Testing final closure time of the Paleo-Asian Ocean along the Solonker suture by a transition of compressional and extensional setting

ABSTRACT The giant Central Asian Orogenic Belt is an extensive accretionary orogen, of which the Solonker suture, as a major regional suture, coincides closely with an early Permian paleobiogeographical boundary. This suture is considered to mark the location of the final closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean between the North China Craton and the Mongolian Terrane. Although the closure time of the Paleo-Asian Ocean along the Solonker suture has generally been regarded as Late Permian–Early Triassic, uncertainty remains because of a lack of typical collision-related features (e.g., high-grade regional metamorphism and well-developed fold–thrust structures) and a scarcity of outcrops. The present study reports Early Permian foliated gabbros and dikes (288–275 Ma) and Middle-Late Permian undeformed layered gabbros, strongly peraluminous granites, and I-type granites (265–254 Ma) in the Xinhure area along the northern margin of the North China Craton. The Early Permian foliated intrusions have a subduction-related geochemical signature and were derived from partial melting of lithospheric mantle modified by subduction-related melts or fluids at the active margin of the North China Craton. In contrast, the Late Permian undeformed layered gabbros and strongly peraluminous granites were derived from partial melting of lithospheric mantle and middle–upper crust, respectively, triggered by asthenospheric upwelling. Therefore, a transition from an end-compressional to an extensional environment according to a transition from collision termination to post-collision of the North China Craton and Mongolian Terrane may have occurred between 275 and 262 Ma. This time span can be considered as the final closure time of the Paleo-Asian Ocean along the Solonker suture.