Geochronology and geochemistry of the fossil-flora-bearing Wuda Tuff in North China Craton and its tectonic implications

The Wuda Tuff Flora in the North China Craton (NCC) is a “vegetational Pompeii” and one of the most completely preserved marsh ecosystems of the late Paleozoic Northern Hemisphere. However, the precise age, geochemistry, and petrogenesis of the thick tuff containing this peat-forming flora have not been established. We conducted a comprehensive petrographic, mineralogical, whole-rock geochemical, and zircon UPb and HfO isotopic investigation of...