Age and source regions of the Wenquangou Group in the Mazar-Kangxiwar area, West Kunlun Mountains

The Wenquangou Group is exposed in the Mazar-Kangxiwar junction zone, West Kunlun Mountain. It is made up of low-grade metamorphic clastic rocks. There are different views about the age and tectonic setting of this suite of metamorphic clastic rocks. Plenty of microfossils collected from this sequence of rocks indicate a Early Silurian age. Analysis of the material composition, characteristics of rock clasts and rock geochemistry of this sequence of rocks indicate that its source regions of the simple metamorphic clastic rocks are mainly active continental margins, transitional continental crust and orogenic recycling source regions. The tectonic environment of the Wenquangou Group is an abyssal relict ocean basin. These analytical results furnish stratigraphic evidences for the study of the Kangxiwar-Mazar junction zone.