Yu. O. Larionova

Geodynamics of the eastern margin of Sarmatia in the Paleoproterozoic

The eastern margin of Sarmatia comprises the Paleoproterozoic (2.1–2.05 Ga) rock associations of the eastern Voronezh Crystalline Massif, including the Lipetsk-Losevo volcanic-plutonic belt and the adjacent East Voronezh lithotectonic zone composed of metasedimentary rocks of the Vorontsovka Group. The isotopic and geochemical study of the available drill cores that characterize the main rock associations of the Lipetsk-Losevo belt and its nearest framework allowed us to furnish evidence for the formation of this belt in the regime of an island arc at the active margin of the Archean continent above a low-angle subduction zone. The juvenile isotopic and geochemical signatures of metaturbidites of the Vorontsovka Group indicate that only a fast growing mountain edifice with the Lipetsk-Losevo Belt in its highest part (foreland) could have been a provenance of the flysch basin. It is proposed to name this Paleoproterozoic mountain system the East Sarmatian Orogen. The hinterland of this orogen embraced the megablock of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly as a part of the Voronezh Massif and the Azov Block of the Ukrainian Shield. It has been shown that the East Sarmatian Orogen was formed in the same way as accretionary orogens of the Cordilleran type.

Sources of Archean sanukitoids (High-Mg subalkaline granitoids) in the Karelian craton: Sm-Nd and Rb-Sr isotopic-geochemical evidence

The Sm-Nd systematics of sanukitoids with an age of 2715–2740 Ma in the Western, Eastern, and Central domains of the Karelian craton with various crustal evolutionary histories indicates that the mafic and acid rocks of the sanukitoid series were derived from two contrasting sources: enriched lithospheric mantle and lower crust. The basic sanukitoids of the Western domain were derived from the mantle enriched long before its melting [ɛNd(2715) = −0.48 ± 0.22]. The source of the acid magmas was the young juvenile crust of TTG composition [ɛNd(2715) increases to +1.2]. The mantle source of mafic sanukitoids in the Eastern domain was enriched shortly before melting [ɛNd(2740) = +1.58 ± 0.01], whereas the acid melts came from an ancient crustal source [ɛNd(2740) decreases to −3.0]. For sanukitoids in the Central domain, the time span between the enrichment of the mantle source and its melting was the shortest [ɛNd(2725) = +2.05 ± 0.15], and the contribution of the juvenile TTG crust was insignificant [ɛNd(2725) deceases to +1.7]. The variations in the isotope characteristics of the acid members of the sanukitoid series are consistent with the known age heterogeneity of the crust of the domains. The lateral isotopic-geochemical heterogeneity of the lithospheric mantle source of the sanukitoids is thought to have been related to its two-stage reworking (at 3.2 and 2.8–2.9 Ga) under the effect of TTG granitoids, which are regarded as the melting products of the subducted oceanic crust. The sanukitoids provide information on the geochemical structure of the Archean lithosphere, which is reflected in Archean crust-building processes. The Rb-Sr isotope system of the Neoarchean sanukitoids underwent transformations on the mineralogical scale and within small massifs in the course of at least two Paleoproterozoic tectono-thermal events. A trace of the event at ∼2.1 Ga is left in the Rb-Sr system of monomineralic fractions from a weakly deformed syenite of the sanukitoid series in the Central Domain. Later event (∼1.7 Ga) was recorded in the minerals of the Teloveis sanukitoid massif, which hosts a gold mesothermal deposit in the Western domain. Monomineralic fractions of muscovite and biotite from the wall-rock metasomatites and of plagioclase, microcline, and biotite from metasomatites away from the orebodies yield isochron ages of 1719 ± 60 and 1717 ± 27 Ma. This age of the metasomatic alterations of the Neoarchean sanukitoids is able to explain the broad and unsystematic variations in the Rb-Sr isotope-geochemical characteristics of these rocks. Our data on the Paleoproterozoic age of the mesothermal gold ore mineralization at the Teloveis deposit provide additional lines of evidence for the complex tectonic and metallogenic evolution of the Karelian GGT in the Early Precambrian.

