Initiation of the Unazuki Belt, Southwest Japan, during the Carboniferous as an island arc system along the North China Craton

The Unazuki Belt, Southwest Japan, is a part of the Hida Belt, which is characterized as a plutono-metamorphic complex with a continental affinity formed between the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic. The Unazuki Belt is known to be an important tectonic unit for the tectonic correlation between the proto-Japan and East Asian continents as it records Permo–Triassic tectono-thermal events, however, comprehensive chronology of the Unazuki Belt including the timing of the initiation of this Belt is yet unclear. The present study reveals certain Carboniferous magmatic and sedimentation events from the Unazuki Belt and their tectonic implications for the first time as follows. Zircon U–Pb age dating results and whole-rock geochemical compositions show that the protoliths of metagranite and metatrachyandesite in the Unazuki Belt formed at 328.2 ± 4.4 Ma and 332.8 ± 2.2 Ma, respectively, in an arc tectonic setting. Most metasedimentary rocks of the Unazuki Belt have the youngest detrital zircon grains of ~ 300 Ma with the Carboniferous single cluster at ~ 340–300 Ma without any Pre-360 Ma detrital zircon grains. However, one metasedimentary rock with Precambrian detrital zircons (~ 20%) has the youngest detrital zircon age of ~ 252 Ma, and ~ 66% of detrital zircons show a Permian age. Most of the ε_Hf(t) values of zircon grains from all the studied Unazuki Belt samples, including the metasedimentary and metaigneous rocks with Carboniferous ages (~ 360–300 Ma) are positive (+ 6– + 18), whereas those of the zircon grains with Permian ages (~ 280–260 Ma) show wide variations between + 16 and -23. The whole-rock geochemical compositions of the ~ 300 Ma metasedimentary rocks of the Unazuki Belt show an island arc tectonic setting, whereas those of ~ 252 Ma metasedimentary rock have a continental arc affinity. These new data suggest that (1) igneous and sedimentary rocks in the Unazuki Belt formed in the island arc tectonic setting separated from the margin of continental crust during the Carboniferous but shifted to the continental arc tectonic setting during the latest Permian, (2) the collision between the island arc and continental arc may have caused the intermediate-P/T metamorphism during the Permian in the Unazuki Belt. The Carboniferous island arc tectonic setting in the Unazuki Belt indicates that the Hida Belt, including the Unazuki Belt, formed not at the margin of the South China Craton where Carboniferous subduction is absent but on the continuous subduction zone located along the eastern margin of the North China Craton, including the eastern margin of the northern Korean Peninsula where Carboniferous subduction occurred.

Graphical Abstract