scholarly journals The structural positions of the ophiolite complex in the Earth crust of the western Tien-Shan

2021 ◽  
Vol 929 (1) ◽  
pp. 012004
Author(s):  
B S Nurtaev ◽  
O G Tsai ◽  
D U Kurbanova

Abstract The westernmost parts of the Tien Shan region are located between two areas of crustal suturing, formed by the closure of the Turkestan Ocean, and probably the closure of a second ocean, the Gissar Ocean. Regional correlation of these sutures, however, has been problematic due to the lack of geological and geophysical data, as well as conflicting interpretations within the literature of various geological bodies. We summarize the information about Paleozoic ophiolites of westernmost parts of the Tien Shan for the international geoscientific audience from the literature and our own unpublished data. We focus on the best-known examples of Southern Tien Shan ophiolites which are remnants of Paleo-Asian Ocean, aligned in two main belts in Uzbekistan. Ophiolites reveal a wide age spectrum ranging from the Ordovician to the Devonian on the northern slope of Southern Tien Shan, and the Early Carboniferous on the southern slope. Considering all data on these ophiolites as well as regional considerations lets us conclude that a single ocean located subduction of the Turkestan Ocean basin under the northern Karakum-Tadjik terrane caused back-arc continentalo ruisft.i ngo iunththwearGdi ssar region in Early Carboniferous resulted in the formation of a small basin with oceanic crust. By late Carboniferous/early Permian times, both oceanic basins were subducted.

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 348
Author(s):  
Minxin You ◽  
Wenyuan Li ◽  
Houmin Li ◽  
Zhaowei Zhang ◽  
Xin Li

The Baixintan mafic-ultramafic intrusion in the Dananhu-Tousuquan arc of the Eastern Tianshan orogenic belt is composed of lherzolite, olivine gabbro, and gabbro. Olivine gabbros contain zircon grains with a U-Pb age of 276.8 ± 1.1 Ma, similar to the ages of other Early Permian Ni-Cu ore-bearing intrusions in the region. The alkaline-silica diagrams, AFM diagram, together with the Ni/Cu-Pd/Ir diagram, indicate that the parental magmas for the Baixintan intrusion were likely high-Mg tholeiitic basaltic in composition. The Cu/Pd ratios, the relatively depleted PGEs and the correlations between them demonstrate that the parental magmas had already experienced sulfide segregation. The lower CaO content in pyroxenites compared with the Duke Island Alaskan-type intrusion and the composition of spinels imply that Baixintan is not an Alaskan-type intrusion. By comparing the Baixintan intrusion with other specific mafic-ultramafic intrusions, this paper considers that the mantle source of the Baixintan intrusion is metasomatized by subduction slab-derived fluids’ components, which gives rise to the negative anomalies of Nb, Ti, and Ta elements. Nb/Yb-Th/Yb, Nb/Yb-TiO2/Yb, and ThN-NbN plots show that the Baixintan intrusion was emplaced in a back-arc spreading environment and may be related to a mantle plume.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai Zhou ◽  
Guochun Zhao ◽  
Donghai Zhang

<p>Oceanic subduction and its last underthrusted part can both triggers arc-like magmatism. As the existence of multi-subduction zones in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, controversy still surrounds on when and especially how the subduction of the (Paleo-Asian Ocean) PAO terminated. We present geochronological, geochemical, and Lu-Hf isotopic data for a suite of basalt-andesites, dacite-rhyolites and later trachyandesite-mugearitic dykes from the Khan-Bogd area in the Gobi Tianshan Zone (GTZ) of the southern Mongolia. U-Pb dating of zircons indicate the basalt-andesites and dacite-rhyolites were formed at ~334-338 Ma, and the dykes at ~300 Ma. These Early Carboniferous volcanic rocks display high U/Th, Ba/Th, low La/Sm and variable Zr/Nb ratios, implying the involvement of subduction fluids or sediment melt. They display arc geochemical features such as calc-alkaline and metaluminous nature and positive Ba and U and negative Nb, Ta and Ti anomalies. Moreover, their continental geochemical signals (e.g. positive Pb, K anomalies) and some old captured zircons implying a continental arc setting. Comparatively, the ~300 Ma dykes are characterized by high alkaline contents, which are common for coeval (~320-290 Ma) and widespread post-subductional granites there. Given a mainly crust-derived magma source for those granites, these dykes likely reflect a mantle disturbance due to: (1) their relative low SiO<sub>2 </sub>(51.71-55.85 wt. %) and high Mg# (40.3-67.3) values, and (2) positive zircon Ɛ<sub>Hf</sub>(t) (most > 12). Considering a slab rollback model during the Carboniferous and Triassic, the mantle disturbance was possibly induced by the oceanic slab breakoff. Combined with previous work, this ~320-290 Ma slab breakoff-induced extension marks the closure of a wide secondary ocean (North Tianshan-Hegenshan ocean) north of the main ocean basin of the PAO. This research was financially supported by NSFC Projects (41730213, 42072264, 41902229, 41972237) and Hong Kong RGC GRF (17307918).</p>


