Palaeozoic pre- and post-collision calc-alkaline magmatism in the Qinling orogenic belt, central China, as documented by zircon ages on granitoid rocks

Based on large-scale reconnaissance mapping, we identified two calc-alkaline plutonic assemblages from the northern Qinling orogenic belt. central China. The older assemblage of intrusions. closely associated and deformed coevally with their host volcanic arc sequences, seems to represent the fractionation product of basaltic arc magma. It therefore predates the collision of the North China Block with the Central Qinling island-arc system that developed in a SW Pacific-type oceanic domain south of the North China Block. Single-zircon 207Pb/206Pb evaporation dating yielded early to middle Ordovician ages for this assemblage. with a relatively small range from 487.2 ± 1.1 to 470.2 ± 1.3 Ma. I…