• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 1998

The Dabie-Sulu ultra-high pressure metamorphic (UHPM) zone is commonly suggested to be a collisional belt between the Sino-Korea craton (North China craton) and Yangtze craton (Zhai and Cong, 1996). Two important questions in formulating the tectonic evolution of the northeast Asia are : (1) the boundary between the UHPM zone and the Sino-Korea craton in the Shandong peninsula and (2) the extension of this Chinese UHPM zone into the Korean peninsula. There have been different opinions on the boundary between UHPM zone and the Sino-Korea craton in the Shandong peninsula. For example, the boundary has been suggested to be the Tan-Lu fault (Bai et al., 1993; Wang and Cong, 1996), or Wulian-Rongcheng fault (Cao et al., 1990). Our recent study finds out new evidences, indicating that the possible boundary is the Kunyushan granitoid complex zone, which occurs along the Wulian-Muping fault. Our new evidences are : (1) the basic rocks west to the Kunyushan granitoid zone are high-pressure granulites rather than eclogites (Zhai, 1996) with their Sm-Nd isotopic ages of 1750 Ma and 2788 Ma, representing their retrograde metamorphic and petrogenetic ages, respectively (Li et al., 1997b); (2) the orthogneisses west to the Kunyushan granitoid zone yield 2600-2900 Ma zircon ages and 1600-2020 Ma Rb-Sr and chemical U-Th-total Pb ages, with no younger data (Enami et al., 1993; Ishizaka et al., 1994), having a typical characteristic for the early Precambrian rocks in the Sino-Korea craton; (3) the orthogneisses east to the Kunyushan granitoid zone have 110-320 Ma isotopic ages with a peak value of 180-230 Ma, showing a typical characteristic of metamorphic rocks in the UHPM zone; (4) the Kunyushan granitoid zone consists of numerous granitic bodies, stocks and veins, which have 1900-2000 Ma, 610-710 Ma and 124-180 Ma istotopic ages indicating a long and complicated evolution history of this granitoid zone. There are many lenses and enclosures of metamorphic rocks from the Sino-Korea craton and Sulu UHPM belt in the Kunyushan granitoid zone. Zhai et al. (1998) have defined the Kunyushan granitoid zone as the Jiaodong Boundary complex zone. Some geologists suggested that the UHPM zone extend eastward to the Korea peninsula (Yin and Nie, 1993; Wang and Cong, 1996) and possibly to the Imjingang belt (Chang, 1994; Ree et al., 1996). Unfortunately, there has not been a conclusive evidence indicating that UHPM rocks occur in the Korea peninsula. In this regard, it becomes more important to compare metamorphic rocks in the Shandong peninsula with those in northern and southern Korea peninsula.