40Ar/39Ar Thermochronological Constraints on the Timing of Collisional Orogeny in the Mian-Lite Collision Belt,Southern Qinling Mountains

Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous geological bodies in the Mianxian-Lueyang (Mian-Lue) collisional belt (MLB) and its neighbouring areas, southern Qinling Mountains, China, show similar characteristics of having undergone deformation of two stages. The earlier one, which is inferred to be related to collisional orogeny between the Yangtze and Sino-Korean palaeocontinents based on previous geological data, is responsible for large-scale, north-verging recumbent folds and overthrusts, and associated with low greenschist fades metamorphism. 40Ar/39Ar dating of three muscovite samples taken from different localities yields plateau ages of 226.9±0.9 and 219.5±1.4 Ma and an apparent age of 194.5±3.0 Ma. Thus, the late Triassic collision between the Yangtze and Sino-Korean palaeocontinents has been constrained.