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The Liwu stratiform copper deposit is located in the northwestern Jianglang dome, western China. Current studies mainly focus on the genetic type and mineralization of this deposit. Detailed fluid inclusion characteristics of metallogenic period quartz veins were studied to reveal the ore-forming fluid features. Laser Raman analysis indicates that the ore-forming fluids is a H₂O-NaCl-CH₄ (-CO₂) system. Fluid inclusions microthermometry shows a homogenization temperature of 181–375°C and a salinity of 5.26%–16.99% for the disseminated-banded Cu-Zn mineralization; but a homogenization temperature of 142–343°C and a salinity of 5.41%–21.19% for the massive-veined Cu-Zn mineralization. These features suggest a medium-high temperature and a medium salinity for the ore-forming fluids. H-O isotopic data indicates that the ore-forming fluids were mainly from the metamorphic and magmatic water, plus minor formation water. And sulfur isotopic data indicates that sulfur was mainly derived from the formation and magmatic rocks. Metallogenesis of the disseminated-banded mineralization was mainly correlated with fluid mixing and water-rock reaction; whereas that of the massive-veined mineralization was mainly correlated with fluid boiling. The genetic type of the deposit is a medium-high temperature hydrothermal deposit related to magmatism and controlled by shear zones. This study is beneficial to understand the stratiform copper deposit.

©2023 China Geology Editorial Office.

The Qiangtang Basin of the Tibetan Plateau, located in the eastern Tethys tectonic domain, is the largest new marine petroliferous region for exploration in China. The scientific drilling project consisting primarily of well QK-1 and its supporting shallow boreholes for geological surveys (also referred to as the Project) completed in recent years contributes to a series of new discoveries and insights into the oil and gas preservation conditions and source rock evaluation of the Qiangtang Basin. These findings differ from previous views that the Qiangtang Basin has poor oil and gas preservation conditions and lacks high-quality source rocks. As revealed by well QK-1 and its supporting shallow boreholes in the Project, the Qiangtang Basin hosts two sets of high-quality regional seals, namely an anhydrite layer in the Quemo Co Formation and the gypsum-bearing mudstones in the Xiali Formation. Moreover, the Qiangtang Basin has favorable oil and gas preservation conditions, as verified by the comprehensive study of the sealing capacity of seals, basin structure, tectonic uplift, magmatic activity, and groundwater motion. Furthermore, the shallow boreholes have also revealed that the Qiangtang Basin has high-quality hydrocarbon source rocks in the Upper Triassic Bagong Formation, which are thick and widely distributed according to the geological and geophysical data. In addition, the petroleum geological conditions, such as the type, abundance, and thermal evolution of organic matter, indicate that the Qiangtang Basin has great hydrocarbon-generating potential.

©2023 China Geology Editorial Office.

Jiama, with more than 11 Mt of copper metal, is the largest porphyry-skarn copper system in the Gangdese metallogenic belt, Tibet, China, creating ideal conditions for deciphering the origin of porphyry ores in a collision setting. Despite massive studies of the geology, chronology, petrogenesis, and ore-related fluids and their sources in Jiama, there is a lack of systematic summaries and reviews of this system. In contrast to traditional porphyry copper systems in a subduction setting, recent studies and exploration suggest that the Jiama deposit includes porphyry-type Mo-Cu, skarn-type Cu polymetallic, vein-type Au and manto orebodies. This paper reviews the latest studies on the geology, chronology, petrogenesis, fluid inclusions, and isotopic geochemistry (hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and lead) of the Jiama deposit. Accordingly, a multi-center complex mineralization model was constructed, indicating that multi-phase intrusions from the same magma reservoir can form multiple hydrothermal centers. These centers are mutually independent and form various orebodies or are superimposed on each other and form thick, high-grade orebodies. Finally, a new comprehensive exploration model was established for the Jiama porphyry copper system. Both models established in this study help to refine the theories on continental-collision metallogeny and porphyry copper systems.

©2023 China Geology Editorial Office.

The Sichuan-Tibet transportation corridor is located at the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where the complex topography and geological conditions, developed geo-hazards have severely restricted the planning and construction of major projects. For the long-term prevention and early control of regional seismic landslides, based on analyzing seismic landslide characteristics, the Newmark model was used to carry out the potential seismic landslide hazard assessment with a 50-year beyond probability 10%. The results show that the high seismic landslide hazard is mainly distributed along large active tectonic belts and deep-cut river canyons, and are significantly affected by the active tectonics. The low seismic landslide hazard is mainly distributed in the flat terrain such as the Quaternary basins, broad river valleys, and plateau planation planes. The major east-west linear projects mainly pass through five areas with high seismic landslide hazard: Luding-Kangding section, Yajiang-Xinlong (Yalong river) section, Batang-Baiyu (Jinsha river) section, Basu (Nujiang river) section, and Bomi-Linzhi (eastern Himalaya syntaxis) section. The seismic action of the Bomi-Linzhi section can also induce high-risk geo-hazard chains such as the high-level glacial lake breaks and glacial debris flows. The early prevention of seismic landslides should be strengthened in the areas with high seismic landslide hazard.

©2023 China Geology Editorial Office.

