Late Mesozoic granitic rocks are widely distributed in the Sulu orogenic belt, but the source, tectonic affinity, and associated geodynamic setting that produced the respective magmas remain controversial. To provide insights into these issues, we present field-based petrological, whole-rock major and trace element and Sr–Nd isotope geochemical, zircon U–Pb dating, and Lu–Hf isotope studies on two types of granite porphyry dykes that are newly recognized from the central Sulu belt. U–Pb dating of magmatic zircons from both types yields consistent ages that vary between 124 ± 2 and 118 ± 2 Ma, constraining the timing of intrusion as Early Cretaceous. The granitic rocks have high-K calc-alkaline peraluminous compositions with low Mg# values and are characterized by fractionated rare earth element patterns with strong depletion in high field strength elements. Compared with type I of the granite porphyry dykes, type II exhibits higher SiO₂ but slightly lower Na₂O and K₂O abundances, contains higher Rb/Sr and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios, and shows more pronounced negative Eu, Sr, and Ba anomalies. Both types I and II have high initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of 0.709–0.711 and negative ε_Nd(t) values of −19.8 to −18.4. The magmatic zircons possess negative ε_Hf(t) values of −29.1 to −20.8, with mostly Neoarchean Hf model ages of 3001–2478 Ma. These features, together with the presence of Neoproterozoic inherited zircons, indicate that the two types of granite porphyries successively crystallized from a joint granite magma that derived from partial melting of the continental crust of the Yangtze Craton. Therefore, an interrelationship between the granite porphyry dykes and massive magmatic granitoids from adjacent regions in the Sulu belt may be documented, recording evidence of a joint ancient crustal reworking and recycling in a fossilized continental subduction zone during the Early Cretaceous.

The rates and mechanisms by which deeply subducted continental crust was exhumed back to the surface are not well understood, but can be better characterized using multimineral petrochronology. Here, we combine zircon, titanite, and apatite U-Pb ages from leucogranite and phengite gneiss with a pressure−temperature (P−T) path from eclogite to provide robust quantitative constraints on cooling and exhumation of the Sulu belt, a large ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic terrane in eastern China. The leucogranite, which formed during exhumation, is enriched in light rare earth elements (REE) relative to heavy REE and in large ion lithophile elements relative to high field strength elements, similar to hydrous crustal melts. Whole-rock Sr-Nd isotope compositions indicate that the leucogranite was not directly derived from the host phengite gneiss, but was more likely sourced from deeper in the exhuming crust. For the gneiss, mantles on inherited zircon yield an age of 230 ± 2 Ma and a temperature of 802 ± 36 °C based on a minimum pressure of 2.9 GPa, which records the minimum timing and P−T of initial decompression. Overgrowths on inherited zircon from the leucogranite constrain crystallization to 224 ± 1 Ma, coeval with the growth of zircon rims in the gneiss, at a temperature of 764 ± 42 °C and a pressure within the quartz-eclogite facies. Titanite and apatite define single populations with lower concordia intercept ages of 222 ± 3 Ma and 198 ± 7 Ma, at temperatures of 720 ± 30 °C and ∼450 ± 100 °C, respectively, recording the timing of passage through the quartz-eclogite to the amphibolite facies and then the transition to the upper greenschist facies. Although the data yield a nearly constant cooling rate of 10.9^+4.5_−3.6 °C/m.y., exhumation was completed in two stages. The first stage from coesite-eclogite facies to ∼1.2 GPa, corresponding to the depth of the Moho, occurred at a rate of 7.5^+5.8_−2.6 km/m.y. Thereafter, exhumation into the mid-crust occurred at a much slower rate of 0.87^+0.86_−0.71 km/m.y. The first stage of faster exhumation was accompanied by migration of leucogranite melt along foliation in the gneiss, which would have decreased the average density and weakened the crust, enhancing the rate of return flow.