The Xidatan rock series consist of mylonite, gneiss and granite. The U-Pb age shows that the granite was formed at 206 Ma, and the 40Ar/39Ar ages of the biotite display that the mylonite was formed at 145 Ma when the Xidatan ductile shear zone occurred. At about 110-100 Ma, the Xidatan Fault reactivated again. As a result, the biotite and muscovite of Xidatan rock series opened their argon isotope system.
The Miba granite is located in the juncture of Kang County in eastern Gansu Province and Lueyang County in Shanxi Province. It is considered to be the post-orogenic granite (POG-type) by major element discrimination method of Maniar. 40Ar/39Ar dating indicates that its emplacement time is about 240-230 Ma and it is the result of the Indo-Sinian magmatism. In the early Yanshan period (about 193.8 Ma), a thermal event resulted in the partial opening of the argon isotope system of the biotite.
The samples of Caledonian mylonitized granite and Jurassic meta-sedimentary rocks were collected in the north of Dangjinshan Pass, Qaidam gate fault-valley and Gesi fault-valley. Detailed studies under the microscope and electronic microscope suggest that all the samples contain the syntectonic-growing minerals such as white mica, chlorite, sericite, biotite, etc. By dating these minerals, we got a group of 40Ar/39Ar laser probe isochronal ages of 89-92 Ma and apparent ages of (46.6±6.4) Ma. The ages ranging from 97 to 46 Ma were reported for the first time in the isotopic dating researches of the Altyn Fault The isochronal age group of (98-89) Ma indicates that a ductile strike-slip event, with low-grade metamorphism, began in late Cretaceous. This suggests that the strike-slip movement of the Altyn Fault should be related to the formation of the so-called west tectonic syntaxis in the Nepal-western Kunlun area.
LIU Yongjiang, YE Huiwen, GE Xiaohong, CHEN Wen, LIU Junlai, REN Shoumai & PAN HongxunCollege of Earth Sciences, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun 130061, China
