suture. Tectonics 31, TC4004. doi: 10.1029/2011TC003044.Google Scholar
Zhang, Y. X., Luo, Y. N. & Yang, C. X. 1988. Panzhihua-Xichang Rift in China. Series of Geological Memoirs, No. 5. Beijing: Geological Publishing House, 325 pp. (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zhong, Y. T., He, B., Mundil, R. & Xu, Y. G. 2014. CA-TIMS zircons U-Pb dating of felsic ignimbrite from the Binchuan section: implications for the termination age of Emeishan large igneous province. Lithos 204, 14–19.Google Scholar
Zhou, M. F., Yan, D. P., Kennedy, A. K., Li, Y. & Ding, J. 2002. SHRIMP U–Pb zircon geochronological and geochemical evidence for Neoproterozoic arc-magmatism along the western margin of the Yangtze Block, South China. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 196, 51–67.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P. A. 1992. Geodynamics of rifting. Tectonophysics 215, 221–53.Google Scholar
Ziegler, P. A. & Cloetingh, S. 2004. Dynamic processes controlling evolution of rifted basins. Earth-Science Reviews 64, 1–50.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Wang et al. supplementary material

Wang et al. supplementary material 1

Download Wang et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 201.8 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Wang et al. supplementary material

Wang et al. supplementary material 2

Download Wang et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 287.7 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Wang et al. supplementary material

Wang et al. supplementary material 3

Download Wang et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 547.5 KB
Supplementary material: File

Wang et al. supplementary material

Wang et al. supplementary material 4

Download Wang et al. supplementary material(File)
File 3.5 MB
Supplementary material: File

Wang et al. supplementary material

Wang et al. supplementary material 5

Download Wang et al. supplementary material(File)
File 1.5 MB