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This paper reports detrital zircon age distributions of meta-sedimentary rocks of the Gaofan, Hutuo and Dongjiao groups in the Wutai and Dongjiao areas of the North China Craton. Detrital zircons of a quartzite from the Gaofan Group are mainly ~2.5 Ga in age, with some ~2.7 Ga and older. A quartzite pebble from the basal conglomerate of the Hutuo Group is similar in detrital zircon age distribution to the quartzite of the Gaofan Group. For a meta-feldspar-quartz sandstone from the Dongjiao Group, the age of detrital zircons is mainly concentrated at ~2.5 Ga. No zircons older than 2.6 Ga have been identified, but with some being 1.84 Ga and 2.2-2.0 Ga in age. Combined with earlier studies, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) The Gaofan Group is early Palaeoproterozoic in age and is much younger and unrelated to the late Neoarchaean Wutai granite-greenstone terrane, which it unconformably overlies. As such, the Gaofan Group is one of the oldest Palaeoproterozoic meta-sedimentary units in the North China Craton. (2) The Hutuo Group was deposited in the middle Palaeoproterozoic (2.14-2.09 Ga) on a continental basement, after the early Palaeoproterozoic Gaofan Group. (3) The Dongjiao Group was formed after 1.84 Ga, and probably belongs to the lower portion of the Changcheng System. (4) The detrital zircons from all the three groups show an obvious age peak of ~2.5 Ga, being sourced from the igneous rocks formed in the intense tectono-magma-thermal events at the end of Archaean in the North China Craton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A felsic tuffaceous rock, obtained from a metamorphosed sequence of volcanics and sediments of the Hutuo Group, 8 km south of Taihuai in Wutaishan, contains two zircon populations. These record SHRIMP 207Pb/206Pb weighted mean ages of 2180 ± S Ma and 2087 ± 9 Ma, respectively. The older date is within error of the age of the Dawaliang Granite in Wutaishan and is considered to be derived from a similar crustal magmatic source. The younger date is within error of reported ages from metasediments and meta-volcanics of the Wanzi supracrustal rocks and the Nanying granitic gneisses in the adjacent Fuping Complex and is interpreted to be the age of volcanism in the Hutuo Group. These data establish that: (1) the Hutuo Group is Paleoproterozoic and not Archean in age and (2) the volcanism and sedimentation were coeval in the Wutai and Fuping complexes. Sedimentation was therefore widespread at this time and possibly reflects deposition along an evolving continental margin, most likely the western margin of the Eastern Block of the North China Craton. The age of 2087 ± 9 Ma for volcanism in the Hutuo Group means that it must have been deformed and metamorphosed after this time. This further supports the evidence, obtained from other recent studies, that the main tectonism in the Wutaishan area occurred at ∼1.8 Ga during the Lüliang orogeny. This orogeny resulted in the collision of the Eastern and Western blocks of the North China Craton and formed part of a global supercontinental amalgamation event [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]