Search

Two types of potash ores were sampled from the Mengyejing potash deposit (the MPD) which is the only ancient potash deposit ever found in China. Geochemical analyses, including Br, K, Mg and some heavy metals, were performed on those samples. The relatively consistent Br contents (141.42 to 763.67 ppm) in both bedded potash and veined potash ores show that the potash-forming brine was likely derived from seawater. K contents and Br/Cl ratios of the veined potash ores are relatively high in contrast to bedded potash ores. The K/Br ratios of veined potash ores exhibit a positive correlation with Br contents, which is opposite to that of the bedded potash ore of the MPD and potassium-salts from the evaporation of modern seawater. The contents of heavy metals in veined potash ores are much higher than those of bedded potash ores in the MPD and potash in other evaporite basins of the world. Sr and S isotopic compositions of these two types of potash ores suggest that the brines for precipitating veined potash were formed by mixing of connate waters (seawater or/and continental freshwater) and hydrothermal fluids. The geochemical and petrological characteristics of the veined potash ores indicate that the brine for forming veined potash orebodies caused by dissolution of previous bedded potash orebodies by hydrothermal fluids. The veined potash orebodies were formed through a cooling process by which sylvite precipitated first prior to halite.

The surface uplift of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its geomorphology evolution has triggered aridification of Asia's interior and drainage development at the eastern margin of the plateau. However, how the pre-Cenozoic early growth histories of the TP impact the drainage system and climate is poorly constrained. The Late Mesozoic Lacustrine evaporite-bearing basins on the eastern margin of the TP record significant information on the uplift of the source terranes, source-to-sink system development and climate change. In this study, we presented detrital zircon U–Pb ages from the Upper Cretaceous Yunlong Formation in the Lanping Basin, as well as Hf isotopic, petrographic, direct statistical, and multidimensional scaling analyses, and use them to characterize the provenance and reconstruct the drainage system. All of the samples have five major age peaks at 200–290 Ma, 400–490 Ma, 750–1000 Ma, 1750–1950 Ma, and 2400–2600 Ma with mostly negative ɛHf(t) values (81%). We infer the sediments are primarily derived from recycled sediments of the Songpan-Garze terrane, and partly from the Sichuan Basin and the Southern Qiangtang terrane, as well as the exposed magmatic rocks of the Yidun Arc and Songpan-Garze terrane. The provenance features of the contemporaneous sediments from the Sichuan, Xichang, Chuxiong, and Simao basins indicate a complex hierarchical drainage pattern on the eastern margin of the TP during the Late Cretaceous. The hierarchical drainage system exhibits a complete gradational cycle of lake-basin types from overfilled freshwater Sichuan Basin through balanced fill saline Xichang Basin and underfilled hypersaline Chuxiong, Lanping, Simao, and Khorat Plateau basins from proximal to distal. The early growth of the TP primarily controlled the drainage and lake-basin evolution by not only causing the uplift and exhumation of the source areas and providing large amounts of clastic material to the proximal sub-drainage areas but also intensifying the aridity and deposition of evaporites.

Potash deposits are common in the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Tethyan domain, which features the giant potash deposits in the Late Jurassic Central Asian Basin and the Late Cretaceous Khorat Basin of Thailand-Laos. Widespread evaporitic sequences from these intervals have been found in some marine and transitional basins within the Chinese continental blocks, such as the Yangtze, Simao and Tarim blocks, in which, only one small-scale potash deposit had been found in the Late Cretaceous Simao Basin. These evaporites are commonly characterized by depositional cycles that are more frequent than those of other potash basins around the world. It remains debated whether large or giant potash deposits could be formed in Chinese blocks of Tethyan domain, and if so, what mechanism was responsible for the potash formation. To address these issues, we comprehensively review the Meso-Cenozoic drift history and collision dynamics of these Chinese blocks and summarize the formation mechanism, depositional characteristics, and paleoclimate of the evaporite basins in these blocks. These blocks drifted from the Southern Hemisphere and collided and welded together in the beginning of the late Permian in the Northern Hemisphere. The collisions often commenced in the east and gradually spread to the west of these blocks, resulting in: (1) westward seawater retreat; (2) differential topographic uplift with high topography in the east and low topography in the west and (3) increasingly closed depositional environments in these basins. In addition, these collisions often exerted nearly N-S-oriented principal compressive stress, which resulted in nearly E-W-oriented extension. These forces induced a series of faulted-bounded subsidence belts with N-S-striking extensional sub-basins arranged in an E-W-oriented chain in these blocks. In this chain-like sub-basins system, as sea level rose and seawater flowed from west to east, the western sub-basins proximal to the open sea would have precipitated calcium carbonates and calcium sulfates, resulting in a high degree of concentration by the time the brines reached the distal end, i.e. eastern sub-basins. Ultimately, potash minerals were commonly deposited in the easternmost sub-basins. Based on the above model of potash formation, we predict that potash deposits may be formed in certain sub-basins in the eastern part of these basins in Chinese Tethyan blocks, which maybe lay a theoretical foundation for China’s future exploration of potash deposits.