Author(s):  
Jan Zalasiewicz ◽  
Mark Williams

There is a celebrated Flemish painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It depicts the age-old battle between Carnival and Lent. Carnival—a time of high spirits, led in this vision by a fat man on a beer-barrel, carousing and brandishing a pig’s head on a spit—is opposed by Lent, deflating the happy excitement and bringing in a time of sobriety and abstinence. Bruegel’s understanding of these opposed rhythms of rural life in the sixteenth-century Netherlands was acute: he was nicknamed ‘Peasant Bruegel’ for his habit of dressing like the local people, to mingle unnoticed with the crowds, all the better to observe their lives and activities. Bruegel’s vision of the age-old rhythm of life, in the form of an eternal oscillation between two opposing modes, may be taken to a wider stage. From the late Archaean to the end of the Proterozoic, the Earth has alternated between two climate modes. Long episodes of what may be regarded as rather dull stability, best exemplified by what some scientists refer to as the ‘boring billion’ of the mid-Proterozoic, are punctuated by the briefer, though more satisfyingly dramatic, glacial events. This alternation of Earth states persisted into the last half-billion years of this planet’s history—that is, into the current eon, the Phanerozoic. If anything, the pattern became more pronounced, as if it had become an integral part of the Earth’s slowly moving clockwork. There were three main Phanerozoic glaciations—or more precisely, there were three intervals of time when the world possessed large amounts of ice—though in each of these, the ice waxed and waned in a rather complex fashion, and none came close to a Snowball-like state. Thus, these intervals often now tend to be called ‘icehouse states’ rather than glaciations per se. Between these, there were rather longer intervals—greenhouse states—in which the world was considerably warmer; though again, this warmth was variable, and at times modest amounts of polar ice could form. Of the Earth’s Phanerozoic icehouse states, two are in the Palaeozoic Era: one, now termed the ‘Early Palaeozoic Icehouse’ centred on the boundary between the Ordovician and Silurian periods, peaking some 440 million years ago; and a later one centred on the Carboniferous and early Permian periods, 325 to 280 million years ago.


Tectonics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuhui Wang ◽  
Xinghai Lang ◽  
Juxing Tang ◽  
Yulin Deng ◽  
Qing He ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (12) ◽  
pp. 1478-1491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-gang Sun ◽  
Bi-le Li ◽  
Feng-yue Sun ◽  
Qing-feng Ding ◽  
Ye Qian ◽  
...  

Geodynamic evolution in the late Paleozoic is significant for understanding the final amalgamation of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). No consensus has yet been reached regarding the late Paleozoic geodynamic evolution of the northern Great Xing’an Range (GXR) in northeastern China, the eastern CAOB. Furthermore, late Paleozoic syenogranite–diabase dyke association is present in the Xiaokele area in northern GXR. It provides an important opportunity to understand the nature of magmatism and the geodynamic evolution during this period. This paper presents new zircon U–Pb ages, zircon Hf isotopic compositions, and geochemical data of whole rocks for Xiaokele syenogranite and diabase. Zircon U–Pb dating suggests that the Xiaokele syenogranite (292.5 ± 0.9 Ma) and diabase (298.3 ± 1.5 Ma) were emplaced during the early Permian. The Xiaokele syenogranites have high SiO2 contents, low MgO contents, and enriched zircon εHf(t) values, suggesting that their primary magma was generated by the partial melting of the juvenile crustal material. The Xiaokele diabases have low SiO2 contents, high MgO contents, are enriched in large-ion lithophile elements, depleted in high-field-strength elements, and exhibit enriched zircon εHf(t) values. They derived from a lithospheric mantle source that had previously been metasomatized by slab-derived fluids. Combined with previous research results, we believe that the continent–continent collision between the Xing’an and Songliao blocks occurred during the late early Carboniferous – early late Carboniferous (330–310 Ma), and the two blocks were transformed into a post-collisional extensional setting during the latest Carboniferous – early Permian.


1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 824-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Arvin ◽  
Paul T. Robinson

A Late Cretaceous ophiolite complex in the Baft area, southwest of Kerman, Iran, is characteristic of the Central Iranian Ophiolitic Mélange Belt, which wraps around the Lut Block. Despite the extensive tectonic disruption of the Baft complex, most ophiolitic lithologies are present and many original igneous contacts are preserved. A lack of cumulate gabbros within the sequence suggests that a large and continuous magma chamber did not exist beneath the Baft spreading axis. Geochemical data confirm the presence of two distinct compositional groups in the mafic lavas: (1) tholeiitic basalt and (2) transitional tholeiitic basalt. The tholeiitic lavas are similar to typical mid-ocean-ridge basalt compositions, whereas the transitional tholeiites are similar to intraplate basalts. The available data suggest that the Baft ophiolite complex formed in a small ocean basin, possibly at or near a ridge–transform intersection. Emplacement may have occurred as a result of conversion of the transform fault to a subduction zone during a change in relative plate motion. A ridge–transform setting is compatible with the intraplate character of some of the transitional basalts, which probably represent off-axis (seamount) magmatism, marked by the absence of cumulate gabbros and the presence of a serpentinite mélange cut by basaltic dykes. The ridge–transform model suggests formation of the ophiolite in a narrow ocean basin separating the Sanandaj-Sirjan microcontinent from the Central Iran Block in Late Cretaceous time.


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