We propose a flat-slab subduction model for Mesozoic South China based on both new sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U-Pb zircon data and a synthesis of existing structural, geochronological, and sedimentary facies results. This model not only explains the development of a broad (∼1300-km-wide) intracontinental orogen that migrated from the coastal region into the continental interior between ca. 250 Ma and 190 Ma, but can also account for the puzzling chain of events that followed: the formation of a shallow-marine basin in the wake of the migrating foreland fold-and-thrust belt, and the development of one of the world's largest Basin and Range–style magmatic provinces after the orogeny. The South China record may serve as an example of the multiple effects of flat-slab subduction, including migrating orogenesis and foreland flexure, synorogenic sagging behind the active orogen, postdelamination lithospheric rebound, and the development of a Basin and Range–style broad magmatic province.

Formation of the 1300-km-wide intracontinental orogen and postorogenic magmatic province in Mesozoic South China: A flat-slab subduction model

This paper summarizes the new results on the petrogenesis of Mesozoic granitoids and volcanic rocks in South China. The authors propose that these rocks were formed in time and space as a response to regional tectonic regime change from the continent-continent collision of the Indosinian orogeny within the broad Tethyan orogenic domain in the Early Mesozoic (T1–T3) (Period I) to the largely extensional setting as a result of the Yanshanian orogeny genetically associated with the NW–WNW-ward subduction of the paleo-Pacific oceanic lithosphere in the Late Mesozoic (J2–K2) (Period II). Of the Period I Indosinian granitoids, the early (T1–T21) ones are syn-collisional, and formed in a compressional setting; the late (T22–T3) ones are late-collisional, and formed in a locally extensional environment. During the Period II Yanshanian magmatism, the Early Yanshanian (J2–J3) granitoid-volcanic rocks, which are distributed mainly in the Nanling Range and in the interior of the South China tectonic block (SCB), are characteristic of rift-type intraplate magmatism, whereas the Late Yanshanian K1 granitoid-volcanic rocks are interpreted as genetically representing active continental margin magmatism. The K2 tholeiitic basalts interlayered with red beds are interpreted as genetically associated with the development of back-arc extensional basins in the interior of the SCB. The Yanshanian granitoid-volcanic rocks are distributed widely in South China, reflecting extensional tectonics within much of the SCB. The extension-induced deep crustal melting and underplating of mantle-derived basaltic melts are suggested as the two principal driving mechanisms for the Yanshanian granitic magmatism in South China.

Petrogenesis of Mesozoic granitoids and volcanic rocks in south China : a response to tectonic evolution.

Geochronology of the Phanerozoic granitoids in northeastern China

Nature and significance of the Early Cretaceous giant igneous event in eastern China

To the best of our knowledge, modern adakites have not been documented in a nonarc environment. We report geochemical and isotopic data for Early Cretaceous Anjishan adakitic intrusive rocks that are in a continental setting unrelated to subduction. The Anjishan adakitic intrusive rocks, which are exposed in the Ningzhen area of east China, have high Sr/Y and La/Yb ratios coupled with low Yb and Y as well as relatively high MgO contents and Mg numbers (Mg#; 0.4-0.6), similar to products from slab melting. However, low ∈ N d ( t ) values (-6.8 to-9.7) and high ( 8 7 Sr/ 8 6 Sr) i (0.7053-0.7066) are inconsistent with an origin by slab melting. The tectonics and geochemistry lead us to conclude that adakitic magmas were most likely derived from partial melting of mafic material at the base of the continental crust. High Sr/Y and La/Yb ratios of the adakitic intrusive rocks suggest that garnet was stable as a residual phase during partial melting, implying that the crustal thickness exceeded 40 km in the Early Cretaceous. The present thickness of the crust in the Ningzhen area is only 30 km, and therefore the crust appears to have been thinned by at least ∼10 km since the Early Cretaceous. The relatively high MgO contents and Mg# of the Anjishan intrusive rocks suggest that adakitic magmas interacted with mantle rocks, possibly coinciding with lower-crustal delamination, which would also account for the observed thinning.

Origin of mesozoic adakitic intrusive rocks in the Ningzhen area of east China: Partial melting of delaminated lower continental crust?

Origin of Late Mesozoic igneous rocks in Southeastern China: implications for lithosphere subduction and underplating of mafic magmas

Submarine mega‐slides involving hundreds of cubic kilometers of slope material pose a major threat due to their potential to destroy offshore infrastructure and trigger devastating tsunamis. The Sahara Slide Complex affected about 50,000 km2 of the northwestern (NW) African continental margin. Previous studies focused either on its distal depositional zone or the uppermost headwall area, but failed in reconstructing the succession of individual slide events within the entire headwall area. New hydroacoustic data reveal a complex slide morphology including three main acoustic facies, large scale slide blocks, linear troughs, multiple glide planes and three major headwall scarps (the upper, southern and lower headwall). The evacuated slide scar hosts chaotic slide deposits that cover stratified sediments in the upper and southern headwall area, but are vertically stacked onto older slide deposits in the lower headwall area. Based on these observations, and dating of recently collected sediment samples, we reconstructed the history of slope failures that led to the formation of the structurally and morphologically complex headwall area of the Sahara Slide. Slope instability initiated when the lower headwall failed at ∼60 kyr, followed by the failure of the northeastern upper headwall at ∼14 kyr. Around 6 kyr, a major slide within the upper headwall area took place, followed by a series of smaller events within the southern and most‐proximal upper headwall area. The youngest of these slides occurred around 2 kyr. This scenario suggests a long‐lasting history of successive slope failures for the Sahara Slide Complex along the NW African continental slope.

W.X. Li

Papers

Origin of Late Mesozoic igneous rocks in Southeastern China: implications for lithosphere subduction and underplating of mafic magmas

Sequence of Multiple Slope Failures in the Headwall Area of the Giant Sahara Slide Complex at the NW African Continental Margin