Neoarchean granitoids and tectonic regime of lateral growth in northeastern North China Craton

The Archean Eastern Liaoning metamorphic basement block is located in the northeastern North China Craton (NCC), in which similar to 2.9 to 3.8 Ga lithological assemblages are well developed. The region which exposed these ancient lithological assemblages is usually called as an ancient continental nucleus. Toward north from the northeastern margin of the ancient continental nucleus, similar to 2.5 to 2.7 Ga lithological assemblages continuously developed, forming abundant similar to 2.5 Ga tonalite- trondhjemite- granodiorite (TTG) and high-K granitoids. Some similar to 2.7 Ga TTG gneisses and metamorphic calk-alkaline volcanic rocks have also been documented recently in the Eastern Liaoning to the Southern Jilin of northeastern NCC. Our geological investigations found that many big similar to 2.7 Ga TTG gneiss enclaves are preserved in the similar to 2.5 Ga granitoids in the northeastern NCC. The early Neoarchean (similar to 2.7 Ga) TTG gneisses are exposed in the Waitoushan-Baishan areas, together with many contemporaneous subduction-related metamorphic calk-alkaline volcanic rocks in the Helong area of Southern Jilin province, constituting a nearly E-W-trending similar to 2.7 Ga island arc belt in the northeastern NCC. However, the similar to 2.7 Ga geological record is absent within the Anshan-Benxi-Waitoushan ancient microblock (ABWN) domain, suggesting that the similar to 2.7 Ga arc belt was formed far away from the ABWN domain. The petrogenesis of similar to 2.52-2.59 Ga TTG and sanukitoid gneisses, integrating with contemporaneous top-to-the-NE thrusting structural features, indicate that the new oceanic crust in the Waitoushan-Weiziyu-Jiubing (WWJ) area subducted to the southwest from similar to 2.53-2.60 Ga. At the Archean end, the northern Liaoning-eastern Hebei intraoceanic arc system subducted to the southeast, which led to the final amalgamation among the ABWN, WWJ and northern Liaoning areas. Subsequently (similar to 2.50-2.53 Ga), the subducted slab broke off and the collisions between the arc and ancient continental nucleus, as well as the arc and arc, resulted in the generation of extensive crust-derived high-K granitoids. (C) 2022 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.