Anshan Oldest Zircons North China Craton [~3.8 Ga]

These Anshan detrital zircons from the Dongshan Complex, North China Craton are the oldest zircons in China, at ~3.8 Ga.

The North China Craton covers an area of approximately 1.7 million square kilometers in northeastern China, Inner Mongolia, the Yellow Sea, and North Korea. It is characterized by a complex record of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic processes. 

The word craton refers to a stable, buoyant, and rigid piece of continental crust. Basic properties of cratonic crust include thickness (around 200 km), relative coldness, and low density. The NCC fits this definition, having experienced a long period of stability.

The Dongshan Complex is a geological formation located in Eastern Hebei Province, part of the North China Craton (NCC). The Caozhuang quartzite within the Dongshan Complex contains the oldest detrital zircon population in China.  This suggests that there was reworking of ancient crust (older than 3.8 Ga) that underwent a low-temperature supracrustal history and was distributed throughout the source region in northeastern China. These zircons provide valuable insights into the early continental crust formation and reworking processes within the NCC.

The Dongshan Complex zircons contribute to our understanding of Earth’s ancient geological history and even recently are proving to have some genetic geological link to Western Australia.

Each slide contains enough zircons to comfortably fit a well. The size of the slide is 2" X 2" and the well diameter is 1". This geological material ships with a Certificate of Authenticity, tag, and information about Anshan zircons.