40Ar-39Ar and U-Pb ages of metadiorite from the East Kunlun Orogenic Belt: Evidence for Early-Paleozoic magmatic zone and excess argon in amphibole minerals

Single-grain zircon U-Pb and amphibole 40Ar-39Ar dating have been conducted on a deformed and metamorphosed diorite in the East Kunlun Orogenic Belt, which intruded into the middle Proterozoic Kuhai Group exposed in the south of Xiangride region, Dulan County, NW Qinghai Province. The zircon gives a concordant U-Pb age of (446.5±9.1) Ma. The amphibole yields Ar plateau age of (488.0±1.2) Ma and an isochronal age of (488.9±5.6) Ma. Age results of both stepwise released Ar and conventional K-Ar analysis are remarkably higher than that of zircon U-Pb, suggesting that the amphibole contains excess argon and the amphibole plateau age cannot be taken as the timing of metamorphism or deformation. The zircon age is interpreted to be crystallization age of the diorite pluton, which suggests that an Early-Paleozoic magmatic zone indeed existed in the East Kunlun Orogenic Belt stretching along the region south to the Golmud, Normuhong and Xiangride.