H. Zhou's scientific contributions

The Taihua Group, exposed in the southernmost terminal Trans-North China Orogen (TNCO), is important for deciphering the mysterious evolution processes of the southern margin of the North China Craton during Proterozoic, and determination of the collision time of the eastern and western blocks of the North China Craton. Petrological study on three kinds of migmatites formed by anatexis from the Taihua Group in Xiaoqinling area, West Henan, indicates that the transformation of migmatites caused by anatexis is uneven, which is obviously limited by the composition of protolith, structure of rocks and other properties. LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of the anatexis zircons shows that the protolith crystallized in the Paleoproterozoic and the anatexis occurred at about 1.8 Ga. The migmatites and contemporaneous mafic dike swarms and A-type granite in the study area were generated in a post-orogenic, extensional environment following continent-continent collision at 1.85 Ga between the eastern and western blocks of the North China Craton.