Zircon U–Pb Ages and Lu–Hf Isotope of the Dongchuan Group in Central Yunnan, China, and their Geological Significance

On the southwestern margin of the Yangtze Block, the Dongchuan Group consists of slightly metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, including silty slate, argillaceous slate, clayey slate, arkose, dolomite, and minor volcanic rocks. To date, it is still a controversy over the depositional age and stratigraphic sequence of the Dongchuan Group. In this study, we analyzed five samples of meta‐sedimentary rocks and one sample of meta‐tuff from the Yinmin, Luoxue and Etouchang Formations of the Dongchuan Group in the Yuxi region for detrital zircon U‐Pb ages and Lu‐Hf isotope. The detrital zircon ages of the meta‐sediments vary from 3073 to 1703 Ma, mainly clustered at three periods, from 1889 to 1840, 2490 to 2008 and 2878 to 2844 Ma. The youngest age peak of all the samples is ∼1859 Ma, with the ∊Hf(t) values of the zircons ranging from –20.3 to +4.3 and more than 90% being negative, indicating that the Paleoproterozoic crustal accretion on the southwestern margin of the Yangtze Block was dominated by reworking of the ancient crustal materials involved in the assembly and breakup of the Columbia supercontinent. Another important age range is between 2490 Ma and 2008 Ma, with ∊Hf(t) values from –14.7 to +8.9 and 70% of them are negative, suggesting that the magmatism in the source area was also dominated by reworking and recycling of the ancient crustal materials, with minor juvenile mantle substances added. The detritus was probably derived from the Paleoproterozoic crystalline basement in the southern Yuxi region. The oldest peak age is ∼2847 Ma and the ∊Hf(t) values are from –7.7 to +7.0 with 50% of both positive and negative values, demonstrating a possible ∼2.85 Ga ancient continental nucleus on the southwestern margin of the Yangtze Block and substantial growth in juvenile crust materials during this period. Besides, the weighted average age of the zircons from the meta‐tuff of the Etouchang Formation is 1677 ± 14 Ma. Combining the previous research data and this study, we can constrain the depositional age of the Dongchuan Group in central Yunnan Province to the period from the late Paleoproterozoic to early Mesoproterozoic, slightly earlier than that of the Dongchuan Group in the Dongchuan area near to the southwestern Sichuan Province. The depositional age of the Dongchuan Group is older than that of the Kunyang Group.