Depositional age, provenance, and palaeoenvironment of the Lower Permian mudstones in the Qiangtang Basin, Tibet: Evidence from geochronology and geochemistry

The geochronology of tuffaceous sandstone and elemental geochemistry of mudstones in the Lower Permian Zhanjin Formation (well QZ-5) in the Central Qiangtang Basin were studied to determine their depositional age, provenance, tectonic setting, and depositional conditions. Twenty-six synchronous igneous zircons from tuffaceous sandstone at 596.5 m have a weighted average U-Pb age of 292.5 +/- 2.5 Ma, tentatively constraining the sedimentary age of the Zhanjin Formation to the Early Permian. Low SiO2/Al2O3 and Th/Sc ratios indicate a low sedimentary recycling and compositional maturity for the source area of the Zhanjin Formation mudstones. The low Al2O3/TiO2, moderate-high Fe2O3/Al2O3, high TiO2/Fe2O3, low-moderate TiO2/Zr, and moderate Co/Th ratios combined with post-Archean Australian shale-normalized rare earth element distributions imply that the provenance of the Zhanjin Formation mudstones was mainly from the mixed mafic and felsic sources that is composed of basalt and rhyolite exposed in the Central Qiangtang Basin. The tectonic discrimination plots, low Fe2O3/TiO2, (La/Ce)(N), and high Al2O3/(Al2O3 + Fe2O3) ratios reveal that the studied mudstones mostly formed in rift settings, consistent with the geologic evolutionary history of the Early Permian Qiangtang Basin. Trace element ratios (V/Cr and Cu/Zn), enrichment factors (Mo-EF), and delta Ce values combined with sedimentary features indicate that almost all the studied mudstones were deposited in an open marine environment along the continental margin, and were associated with oxic and dysoxic water columns.