S. I. Dril

Magmatic sources and geodynamics of the early Mesozoic Northern Mongolia-Western Transbaikalia rift zone

The Northern Mongolia-Western Transbaikalia rift zone is the largest Mesozoic riftogenic structure in eastern Asia and extends for a distance of more than 1200 km. The zone consists of depressions and grabens, which were formed between 233 and 188 Ma and are filled with basaltic and basalt-comendite (bimodal) volcanic associations accompanied by numerous peralkaline granite massifs. Geochemical and isotope (Sr, Nd, and Pb) studies showed that mantle and crustal sources contributed to the formation of the magmatic rocks of the rift zone. The basalts were formed from incompatible element-enriched mantle sources. Geochemical and isotope-geochemical data suggest that the peralkaline salic rocks (comendites and peralkaline grantoids) and basalts are genetically related and were formed by the fractionation of a common parental magma. In addition, the magmatic associations contain peralkaline granites and comendites whose isotope signatures indicate their formation through the crustal contamination of derivatives of basaltic melts. The rift zone has arisen during the formation of the Mongolia-Transbaikalia zoned magmatic area in a complex geodynamic setting, combining collision in the Mongolia-Okhotsk suture with a mantle plume impact. The rift zone occupies the northern periphery of the area, being controlled by the Northern Mongolia-Transbaikalia fault system, which marks the boundaries (sutures) of large terranes in the lithosphere. Asthenospheric traps beneath suture boundaries served as pathways for the penetration of a mantle plume into the upper lithosphere, thus playing an important role in the localization of the riftogenic processes.

Isotopic signatures of strontium, neodymium, and lead in metamorphic rocks of the Khavyven highland in eastern Kamchatka

Metamorphic units of the Khavyven Highland that crop out in the northern portion of the Khavyven Uplift of the basement structures of the Central Kamchatka Trough are formed by rocks of the Khavyven Formation, which are metamorphosed in the green-schist facies. The formation comprises two strata: the lower part that consists of amphibole-micaceous ± garnet, epidote-micaceous ± garnet crystalline schists, and micaceous ± garnet quartzite schists has a total thickness of some 500 m, and the upper part, which is formed by epidote-amphibole and phengite-amphibole green schists and overlying epidote-amphibole-micaceous quartzites, with a visible thickness of some 750 m. The isotopic ratios of Sr, Nd, and Pb were determined in the examined rocks of the Khavyven Formation for the first time. The high 87Sr/86Sr and low 143Nd/144Nd ratios and the high K/La, Ba/Th, Th/Ta, and La/Nb ratios in combination with a deep Ta-Nb minimum indicate that the original volcanites of the crystalline schists of the lower rock mass had a subduction nature. The green schist of the upper rock mass, whose composition corresponds to that of spilitic basalts, have elevated 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd ratios, thus combining indications of depleted melts of the N-MORB and E-MORB types and those of subduction melts, which explains the deep Ta-Nb minimum and the low (La/Yb)N ratios. The isotopic signatures of lead in rocks of the lower and the upper strata are similar. The composition points of the crystalline schists and the green schists are located near the trend of isotopic evolution of lead in the depleted mantle, which indicates that the rocks are closely related to this mantle source.

Evidence of neoproterosoic continental subduction in the Baikal-Muya fold belt

The results of isotope-geochemical studies of eclogits and host rocks of the North-Muya block are presented. The studies showed broad variations both in the character of distribution of incompatible elements and in the Nd and Sr isotope composition of eclogits from the North-Muya block. The Nd isotope composition of eclogits is characterized by broad variations, which is reflected in the value of ɛNd(T), which has both positive (from +0.3 to +6.9) and negative values (from −0.5 to −16.8). The isotope characteristics for the both samples of eclogits (Mu 12-11, 12-12) with the lowest values of ɛNd(T) clearly indicate protolith contamination by an ancient source of Meso- or Paleoarchean age. Consequently, the melts of the protoliths of the eclogites intruded into the continental crust, and the eclogite-gneiss complex of the North-Muya block may be considered as a paleozone of the continental subduction.

Magmatism of the Khambin Graben and Early History of the Late Mesozoic Rift System Formation in the Western Transbaikal Region

The western Transbaikal region was repeatedly subjected to rifting during the Mesozoic. The Early Mesozoic was marked by the formation of a system of grabens filled in with Late Triassic‐Early Jurassic bimodal volcanic sequences of the Tsagan-Khurtei Group and Kunalei Complex, which is traced by massifs of alkalic granites [1‐5]. In the Late Mesozoic, a new rift system, generally conformable with the previous one, appeared [6‐9] and began to develop until the Late Cenozoic. Therefore, the grabens and horsts of the rift system are readily traceable in the present-day topography. The Late Mesozoic epoch commenced with the formation of the bimodal basalt‐trachybasaltic andesite‐trachydacite‐trachyrhyolite‐comendite volcanic association of the Ichetui Formation. Its compositional and structural similarity to the Tsagan-Khurtei Group served as the basis for determining the age of bimodal volcanic associations in some areas of the region, resulting in misleading interpretation of the structure, scale, and geodynamic settings of different-age rifting events. This problem can be exemplified by the Khambin volcanic field (Fig. 1), one of the largest in the region. The volcanic field is outlined as a ridge in geological maps, because it resembles the majority of outcrops of the Tsagan-Khuntei Formation in the topography [10, 11]. In such an interpretation, the field occupied the westernmost part of the Early Mesozoic rift system and, thus, governed its dimensions and structural peculiarities in the pinchout area. At the same time, the Khambin field, located between the western (Dzhida) and central (Khilok‐Tugnui) segments of the Late Mesozoic rift system (Fig. 1, inset), occupies a relatively large fragment of the rift system. In available maps, the fragment is shown as an anomalous zone because of the absence of Late Mesozoic magmatism. In this communication, we present systematic geological and geochronological (Rb‐Sr, K‐Ar) data, which point to the formation of Khambin field lava sequences as a result of Late Mesozoic rifting in several stages of volcanic activity. This conclusion is consistent with the multistage character of magmatic processes in other areas of the rift system. The materials obtained allow us to scrutinize specific features of the manifestation of early stages of Late Mesozoic rifting. The Khambin volcanic field extends in the NNW

