Deposition of Late Carboniferous–Permian Sediments of North China in a Retroarc Foreland Basin and Significance for the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age

ABSTRACT Late Carboniferous–Permian sediments in the North China block (NCB) were deposited during the assembly of Pangea and the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age (LPIA). Despite their significance for understanding global tectonics, palaeogeography and paleoclimate, the tectonic setting remains poorly constrained. Here we present new sedimentological and detrital zircon (DZ) geochronological data from three Late Carboniferous–Permian sections in the northern NCB. Detrital grain compositions indicate derivation from a recycled orogen. DZ ages are dominated by Archean–Paleoproterozoic and Carboniferous–Permian populations, matching the cratonic basement and a coeval magmatic arc. These results provide evidence for significant source uplift and deposition within a retroarc foreland basin. Initial foreland subsidence (303–298 Ma) coincided with the LPIA peak. The foreland basin promoted organic carbon burial, and together with intensive arc weathering, drove atmospheric CO 2 drawdown and glaciation. Accretionary orogenesis on the northern margin of the NCB was thus critical in sustaining the LPIA.