AUTHOR=Meng Yuanku , Yuan Haoqi , Wang Qingling , Meng Fanxue , Ren Xiang 
  
TITLE=New geochronological and provenance constraints on the Late Mesozoic sedimentary formations in the western Shandong Province and Tanlu fault zone, China
  
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Earth Science
  
VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022
  
YEAR=2023
  
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/earth-science/articles/10.3389/feart.2022.995848
  
DOI=10.3389/feart.2022.995848
  
ISSN=2296-6463
  
ABSTRACT=The samples from the western Shandong  can be divided into three major age groups, peaking age at circa 2475~2540 Ma, 1820~1870 Ma and 257~285 Ma, respectively, with minor Mesoproterozoic, Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic detrital zircons. The sample JN recovered from the Tanlu faulted zone has an overwhelming majority of the Early Cretaceous detrital zircons with the age peak at circa 125 Ma, whereas the Archean and Paleoproterozoic detrital zircons are subordinate. The weighted average age of the youngest zircons show that the Santai Formation probably had begun deposition at circa 158 Ma and terminated deposition at circa 150 Ma, and the Tianjialou Formation had begun deposition at circa 122 Ma. Our study indicates that the activity of the dinosaurs might occur during the Late Jurassic rather than the Cretaceous in the Shandong province. In addition, most detrital zircons of the studied samples are characterized by the high Th/U ratios and left-inclined REE patterns, revealing a magmatic origin. Morphologically, most detrital zircons characterized by angular to sub-rounded shapes indicate a middle-short distance transport from the source region, whereas minor detrital zircons show rounded shapes, indicating a long-distance transport or multiphase recycling. According to detrital age populations in this study, combined with previously published data, we conclude that depositional provenance of the Santai Formation was mainly derived from the western Shandong and Jiao-Liao-Ji belt, and minor detritus were derived from the northern part of the NCC and Xing-Meng orogenic belt. The sediments deposited in the Tanlu faulted zone was mainly derived from the volcanic and subvolcanic rocks of the Qingshan Stage in the eastern Shandong, and subordinate depositional sources are from the Jiao-Liao-Ji and the basement uplift of the western Shandong, with minor supplier being derived from the Yinshan-Yanshan orogenic belt. The detrital provenance of the Santai Formation indicates that extension of the eastern NCC occurred during the Late Jurassic. The Neoproterozoic detrital zircons play a minor role in the studied strata, indicating that the large sinistral movement of the Tanlu faulted zone might have occurred at the Early-Middle Jurassic and formed a paleogeographic separation of the western Shandong and eastern Shandong .