Accretionary complex study provides important knowledge on the subduction and the geodynamic processes of the oceanic plate, which represents the ancient ocean basin extinction location. Nevertheless, there exist many disputes on the age, material source, and tectonic attribute of the Lancang Group, located in Southwest Yunnan, China. In this paper, the LA-ICP-MS detrital zircon U–Pb chronology of nine metamorphic rocks in the Lancang Group was carried out. The U–Pb ages of the three detrital zircons mainly range from 590–550 Ma, 980–910 Ma, and 1150–1490 Ma, with the youngest detrital zircons having a peak age of about 560 Ma. The U–Pb ages of the six detrital zircons mainly range from 440–460 Ma and 980–910 Ma, and the youngest detrital zircon has a peak age of about 445 Ma. In the Lancang Group, metamorphic acidic volcanic rocks, basic volcanic rocks, intermediate-acid intrusive rocks, and high-pressure metamorphic rocks are exposed in the form of tectonic lens in schist, rendering typical melange structural characteristics of “block + matrix”. Considering regional deformation and chronology, material composition characteristics, and the previous data, this study thinks the Lancang Group may be an early Paleozoic tectonic accretionary complex formed by the eastward subduction of the Changning-Menglian Proto-Tethys Ocean, which provides an important constraint for the Tethys evolution.

©2023 China Geology Editorial Office.

The Qilian Mountain permafrost area located in the northern of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a favorable place for natural gas hydrate formation and enrichment, due to its well-developed fractures and abundant gas sources. Understanding the formation and distribution of multi-component gas hydrates in fractures is crucial in accurately evaluating the hydrate reservoir resources in this area. The hydrate formation experiments were carried out using the core samples drilled from hydrate-bearing sediments in Qilian Mountain permafrost area and the multi-component gas with similar composition to natural gas hydrates in Qilian Mountain permafrost area. The formation and distribution characteristics of multi-component gas hydrates in core samples were observed in situ by X-ray Computed Tomography (X-CT) under high pressure and low temperature conditions. Results show that hydrates are mainly formed and distributed in the fractures with good connectivity. The ratios of volume of hydrates formed in fractures to the volume of fractures are about 96.8% and 60.67% in two different core samples. This indicates that the fracture surface may act as a favorable reaction site for hydrate formation in core samples. Based on the field geological data and the experimental results, it is preliminarily estimated that the inventory of methane stored in the fractured gas hydrate in Qilian Mountain permafrost area is about 8.67×10¹³ m³, with a resource abundance of 8.67×10⁸ m³/km². This study demonstrates the great resource potential of fractured gas hydrate and also provides a new way to further understand the prospect of natural gas hydrate and other oil and gas resources in Qilian Mountain permafrost area.

©2023 China Geology Editorial Office.

The Cenozoic Himalayan leucogranite-pegmatite belt has been a hotspot for rare metal exploration in recent years. To determine the genesis of the pegmatite in the Himalayan region and its relationship with the Greater Himalayan Crystalline Complex (GHC), the Gyirong pegmatite in southern Tibet was chosen for geochronological and geochemical studies. The dating analyses indicate that the U-Th-Pb ages of zircon, monazite, and xenotime exhibit large variations (38.6–16.1 Ma), with the weighted average value of the four youngest points is 16.5 ± 0.3 Ma, which indicates that the final stage of crystallization of the melt occurred in the Miocene. The age of the muscovite Ar-Ar inverse isochron is 15.2 ± 0.4 Ma, which is slightly later than the intrusion age, showing that a cooling process associated with rapid denudation occurred at 16–15 Ma. The ε_Hf(t) values of the Cenozoic anatectic zircons cluster between −12 and −9 with an average of −11.4. The Gyirong pegmatite shows high contents of Si, Al, and K, a high Al saturation index, and low contents of Na, Ca, Fe, Mn, P, Mg, and Ti. Overall, the Gyirong pegmatite is enriched in Rb, Cs, U, K, Th and Pb and depleted in Nb, Ta, Zr, Ti, Eu, Sr, and Ba. The samples show a high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_{(16 Ma)} ratio of ca. 0.762 and a low ε_{Nd(16 Ma)} value of −16.0. The calculated average initial values of ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb_{(16 Ma)}, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb_{(16 Ma)} and ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb_{(16 Ma)} of the whole rock are 39.72, 15.79 and 19.56, respectively. The Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotopic characteristics of the Gyirong pegmatite are consistent with those of the GHC. This study concludes that the Gyirong pegmatite represents a typical crustal–derived anatectic pegmatite with low metallogenic potential for rare metals. The Gyirong pegmatite records the long–term metamorphism and partial melting process of the GHC, and reflects the crustal thickening caused by thrust compression at 39–29 Ma and the crustal thinning induced by extensional decompression during 28–15 Ma.

©2023 China Geology Editorial Office.

This paper report paleomagnetic data from late Cretaceous diorite dykes that sub-vertically intrude granodiorites in the eastern Gangdese belt near the city of Lhasa. Our research goals are to provide further constraints on pre-collisional structure of the southern margin of Asia and the onset of the India-Asia collision. Magnetite is identified as the main magnetic carrier in our study. The magnetite shows no evidence of metamorphism or alteration as determined from optical and scanning electron microscope observations. A strong mineral orientation is revealed by anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility analysis both for the intruded dykes and the country rocks. The authors interpret this AMS fabric to have formed during intrusion rather than deformation. Fifteen of 23 sites yield acceptable site mean characteristic remanences with dual polarities. A scatter analysis of the virtual geomagnetic poles suggests that the mean result adequately averaged paleosecular variation. The paleomagnetic pole from the Gangdese dykes yields a paleolatitude of 14.3°N±5.8°N for the southern margin of Asia near Lhasa. The paleolatitude corresponds to an in-between position of the Lhasa terrane during about 130–60 Ma. Furthermore, the mean declination of the characteristic remanent magnetization reveals a significant counterclockwise rotation of 18°±9° for the sampling location since about 83 Ma. In the light of tectonic setting of the dykes, the strike of the southern margin of Asia near Lhasa is restored to trend approximately about 310°, which is compatible with the hypothesis that the southern margin of Eurasia had a quasi-linear structure prior to its collision with India.

©2023 China Geology Editorial Office.