Paleoproterozoic A- and S-granites in the eastern Voronezh Crystalline Massif: Geochronology, petrogenesis, and tectonic setting of origin

The eastern part of the Voronezh Crystalline Massif hosts coeval S- and A-granitoids. The biotite-muscovite S-granites contain elevated concentrations of Si, Al, and alkalis (with K predominance) and relatively low concentrations of Ca, Mg, Ti, Sr, and Ba, show pronounced negative Eu anomalies, and have low concentrations of Y and HREE. The biotite A-granitoids are enriched in Fe, Ti, P, HFSE, REE and have strongly fractionated REE patterns with deep Eu minima. According to their Rb/Nb and Y/Nb ratios, these rocks are classified with group A2 of postcollisional granites. The SIMS zircon crystallization age of the granitoids lies within the range of 2050–2070 Ma. Both the A- and the S-granitoids have positive ɛNd(T) values, which suggests that they should have had brief crustal prehistories and were derived from juvenile Paleoproterozoic sources. The simultaneous derivation of the A- and S-granites was caused by the melting of the lower crust in response to the emplacement of large volumes of mafic magma in an environment of postcollisional collapse and lithospheric delamination with the simultaneous metamorphism of the host rocks at high temperatures and low pressures. The S-granites are thought to be derived via the melting of acid crustal material in the middle and lower crust. The A2 granites can possibly be differentiation products of mafic magmas that were emplaced into the lower crust and were intensely contaminated with crustal material.

Mg-ilmenite megacrysts from the Arkhangelsk kimberlites, Russia: Genesis and interaction with kimberlite melt and postkimberlite fluid

In the present work we studied Mg-ilmenite megacrysts from the Arkhangelsk kimberlites (the Kepino kimberlite field and mantle xenoliths from the Grib pipe). On the basis of isotopic (Rb/Sr, Sm/Nd, δ18O) and trace-element data we argue that studied Mg-ilmenite megacrysts have a genetic relation to the “protokimberlitic” magma, which was parental to the host kimberlites. Rb-Sr ages measured on phlogopite from ilmenite-clinopyroxenite xenoliths and the host Grib kimberlite overlap within the error (384 Ma and 372 ± 8 Ma, respectively; Shevchenko et al., 2004) with our estimation of the Kotuga kimberlite emplacement (378 ± 25 Ma). Sr and Nd isotopic compositions of megacrysts are close to the isotopic composition of host kimberlites (Mg-ilmenites from kimberlites have 87Sr/86Sr(t = 384) = 0.7050–0.7063, ɛNd(t = 384) = + 1.7, +1.8, ilmenite from ilmenite-garnet clinopyroxenite xenolith has 87Sr/86St(t = 384) = 0.7049, ɛNd(t = 384) = +3.5). Oxygen isotopic composition of ilmenites (δ18O = +3.8–+4.5‰) is relatively “light” in comparison with the values for mantle minerals (δ18O = +5–+6‰). Taking into account ilmenite-melt isotope fractionation, these values of δ18O indicate that ilmenites could crystallize from the “protokimberlitic” melt. Temperatures and redox conditions during the formation of ilmenite reaction rims were estimated using ilmenite-rutile and titanomagnetite-ilmenite thermo-oxybarometers. New minerals within the rims crystallized at increasing oxygen fugacity and decreasing temperature. Spinels precipitated during the interaction of ilmenite with kimberlitic melt at T = 1000–1100°C and oxygen fugacity

Age of Granodiorite Porphyry and Beresite from the Darasun Gold Field, Eastern Transbaikal Region, Russia

\Delta \log f_{O_2 }

Isotopic geochronological evidence for the Paleoproterozoic age of gold mineralization in Archean greenstone belts of Karelia, the Baltic Shield

[QFM] ≈ 1. Rims comprised with rutile and titanomagnetite crystallized at T ≈ 1100°C,

Age and sources of matter for the Kedrovskoe gold deposit, Northern Transbaikal tegion, Republic of Buryatia: Geochronological and isotopic geochemical constraints

\Delta \log f_{O_2 }