The Mengyejing potash deposit (MPD) is the first significant ancient potash deposit ever found in China, and it was considered to have formed during the middle to late Cretaceous. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios of potash bulk samples suggest that both bedded and veined potash orebodies of the MPD have been affected by igneous activity resulting from decompression melting of a metasomatically altered, depleted mantle from 16 Ma to present. The Rb-Sr isotopic systematics of the potash bulk samples define several apparent “isochrons” ranging from 0.609 ± 0.026 to 14.23 ± 0.63 Ma, with the maximum age being consistent with previous K-Ar ages of the K-bearing minerals from the MPD. Such isotopic signatures imply that the MPD may have been affected by multiple-stage fluid flow events since the mid-Miocene, consisting of hydrothermal fluids, continental fresh water, and/or hot spring water. It is very likely that the MPD is still affected by fluid flow-events in modern times. The mineral assemblage of halite + sylvite with minor amounts of carnallite was formed due to the recrystallization and diagenetic modification by hydrothermal fluids. Some characteristics of halite photomicrographs and inclusions and the lack of original halite chevron patterns are also supportive of the hypothesis that the deposit has undergone a diagenetic modification and dissolution–recrystallization processes.

Asian aridification during the Cenozoic was strongly related to moisture flux modulated by sea incursion and the retreat fluctuations of the proto-Paratethys Sea via the Westerlies. However, the extents of the sea incursions are poorly constrained, and there is a lack of sedimentary records beyond the Central Asian basins. The Middle to Late Cretaceous Simao Basin and the Khorat Plateau in Southeast Asia contain thick continental sequences of red beds, evaporites, and aeolian deposits, but whether the depositional environment of the evaporites was marine or continental has been hotly debated. In this study, we compiled multiple sedimentology proxies, biomarkers, element geochemistry, and isotopic geochemistry of the fine-grained sediments of the Mohan section in the Simao Basin. Sedimentological analyses show that this section is composed of subtidal flat fine-grained siliciclastic and carbonate rocks and supratidal flat conglomerates and evaporites. The paleosalinity proxies show that the B concentration and B/Ga and Srcorrected/Ba ratios range from 30.3 to 81.7 ppm, 2.4 to 5.0, and 0.05 to 0.60, respectively, which indicate brackish conditions. The two typical increases in these proxies are consistent with the stratigraphic horizons of the diagnostic marine biomarkers 24-n-propyl- and 24-iso-propylcholestanes, which suggests seawater recharge. The carbonate δ13C and δ18O values (−4.84‰ to −1.75‰ and −8.25‰ to −3.69‰, respectively) and the bulk δ13Corg values (−26.5‰ to −23.22‰) also indicate the influence of seawater. We propose that the seawater likely originated from the proto-Paratethys Sea during a marine incursion. We propose for the first time that the proto-Paratethys seawater incursions extended into the Simao Basin and the Khorat Plateau. These results provide a novel paleogeographic configuration for East Asia during the Middle to Late Cretaceous. The retreat of the proto-Paratethys Sea, the northeast Trade Winds, and the tectonic uplift dramatically decreased the moisture and intensified the extreme aridification in the Simao Basin and the Khorat Plateau.

