High-p metamorphic belt in central China and its possible eastward extension to Korea

Abstract

The high-P metamorphic belt in central China, between the Sino-Korean and the Yangtze continental plates, is composed of the low-T and high-P metamorphic belt on the south and the high-T and high-P metamorphic belt on the north. The low-T and high-P metamorphic belt consists predominantly of bimodal metamorphic volcano-sedimentary sequences of Middle to Upper Proterozoic, characterized by the occurrences of blueschists, which have undergone a progressive metamorphism from blueschist through greenschist to epidote amphibolite facies with metamorphic conditions of 7~14 kb and 350~$560^{\circ}C$. The high-T and high-P and high-P metamorphic belt mainly consists of the Upper Archean to Lower Proterozoic crystalline basement characterized by the aboundant occurrences of eclogites formed at 12~28 kb and 620~$840^{\circ}C$. The formation of high-P metamorphic belt is related to the collision between the Sino-Korean and the Yangtze continental plates during Indosinian orogeny. The two belts may extend to central Korean Peninsula correlating respectively to the Okchon belt and the Kyonggi massif based on comparative studies of geography, tectonics and petrology. Therefore, much attention should be paid to search for such high-P metamorphic rocks as blueschists or eclogites in those two areas, which can play a key role for understanding the tectonic evolution of the Korean Peninsula.

Keywords

• High-P metamorphic belt;
• blueschist;
• eclogite;
• East Asian tectonics;
• continental collision