Isotopic compositions and geological significance of sediments from the Heihe River, North Qilian Orogen, NW China

Abstract Strontium (Sr), neodymium (Nd), and hafnium (Hf) isotopic analyses of different size-fractions of sediments collected from the Heihe River in the North Qilian Orogen (NQO) were carried out to trace the sediment sources and to determine the relationships between the Sr–Nd–Hf isotopic behaviors, and the grain-size and hydraulic sorting effects during fluvial transport. Our results demonstrate that the sand and suspended load samples collected from the same site have different Nd isotopic compositions, while their 87Sr/86Sr ratios are only slightly different. These features indicate that contributions to the sediments from different sources with different grain sizes vary greatly. Coarse-grained sand may more intuitively reflect the variations in local sources than the suspended load. The suspended load samples are distributed along the Clay Array on the ԐHf vs. ԐNd diagram due to zircon sorting. A similar Nd Hf decoupling phenomenon is widespread in the global oceans and large river systems, indicating that the Nd Hf isotopic behavior depends on the hydrodynamic sorting of minerals during fluvial transport. Moreover, the crustal accretion of the NQO from the depleted mantle occurred in the Proterozoic based on the constraints provided by the TDM values of the river sediments. The Nd isotopic compositional characteristics of the river sediments indicate that the NQO has an affinity with the Yangtze Craton. The determination of the basement tectonic affinity of the NQO significantly contributes to our understanding of the Neoproterozoic evolution of the Gondwana continental margin.