Abstract: Zircon research has been well developed in the past 10 years, from simple U-Pb dating and Hf isotopic analysis to detailed investigation of major and trace elements in various types of zircons. Trace elements in zircons were used not only for estimating magma temperatures by Ti thermometer or identifying rock type and origin, but also for discriminating magmatic, metamorphic and mineralization processes likely controlled by magmatic melts or hydrothermal fluids during zircon crystallization. In this review, we first summarized the major features (texture and trace elemental contents) of magmatic, metamorphic, hydrothermal and detrital zircons. We then carried out a case study on zircons from the post-collisional ultrapotassic rock from southern Tibetan Plateau. We presented the structures, ages and trace elemental characteristics of various types of zircons from ultrapotassic rock and used these zircon characteristics to explain the petrogenesis of ultrapotassic rock, compositions of magma source regions, crustal contamination during magma evolutionary processes, and relationship between lower crust thickening and plateau uplifting.

Key words: zircon, trace element, deep processes, Tibetan Plateau, ultrapotassic rock