Neoarchean DTTG gneisses in southern Liaoning Province and their constraints on crustal growth and the nature of the Liao-Ji Belt in the Eastern Block

•South Liaoning quartz dioritic-tonalitic-trondhjemitic-granodioritic gneisses.•Two major magmatic episodes at∼2.68–2.63Ga and∼2.56–2.51Ga.•Partial melting of juvenile crust materials and magma mixing of crust and mantle source.•∼2.7Ga and∼2.5Ga crustal growth in the southern Liaoning Province.•A unitive continental block on the flanks of the Paleoproterozoic Liao-Ji Belt.