The new data on the origin of the Patom Crater (East Siberia)

It has been found that the origin of the Patom Crater is related to endogenous processes with the main role played by deep flow of fluid components, which determine formation of the ejecta cone at about 500 years ago or more. This is evidenced by the zonal structure of the crater and geochemical peculiarities of rocks, caused by the long formation time for particular zones. Sandstone and schist blocks that were included into eruptive breccia within the crater were affected by gaseous or fluid components and intensively carbonized. During carbonatization, these rocks within the crater were being enriched in Ca and Sr, but the shares of the 87Sr and, consequently, 87Sr/86Sr ratio in them abruptly decrease. This is explained by the influence of deep fluids on terrigenous rocks, which were initially depleted in the radiogenic strontium isotope and might flow from a magmatic source with a low 87Sr/86Sr ratio. However, these fluids were enriched in CO2 and transported significant quantities of Sr, which led to enrichment of all terrigenous rocks in the crater in this element. The discovery of individual sandstone blocks with high concentrations of summarized rare earth elements (up to 557 g/t) and higher Sr and Ba contents among the fragments of host stratum within the Patom Crater allows us to suppose that there is a magmatic source enriched in fluid components at depths. The effect of the active fluid phase with low strontium isotopic ratios on rocks during the Patom Crater formation might lead to an abrupt decrease in values of the initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio in carbonized sandstones and schists.

Isotope–Geochemical Evidence for the Nature of Protolite Eclogite of the Kokchetav Massif (Kazakhstan)

In the present paper, the results of our isotope–geochemical studies on eclogites of the ultrahighpressure metamorphic complex of the Kokchetav massif are reported. The fact that the distribution of nonmobile elements in most of the samples was close to that of E-type MORB basalts is shown by using geochemical multielement diagrams normalized to N-MORB. Six samples were found to have a negative anomaly over niobium that may have resulted from contamination with crustal material. For eclogites of the Kokchetav massif, the 147Sm/144Nd ratio was found to range widely from 0.143 to 0.367. The εNd-values calculated for the age of the highly barometric stage of metamorphism (530 million years) varied from–10.3 to +8.1. Eclogites show a dispersion of model ages from 1.95 billion years to 670 million years. On the graphs in the εNd(T)–87Sr/86Sr and εNd(T)–T coordinates, eclogites were shown to form trends that can be interpreted as a result of contamination of the eclogite protolith by the host rocks. Based on the data obtained, it is proposed that the basalts of rift zones that may have geochemical characteristics of N-MORB basalts and at the same time may be contaminated by the continental crust may have served as proxies for eclogite protoliths of the Kokchetav massif.

GEOCHRONOLOGY AND SR-ND ISOTOPE GEOCHEMISTRY OF LATE PALEOZOIC COLLISIONAL GRANITOIDS OF UNDINSKY COMPLEX (EASTERN TRANSBAIKAL REGION)

There are several geodynamic models of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) development [Şengor et al., 1993, Zorin, 1999; Parfenov et al., 1999, 2003; Willem et al., 2012; and others]. The Mongol-Okhotsk Orogenic Belt (MOB) represents important part of CAOB. All geodymanic models of Late Riphean to Paleozoic structures of CAOB emphasize significance of subduction processes along Northern Asian craton margin at that time. Collage of CAOB terrains formed as a result of accretion of island arc, accretionary wedge, turbidite, and continental margin terrains to the Siberian paleocontinent.

GEOCHEMISTRY, ZIRCON U-PB GEOCHRONOLOGY, ND-HF ISOTOPIC CHARACTERISTICS AND TECTONIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE SOUTH MUYA BLOCK METASEDIMENTS (NORTHEASTERN CENTRAL ASIAN OROGENIC BELT)

The Neoproterozoic to Cenozoic collage of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt is well-known to include Precambrian continental blocks and microcontinents traditionally attributed to rifting of Siberia or Gondwana prior to CAOB assembly that significantly contributed into the geochemical and isotopic composition of younger subduction- and accretion-related crustal lithologies via processes of crust-mantle interaction and crustal recycling.

GEOCHEMISTRY AND ORIGIN OF THE EASTERN SAYAN OPHIOLITES, TUVA-MONGOLIAN MICROCONTINENT (SOUTHERN SIBERIA)

The Eastern Sayan ophiolites (1020 Ma) of the Tuva-Mongolian microcontinent are believed to be the most ancient ophiolite of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt [Khain et al., 2002].

Plume magmatism in the northeastern part of the Altai–Sayan region: Stages, source compositions, and geodynamics (exemplified by the Minusinsk Depression)

The results of geochronological (U–Pb, Ar–Ar), geochemical, and isotopic (Sr, Nd) studies of the Ordovician and Devonian mafic volcanic–subvolcanic rock associations of the Minusinsk Depression are presented. The obtained ages of magmatic associations and the basite composition, considering previous studies, witness to the impact of two mantle plumes different in age (Late Cambrian–Ordovician and Devonian) on suprasubduction rock complexes in active continental margin settings.