Zircon U–Pb chronology and Hf isotope of the Xingxingxia granodiorite from the Central Tianshan zone (NW China): Implications for the tectonic evolution of the southern Altaids

The Central Tianshan zone is located between the Turpan–Hami and Tarim blocks and played a pivotal role in crustal evolution and collisional tectonics of the southern Altaids (or the Central Asian orogenic belt). The Xingxingxia granodiorite in the eastern Central Tianshan is an Early Paleozoic (424.9 ± 5.8 Ma) intrusion. Petrography, geochemistry and Sr–Nd–Hf isotopes suggest that the Xingxingxia granodiorite was genetically related to a volcanic arc, emplaced above a subduction zone. Thus, the Central Tianshan zone was a magmatic arc above an early Paleozoic subduction zone of the Paleoasian ocean. We present LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb dating and Hf isotope determinations of Precambrian zircon grains trapped in the Xingxingxia granodiorite. Three populations of inherited zircons indicate that Neoproterozoic (809 ± 41 Ma; εHf(t) = 0.10–5.73), Mesoproterozoic (~ 1400 Ma; εHf(t) 8.71–10.05) and Paleoproterozoic (~ 1750 Ma; εHf(t) 0.11 and 4.80) tectonomagmatic events in the Central Tianshan zone, which are comparable with those in the Tarim block. Combined with a series of similar geological characteristics between these two blocks, it is suggested that the Central Tianshan zone might have been originally a part of the Tarim block, and was separated from it during the Early Paleozoic time due to pull-apart caused by southward subduction of the Northern Tianshan ocean, a branch of the Paleoasian ocean.