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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Petrology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1444679

Tectonic evolution of the Northeastern Paleo-Tethys Ocean during the late Triassic: Insights from source rock and provenance of the Xujiahe Formation

Provisionally accepted
Fenquan Xie Fenquan Xie 1Wenzhou Xiao Wenzhou Xiao 2*Mabrouk Sami Mabrouk Sami 3,4*Ioan Sanislav Ioan Sanislav 5Mohamed S. Ahmed Mohamed S. Ahmed 6Douaa Fathy Douaa Fathy 4Chenguang Zhang Chenguang Zhang 7Yongkui Wang Yongkui Wang 8Bingpeng Yan Bingpeng Yan 8
  • 1 Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China
  • 2 University of South China, Hengyang, China
  • 3 United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
  • 4 Minia University, Minya, Minya, Egypt
  • 5 James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
  • 6 King Saud University, Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 7 Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, Henan, China
  • 8 Shandong Provincial Geological and Mineral Exploration and Development Bureau, Ji'nan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Triassic tectonic evolution and affinity among the Yangtze Block, Qinling Orogenic Belt and Songpan-Ganzi Terrane remain subjects of ongoing scientific debate. In this context, the sedimentary rocks of Xujiahe Formation (second segment) (T3x2) represent an ideal case for addressing this issue. In this study, new stratigraphic, geochemical and detrital zircon analyses have been conducted on two sections of the T3x2. The stratigraphic assemblage and features suggests a braided delta as the depositional setting. Whole-rock geochemical results indicate that the sandstones from the T3x2 exhibit moderate palaeo-weathering and primarily originate from upper crustal felsic rocks, mostly S-type granites. The detrital zircons within these sandstones display distinctive age peaks at intervals of 200-300 Ma, 700-900 Ma, and 1800-2000 Ma, similar to those from the Qinling Orogenic Belt. Both the clastic particle composition and whole-rock geochemistry indicate that the T3x2 sections were deposited in a transitioning from a passive to an active continental margin, highlighted by a braided delta influenced by rivers flowing from the northeast to the southwest.

    Keywords: Xujiahe Formation, braided delta facies, palaeo-weathering degree, detrital zircon, Qinling orogenic belt

    Received: 06 Jun 2024; Accepted: 26 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xie, Xiao, Sami, Sanislav, Ahmed, Fathy, Zhang, Wang and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Wenzhou Xiao, University of South China, Hengyang, China
    Mabrouk Sami, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

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