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New GSA Bulletin articles published ahead of print in March

2021-04-01
(Press-News.org) Boulder, Colo., USA: The Geological Society of America regularly publishes articles online ahead of print. For March, GSA Bulletin topics include multiple articles about the dynamics of China and Tibet; the ups and downs of the Missouri River; the Los Rastros Formation, Argentina; the Olympic Mountains of Washington State; methane seep deposits; meandering rivers; and the northwest Hawaiian Ridge. You can find these articles at https://bulletin.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/recent .

Transition from a passive to active continental margin setting for the NE Asian continental margin during the Mesozoic: Insights from the sedimentary formations and paleogeography of the eastern Jiamusi Massif, NE China
Yini Wang; Wenliang Xu; Feng Wang
Abstract: The Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the NE Asian continental margin has received much attention in recent years. However, previous studies focused mainly on the petrogenesis of igneous rocks and their relationship with Mesozoic tectonics, and there have been few studies of the Mesozoic sedimentary formations of the NE Asian continental margin. We combined zircon U-Pb ages with Hf isotopic and biostratigraphic data to reconstruct the Mesozoic paleogeography of the NE Asian continental margin. The results indicate that Mesozoic strata of the eastern Jiamusi Massif, NE China, include the Upper Triassic Nanshuangyashan Formation (Norian), Lower Jurassic volcanic rocks, and Lower Cretaceous Longzhaogou Group. The Upper Triassic Nanshuangyashan Formation consists of a suite of alternating marine and terrestrial sedimentary rocks with abundant fossils that formed in a passive continental margin setting. The Lower Jurassic strata comprise a suite of calc-alkaline volcanic rocks that include basaltic andesites, andesites, and rhyolites that formed in an active continental margin setting related to initial subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate beneath Eurasia. The Lower Cretaceous Longzhaogou Group belong to alternating marine and terrestrial sedimentary formations that formed in an active continental margin setting related to subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate. Here, we integrate these data to reconstruct the Mesozoic tectonic history of the NE Asian continental margin, which comprises a Late Triassic passive continental margin, the initiation of subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate in the Early Jurassic, and westward subduction and rollback of the Paleo-Pacific Plate in the Early Cretaceous.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/B35850.1/595823/Transition-from-a-passive-to-active-continental

Low-δ18O A-type granites in SW China: Evidence for the interaction between the subducted Paleotethyan slab and the Emeishan mantle plume
Jian Xu; Xiao-Ping Xia; Qiang Wang; Christopher J. Spencer; Bin He ...
Abstract: The mechanisms and processes by which subducted slab interacted with mantle plume remain controversial, as direct observation of such interaction is difficult to impossible. Compositional heterogeneity of large igneous provinces (LIPs) additionally makes plume-slab interaction hard to detect. Oxygen isotopes are sensitive enough to trace the source of magmas. Here we provide evidence for plume-slab interaction mainly based on in situ zircon Hf-O isotope analyses, as well as whole-rock elemental and Sr-Nd-Hf isotope analyses, on the Late Permian and Early Triassic A-type granites on the margin of the Emeishan LIP in SW China. These granites show typical A-type geochemical characters, such as high total alkali (7.93−9.68 wt%) and field strength element (HFSE, e.g., Zr and Nb) contents, and high FeOT /(FeOT+MgO) (0.87−0.98) and Ga/Al (3.67−5.06) values. The Late Permian (ca. 259 Ma) and Early Triassic (ca. 248 Ma) granites show high Nb/Th (>3.0) and low Y/Nb ( END


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[Press-News.org] New GSA Bulletin articles published ahead of print in March