The Late Cretaceous-Paleogene active margin of Northeastern Asia: Geodynamic setting of terrigenous sedimentary basins in the Central Koryak terrane

The northeastern segment of the Late Cretaceous suprasubduction Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt is not an analogue of Andean-type continental margin. During its formation, the belt was separated from the Paleopacific by a complexly built assembly that comprised the Central Koryak continental block and the Essoveem volcanic arc at its margin. Various types of independent terrigenous sedimentary basins were formed in the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleogene at the subsided portion of the microcontinent and its slope. The Uchkhichkhil-type basin was characterized by deposition of polymictic clastic sediments produced during erosion of the volcanic arc and pyroclastic material derived from active volcanic centers of this arc that extended along the microcontinent margin that faced the Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt. The deposition of quartz-feldspathic flyschoid sequences as products of scouring of sialic basement of the continental block was inherent to the Ukelayat type of sedimentation. The closure of the minor oceanic basin that separated the Asian margin from microcontinent in the late Campanian resulted in the cessation of subduction-related activity of the Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt and the Essoveem arc and initiated the formation of the Late Cretaceous accretionary margin of Asia. The deep structure of the central Koryak Highland deduced from the results of seismic surveying with the earthquake converted-wave method has corroborated the geotectonic interpretation.     

Structure and composition of the oceanic lithosphere created at different spreading rates

The specific features of the oceanic lithosphere (the petrography, the mineral composition, and the petrochemistry of igneous rocks and restites) that indicate its formation at different spreading rates, from the extremely slow to fast, are considered. This evidence may be used for solution of the inverse problem of estimating, at least qualitatively, the rate of paleospreading from the structure and composition of rocks pertaining to the ophiolitic association. The use of petrochemical data as the criteria of paleospreading rate is limited. The anomalous composition and structure of the oceanic crust may be due to factors unrelated to the spreading rate. The well-studied cases of ophiolites interpreted as fragments of the ancient oceanic lithosphere formed under conditions of fast, slow, and extremely slow spreading rates are discussed. It is concluded tentatively that the fast spreading is typical of the ophiolites obducted on passive margins (the Periarabian, Uralian, and Appalachian-Caledonian belts) as fragments of ensimatic suprasubduction basins formed at the final stages of the evolution of paleooceans (Tethys and Iapetus). Ophiolites as products of slow spreading are commonly localized in accretionary (subduction-related) orogens at the present-day and older active continental margins.     

Geodynamic interpretation of the <Superscript>40</Superscript>Ar/<Superscript>39</Superscript>Ar dating of ophiolitic and arc-related mafics and metamafics of the northern part of the Anadyr-Koryak region

Isotope datings of amphibole-bearing mafics and metamafics in the northern part of the Anadyr-Koryak region allow clarification of the time of magmatic and metamorphic processes, which are synchronous with certain stages of the geodynamic development of the northwest segment of the Pacific mobile belt in the Phanerozoic. To define the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of amphiboles, eight samples of amphibole gabbroids and metamafics were selected during field work from five massifs representing ophiolites and mafic plutons of the island arc. Rocks from terranes of three foldbelts: 1) Pekulnei (Chukotka region), 2) Ust-Belaya (West Koryak region), and 3) the Tamvatnei and El’gevayam subterranes of the Mainits terrane (Koryak-Kamchatka region), were studied. The isotope investigations enabled us to divide the studied amphiboles into two groups varying in rock petrographic features. The first was represented by gabbroids of the Svetlorechensk massif of the Pekulnei Range and by ophiolites of the Tamvatnei Mts.; their magmatic amphiboles show the distribution of argon isotopes in the form of clearly distinguished plateau with an age ranging within 120–129 Ma. The second group includes metamorphic amphiboles of metagabbroids and apogabbro amphibolites of the Ust-Belaya Mts., Pekulnei and Kenkeren ranges (El’gevayam subterranes). Their age spectra show loss of argon and do not provide well defined plateaus the datings obtained for them are interpreted as minimum ages. Dates of amphiboles from the metagabbro of the upper tectonic plate of the Ust-Belaya allochthon points to metamorphism in the suprasubduction environment in the fragment of Late Neoproterozoic oceanic lithosphere in Middle-Late Devonian time, long before the Uda-Murgal island arc system was formed. The amphibolite metamorphism in the dunite-clinopyroxenite-metagabbro Pekulnei sequence was dated to occur at the Permian-Triassic boundary. The age of amphiboles from gabbrodiorites of the Kenkeren Range was dated to be Early Jurassic that confirmed their assignment to the El’gevayam volcanic-plutonic assemblage. These data are consistent with geological concepts and make more precise the available age dates. Neocomian-Aptian ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of amphibolites from the Pekulnei and Tamvatnei gabbroids make evident that mafics of these terranes (varying in geodynamic formation settings and in petrogenesis) were generated in later stages of the development of the West Pekulnei and Mainits-Algan Middle-Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous island arc systems, presumably due to breakup of island arcs in the Neocomian.     

Geodynamics of the Active Margin of Northeast Asia in the Late Cretaceous–Paleogene

Geotectonics - Late Cretaceous to Paleogene suprasubduction systems of Northeast Asia’s active margin are considered in order to determine key objects for the analysis of the geodynamic...     

