The Hida metamorphic belt developed near the triple junction among the Sino-Korea, Yangtze and Proto-Pacific plates

The eastward extension of the suture zone between the Sino-Korea and Yangtze cratons in the Korean Peninsula and Japanese islands remains debatable (Hiroi, 1981; Cluzel et al., 1991; Yin and Nie, 1993; Sohma and Kunugiza, 1993; Isozaki, 1997; Arakawa et at., 2000), and is related to our understanding of the continent-continent collision orogeny. The collision orogeny varies in tectono-metamorphic processes and the timing differs from place to place, as exemplified by the absence of coesite and micro-diamond in the Korean Peninsula and Japanese islands, because it is a long-lived process of more than several tens of million years from subduction to exhumation in the Wilson cycle, and because the suture zone extends more than several thousand kilometers with a curved shape from the Qinling area of China to the Hida highland area of Japan. Hiroi (1981) is the first paper to correlate the Unazuki metamorphic rocks of the Hida metamorphic belt in Japan with the Ogcheon belt in the Korean Peninsula based on the presence of 240 Ma medium P/T metamorphic rocks in both belts, but there is a lack of recent studies on this correlation. To resolve the correlationship, there are two approaches: 1) petrological studies characterizing the origin and P-T history of rocks and 2) in-situ micro-dating of fine-grained, zoned minerals of zircon, monazite, uraninite and thorite using the EPMA (U-Th-Pb chemical dating or CHIME depending on calibration method) and the SHRIMP (Sensitive High-resolution ion Microprobe) to decipher the timing of geological events. As a first step of these approaches, micro-dating was undertaken to rocks of the Hida metamorphic belt and its Mesozoic cover (Tetori Group) in the Hida highland area, central Japan.