Crustal structures of nine broad tectonic units in China, except the Tarim craton, are derived from 18 seismic refraction profiles including 12 geoscience transects. Abundances of 63 major, trace and rare earth elements in the upper crust in East China are estimated. The estimates are based on sampling of 11 451 individual rock samples over an area of 950 000 km^2, from which 905 large composite samples are prepared and analyzed by 13 methods. The middle, lower and total crust compositions of East China are also estimated from studies of exposed crustal cross sections and granulite xenoliths and by correlation of seismic data with lithologies. All the tectonic units except the Tarim craton and the Qinling orogen show a four-layered crustal structure, consisting of the upper, middle, upper lower, and lowermost crusts. P-wave velocities of the bulk lower crust and total crust are 6.8—7.0 and 6.4—6.5 km/s, respectively. They are slower by 0.2—0.4 km/s than the global averages. The bulk lower crust is
Some 1.95 Ga metamorphism of high-grade Ar-chean rocks in Kongling terrain, continental nucleus of Yangtze Block, South China, are recognized by Sm-Nd dating. This event is further confirmed by the ages of single zircon SHRIMP U-Pb and K-Ar analyses of TTG and (or) paragneisses, and intrusions of potassic-granitic batholith in the region. The coincidence in period between the high-grade metamorphism in the Kongling area and the creation of major basement rocks of its neighborhoods of the Yangtze Block around the Kongling Archean nucleus makes it a favorable explanation for their tectonic connections that, in the whole Yangtze Block there was some tectono-thermal event of ca. 2.0-1.8 Ga, which resulted in the formation of unitive Yangtze basement.
Geological, geophysical and geochemical evidence for lower crustal delamination in the Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt is presented and a chemical geodynamie model for lower crustal delamination is developed. The synthetic results suggest that eclogite from the Dabie-Sulu ultrahigh pressure metamorphic belt is the most likely candidate as the delaminated material, and that a cumulative 37—82 km thick eclogitic lower crust is required to have been delaminated in order to explain the relative deficits in Eu, Sr, Cr, Ni, Co, V and Ti in the present total crust composition of the Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt. Delamination of the lower crust can well interpret many geological, geophysical and geochemical characteristics of the belt.