The Ust-Belaya ophiolite terrane,West Koryak Orogen: Isotopic dating and paleotectonic interpretation

The Ust-Belaya ophiolite terrane in the West Koryak Orogen, which is the largest in northeastern Asia, consists of three nappe complexes. The upper Ust-Belaya Nappe is composed of a thick (>5 km) sheet of fertile peridotites and mafic rocks (remnants of the proto-Pacific lithosphere); its upper age boundary is marked by Late Neoproterozoic plagiogranites. In the middle Tolovka-Otrozhny Nappe, the Late Precambrian lherzolite-type ophiolites are supplemented by fragments of tectonically delaminated harzburgite-type ophiolites, which make up the Tolovka rock association. The isotopic age of metadacite (K-Ar method, whole-rock sample) and zircons from plagiogranite porphyry (U-Pb method, SHRIMP) determines the upper chronological limit of the Tolovka ophiolites as 262–265 Ma ago. It is suggested that igneous rocks of these ophiolites were generated in a backarc basin during the Early Carboniferous and then incorporated into the fold-nappe structure in the Mid-Permian. This was the future basement of the Koni-Taigonos arc, where the Early Carboniferous ophiolites together with Late Neoproterozoic precursors were subject to low-temperature metamorphism and intruded by plagiogranite porphyry dikes in Permian-Triassic. The polymicte serpentinite mélange, which was formed in the accretionary complex of the Koni-Taigonos arc comprises rock blocks of the upper units of Late Precambrian ophiolites (in particular, plagiogranite), the overlying Middle to Upper Devonian and Early Carboniferous deposits, as well as Early Carboniferous (?) Tolovka ophiolites and meta-ophiolites. Mélange of this type with inclusions of Late Precambrian “oceanic” granitoids also developed in the lower Utyosiki Nappe composed of Middle Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous sedimentary and volcanic sequences, the formation of which was related to the next Uda-Murgal island-arc systems.     

East Pekulnei Oceanic Crust Terrane (Northeasternmost Asia,Russia): A Fragment of the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Sliding Plate Boundary between the Paleo-Pacific and Chukotka Microcontinent

Geotectonics - The West Pekulnei marginal continental arc terrane adjoins the East Pekulnei oceanic crust terrane, the siliceous–volcanic strata of which (Pekulneiveem Formation, PV) are...     

Geodynamics of the northwestern sector of the pacific mobile belt in the Late Cretaceous-Early Paleogene

In the Late Cretaceous starting from the early Coniacian, three parallel suprasubduction structural units have developed contemporaneously in the northwestern Paleopacific framework: (1) the Okhotsk-Chukchi arc at the Asian continental margin, (2) the West Kamchatka and Essoveem ensialic arcs at the northwestern margins of the Kamchatka and Central Koryak continental blocks, and (3) the Achaivayam-Valagin ensimatic arc that extended to the southwest as the Lesser Kuril ensialic arc at the southern margin of the Sea of Okhotsk continental block. In this setting, the geodynamics of the Paleopacific plates exerted an effect only on the evolution of the outer (relative to the continent) ensimatic island arc, whereas the vast inner region between this arc and the continent evolved independently. As is seen from the character of the gravity field and seismic refractor velocity, the Kamchatka and Sea of Okhotsk continental blocks differ in the structure of the consolidated crust. These blocks collided with each other and the Asian continent in the middle Campanian (77 Ma ago). The extensive pre-Paleogene land that existed on the place of the present-day Sea of Okhotsk probably supplied the terrigenous material deposited since the late Campanian on the oceanic crust of the backarc basin to the south of the rise of inner continental blocks as the Khozgon, Lesnaya, and Ukelayat flysch complexes. The accretion of the Olyutor (Achaivayam) and Valagin segments of the ensimatic arc had different consequences due to the difference in thickness of the Earth’s crust. The Valagin segment was formed on an older basement and had a much greater thickness of the crust than the Olyutor segment. As follows from computations and the results of physical modeling, the island arcs having crust more than 25 km in thickness collide with the continental margin and are thrust over the latter. In the case under consideration, the thrusting of the Valagin segment led to metamorphism of the underlying rocks. The crust of the Olyutor segment was much thinner. The contact of this segment with the continental margin resulted only in surficial accretion, which did not bring about metamorphism, and the underlying lithospheric plate continued to plunge into the subduction zone.     

Isotope dating of Lherzolite-type ophiolites in the Tamvatnei massif,Koryak-Kamchatka fold region: Zircon-based SHRIMP U-Pb data on quartz dolerite

The Tamvatnei ophiolite massif is located in the external part of the Koryak-Kamchatka accretionary orogen, within the limits of the Anadyr-Koryak Fold System (Late Cretaceous accretion), composed largely of complexes of enzymatic island arcs and backarc basins referred to the Jurassic-Early Neocomian. Lherzolite type ophiolites of the Tamvatnei massif, located in the harzburgite province of the Mainitsa and Algan-Velikorechenskii terranes and being a regional anomaly in terms of geological structure and rock composition, were not dated by paleontological methods. The geological data indicate only their pre-Senonian age of formation, and K-Ar datings for mafites by the rock bulk compositions cover nearly the whole Early Cretaceous. The isotope dating of ten accessory zircon grains from quartz diorite, which finished the formation of magnesian series of gabbro-diabases belonging to the Tamvatnei hypoabyssal ophiolite complex and that of magnesian andesites from the lower stratum of the volcanogenetic complex, yielded a concordant age of 138.9 ± 1.9 Ma. These results, as well as the previously acquired date for amphibole from amphibole microgabbro belonging to the hypoabyssal complex (120.0 ± 2.4 Ma; after P. U. Layer), indicate that Tamvatnei lherzolite-type ophiolites formed in the Valanginian-Aptian, i.e., later than the Late Mesozoic suprasubduction ophiolites from the adjacent Mainitsa and Algan terranes, whose volcanogenic-siliceous strata are dated at the Jurassic-Valanginian. The obtained results prove the model for Tamvatnei ophiolite generation in an introarc basin founded during breakup of the crust of the Mainitsa-Algan island-arc system.