From the formation of Rodinia at the end of the Mesoproterozoic to the commencement of Pangea breakup at the end of the Paleozoic, the South China craton fi rst formed and then occupied a position adjacent to Western Australia and northern India. Early Neoproterozoic suprasubduction zone magmatic arc-backarc assemblages in the craton range in age from ca. 1000 Ma to 820 Ma and display a sequential northwest decrease in age. These relations suggest formation and closure of arc systems through southeast-directed subduction, resulting in progressive northwestward accretion onto the periphery of an already assembled Rodinia. Siliciclastic units within an early Paleozoic succession that transgresses across the craton were derived from the southeast and include detritus from beyond the current limits of the craton. Detrital zircon age spectra require an East Gondwana source and are very similar to the Tethyan Himalaya and younger Paleozoic successions from Western Australia, suggesting derivation from a common source and by inference accumulation in linked basins along the northern margin of Gondwana, a situation that continued until rifting and breakup of the craton in the late Paleozoic.

Locating South China in Rodinia and Gondwana: A fragment of Greater India Lithosphere? (Invited)

Annual review of earth and planetary sciences

Examination of an extensive major and trace element database for about 700 whole rocks from the Ecuadorian Andes reveals series of local trends typified by three volcanoes: Iliniza and Pichincha from the Western Cordillera and Tungurahua from the Eastern Cordillera. These local trends are included in a more scattered global trend that reflects typical across-arc chemical variations. The scatter of the global trend is attributed to greater crustal contributions or decreasing melt fractions. Trace element modelling shows that the local trends are consistent with mixing, and not with any fractional crystallization or progressive melting dominated processes. These local trends are extendable to include samples from other Ecuadorian volcanoes, suggesting that mixing processes are dominant throughout the region. Mixing model using trace and major element analyses identifies two end-members: low-silica, basaltic and high-silica, dacitic magmas. It also shows that mixing occurred between magmas after their segregation, rather than earlier mixing between the solid sources prior to melting. As a consequence, there must exist efficient magma-mixing processes that can overcome the obstacles to mixing magmas with contrasting physical properties, and can produce series of hybrid liquids over regional-scale. Model calculations show that estimated silicic end-members are primary magmas and are not co-magmatic derivatives of the corresponding mafic end-members. Lavas of Ecuadorian volcanoes are likely originated from magmas of contrasting origins, such as basaltic magmas generated by fluxed melting of peridotites in the mantle wedge and dacitic, adakite-type magmas originating from the slab or the mafic lower crust.

Simple mixing as the major control of the evolution of volcanic suites in the Equadorian Andes T

Deconstructing South China and consequences for reconstructing Nuna and Rodinia

Petrogenesis of Paleo-Mesoproterozoic mafic rocks in the southwestern Yangtze Block of South China: Implications for tectonic evolution and paleogeographic reconstruction

Early Paleoproterozoic (ca. 2.36 Ga) post-collisional granitoids in Yunnan, SW China: Implications for linkage between Yangtze and Laurentia in the Columbia supercontinent

We report the oldest I-type granites in the Lengshui Complex of the Yangtze Craton, providing new insights for its tectonic evolution during the Neoarchean. An approach-combined study of zi...

Mingda Huang

Papers

Early Paleoproterozoic (ca. 2.36 Ga) post-collisional granitoids in Yunnan, SW China: Implications for linkage between Yangtze and Laurentia in the Columbia supercontinent

The 2.73 Ga I-type granites in the Lengshui Complex and implications for the Neoarchean tectonic evolution of the Yangtze Craton

The ca. 1.18–1.14 Ga A-type granites in the southwestern Yangtze Block, South China: New evidence for late Mesoproterozoic continental rifting

The earliest Neoproterozoic Nb-enriched mafic magmatism indicates subduction tectonics in the southwestern Yangtze Block, South China