Zircon U-Pb ages for Wulian granites in northwest Sulu and their tectonic implications

The Wulian complex occurring in the north-western part of the Sulu orogen consists of metaigneous and metasedimentary rocks at greenschist-facies. Zircon U-Pb dating for three granite intrusions within it yields concordant ages of (672±4), (742±9) and (747±14) Ma, respectively. These ages indicate that the granites are the Neoproterozoic intrusions in the northern margin of the Yangtze plate, and correspond to the magmatic complex at Luzhenguan in the eastern part of the Beihuaiyang belt in the Dabie orogen. They were tectonic slices scraped off from the Yangtze plate during Triassic subduction and thus belong to a part of the accretionary wedge of the Yangtze plate subduction. The discovery of extensive Neoproterozoic magmatic rocks in the Wulian area suggests that the suture location between the North China and the Yangtze plates lies north of the Wulian complex.