The Muang Xai Basin, located in northern Laos, is associated with the Simao, Vientiane, and Khorat Basins. The paleogeographic link of these basins has not been investigated in great detail; thus, the investigation presented in this study is a comprehensive analysis of petrology, whole-rock geochemistry, and detrital zircon U–Pb chronology used to characterize the provenance of the Muang Xai Basin. Results suggest that the sedimentary source includes felsic rocks from an active continental margin or continental arc with minor amounts of recycled passive continental margin sediments. Sandstones of the Muang Xai Basin contain detrital zircons with varying U–Pb peak ages. The youngest age peak of all the zircons is 103 Ma, which limits the age of the Mesozoic strata to the Late Cretaceous. Detrital zircon U–Pb and trace element data, combined with geochemical result, reveal that the pre-Ordovician zircons were derived from recycled sediments of the Yangtze Block, which are originally sourced from the Qinling Orogenic belt. This provenance is shared with coeval sediments in the Simao and Khorat Basins, while magmatic rocks of the Ailaoshan, Truong Son Belt, and Lincang terrane are responsible for zircons of 416–466 and 219–308 Ma in age. Zircons of 101–110 and 149–175 Ma in age were sourced from magmatic rocks of the southwestern South China Block and northern Vietnam. These provenance results suggest that sediments flow into the Khorat red beds was likely from the Great Simao Basin and northern Vietnam, and not directly from the Yangtze Block.

The Mengyejing potash deposit is located in the southern port of the Simao Basin, Yunnan Province, and is hosted in mid-Cretaceous strata. The chemical compositions of fluid inclusions in halite crystals, collected from the level-610 adit in the deposit, were analysed by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The results show that the brine is of the Na-K-Mg-Ca-Cl type and has K concentrations that are distinctly higher than those of Mg and Ca, unlike normal brines associated with Cretaceous halite. The high K concentrations indicate that the degree of evaporation of the ancient Mengyejing saline lake was very high, reaching the sylvite deposition stage but rarely reaching the carnallite deposition stage. The trajectory of the H and O isotopic compositions of the brines in the halite-hosted fluid inclusions corresponds to intense evaporation, indicating that the net evaporation exceeded the net inflow of brines. These brine compositions in halite-hosted fluid inclusions were likely formed by the dissolution of previously deposited K-bearing minerals by fresh continental and/or seawater, forming a type of modified seawater, with deep hydrothermal fluids potentially supplying additional potassium. The basin likely experienced multiple seawater incursion, dissolution and redeposition events in a high-temperature environment with high evaporation rates.

The Cenozoic was a time of rapid change in the large river systems of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Many previous studies proposed a connection between the upper reaches of the Salween, Mekong, Jinsha (Upper Yangtze) Rivers and paleo-Red River which then flowed to the South China Sea. However, little is known about the pre-Cenozoic source-to-sink river pathways of the Tibetan Plateau. Using 848 detrital zircon U-Pb ages derived from the Lower Cretaceous samples located in the Vientiane Basin, combined with petrographic, statistical, and Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) analyses, we present a detailed history of the paleo-Mekong River. All samples can be divided into three groups based on their age distribution. Samples in Group 1 from the lower part of section show major peaks in the Wutai (2400–2600 Ma), Luliangian (1700–1900 Ma), Jinningian (750–1000 Ma), Indosinian (200–290 Ma), and Yanshanian (150–200 Ma) periods, and are mainly sourced from the Southern Qiangtang terrane. These samples bear no resemblance to modern river sands in the MDS diagram. As such, we infer that these samples represent a unique paleo-river course from the Southern Qiangtang terrane. Samples in Groups 2–3 at the middle and upper part of section yield age peaks at the Luliangian, Jinningian, Caledonian (400–490 Ma), Indosinian, and Yanshanian periods, and are sourced from the Sichuan Basin, Songpan-Garze and the Northern Qiangtang terranes, which have characteristics similar to those of the modern Mekong River and Jinsha River. In our paleo-drainage model, the upper reach of the paleo-Mekong River did not connect to the Upper Salween River and flow into the Red River during the early Early Cretaceous period, as has been proposed previously. In the late Early Cretaceous, the upper segment of the paleo-Mekong River, which drained from the Sichuan Basin and Songpan-Garze terrane, and the upper reach of the Jinsha River were tributaries of a single Mekong River before collecting in the Vientiane and Khorat Plateau basins. These provenance and drainage changes (or lack thereof) were driven by the collision between the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes ~120 Ma and the subsequent uplift and denudation of the Northern Qiangtang and Songpan-Garze terranes.