LA-ICP-MS U–Pb geochronology of detrital zircons from the Jining Complex, North China Craton and its tectonic significance

LA-ICP-MS U–Pb zircon dating and cathodoluminescene (CL) image analysis were carried out to determine the protolith and metamorphic ages of high-grade Al-rich gneisses, named as “khondalites”, from the Jining Complex of the North China Craton (NCC). The analytical results of more than 200 detrital zircon grains from the khondalites show three main age populations: 2060 Ma, 1940 Ma and 1890 Ma. These data indicate that the provenance of the Jining khondalites is Paleoproterozoic in age, but not Archean as previously suggested, and the sediments were derived from a provenance different from the Eastern Block and the Yinshan Terrane of the NCC. The nearly concordant youngest age of 1842 ± 16 Ma (207Pb/206Pb age) for the detrital zircons is interpreted as the maximum depositional age of the khondalites. Overgrowth rims of detrital zircons yield an age of 1811 ± 23 Ma, which we interpret as the metamorphic age. The new age data are consistent with the recent three-fold tectonic subdivision of the NCC and support that the Eastern and Western Blocks collided at ∼1.8 Ga to form the coherent NCC.