U-Pb age characteristics of major fluvial detrital zircons in the Bohai Bay Basin and their provenance implications

It is of great significance to select ideal provenance indices for the in-flowing detrital sediments into the Bohai Bay Basin for further understanding the material diffusion process on the continental shelf of East China. In this paper, the LA-ICP-MS is used to analyze the in situ U-Pb age of detrital zircons from major rivers around Bohai Bay. Combined with the previous research results, our data suggest that the Liaohe and Luanhe rivers are both supplied by the sediments from the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and the Yanshan Mountain. The sediments of the Yongding, Hutuo and Zhanghe rivers mainly come from the Yanshan mountain and Taihang mountain respectively. The peak age compositions of detrital zircons in the Luzhong Uplift and Jiaodong Peninsula are significantly different from those from the Yanshan, and Taihang mountains and the Yellow River drainage. Our results demonstrate that the U-Pb age of the detrital zircons is an efficient mean to distinguish the sources of detrital sediments from the rivers surrounding the Bohai Bay Basin.