Mesoproterozoic tectonic and paleogeographic evolution of the Yanliao Rift Basin in the northern North China Craton: Constraints from detrital zircon ages of the Xiamaling Formation in the Jixian area

The Yanliao Rift Basin is located in the northern part of the North China Craton, which recorded the intracontinental extension following the Paleoproterozoic collision of the North China Craton, the breakup of the Nuna supercontinent, along with the Mesoproterozoic oxygenation event. However, studies on the Mesoproterozoic Paleogeography and tectonic evolution of the Yanliao rift basin is less studied. In this paper, we systematically investigated the sedimentary characteristics of the Jixian system in the Jixian area, and obtained detrital zircon U-Pb ages for the clastic rock samples from the standard stratigraphic section of the Xiamaling Formation of the Jixian system. LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb dating results show that the ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb ages of detrital zircons from the Xiamaling Formation quartz sandstone samples range from 3270 to 1806 Ma, with two significant age peaks at 1880 Ma and 2530 Ma. The results show that the sandstone of Xiamaling Formation is mainly composed of detritus from Neoarchean and late Paleoproterozoic, and the two most significant age peaks correspond to the Middle Archean-Paleoproterozoic geological events in the North China Craton respectively. In addition, a few older detrital zircons (~2750 Ma and 3200 Ma) also occur, corresponding to Archean magmatic events in the North China Craton, respectively. The detrital zircon age distribution indicate that the Xiamaling Formation was deposited in an extensional setting. Given the sedimentary assemblages of the Jixian system and the underlying Changcheng System, we here conclude that the tectonic evolution of the Yanliao Rift Basin can be roughly divided into four stages: ① The post-collision extensional transition stage (1.85~1.60 Ga); ② Early intracontinental extension (1.60~1.40 Ga); ③ The rifting basin stage corresponding to the global breakup of the Nuna supercontinent (1.40~1.30 Ga); ④ Overall uplifting stage (1.32~1.0 Ga).