Application of single grain detrital minerals to the provenance analysis of the adjacent basins to Dabieshan Mountain is described in this paper. Correlation of the modern river sediments to the Dabieshan Mountain source area shows that the chemical compositions of detrital garnet, K-white mica and tourmaline are useful indicators for provenance analysis. The characteristics of their chemical composition in the Jurassic-Cretaceous-Paleogene sediments reveal the complication of rock composition of Dabieshan Mountain as the source area. The exhumed high pressure-ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks formed due to the deep subduction of Yangtze Block became an important source rock of the sedimentary basins adjacent to south-eastern Dabieshan Mountain during the Cretaceous-Paleogene, gradually. They were mainly located in the source area of the sedimentary basins adjacent to north Dabieshan Mountain during the Jurassic. The detrital Cr-spinel composition and detrital zircon age structure of the Carboniferous sediments in the northern margin of Dabieshan Mountain show that the source area is characteristic of the southern active continental margin of the North China Block during the Early Paleozoic.
