Detrital zircon U[sbnd]Pb geochronology of middle Paleozoic sandstones from the South Tianshan (Kyrgyzstan): Implications for provenance and tectonic evolution of the Turkestan Ocean

Abstract

UPb dating of detrital zircons from metamorphic and unmetamorphosed siliciclastic units in northern, central, and southern parts of the late Paleozoic South Tianshan (STS) orogen allows us to elucidate depositional ages and provenances of studied deposits and provide important insights into Paleozoic tectonics and evolution of the southwest Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). In the northern flank of the orogen, the depositional age of metasandstones of the Kembel Complex has been constrained to 446–417 Ma. Greenschist-facies metasandstones of the Kan Complex, associated with the Turkestan suture and previously related to Proterozoic, yielded maximum depositional ages of 438–428 Ma based on the youngest clusters of detrital zircons, although the occurrence of a few younger grains implies, that these rocks may be late Silurian to Devonian in age. Greenschists of the Kan Complex were likely metamorphosed during the Mississippian (>330 Ma), based on the early Serpukhovian age of overlying strata. A similar depositional age has been proven for sandstones of the Balykty Formation, east of the Talas-Ferghana Fault. Detrital zircons ages for these metasediments suggest clastic provenances within Northern and Middle Tianshan. In the axial parts of the STS, coarse-grained turbidite sandstones yielded Silurian to Early Devonian maximum ages. The axial part of the STS was separated from continental domains in the north and south by deep-marine basins; therefore, these turbidite sandstones must have been derived from a local provenance in the STS. This local provenance is comprised of Precambrian crustal fragments, as indicated by high concentration of Precambrian magmatic zircons in detrital populations, along with Silurian and Devonian arc magmatic rocks. Precambrian crust can be inferred in the basement of the Alai microcontinent and Baubashata carbonate platform, which represented the likely provenance areas. Detrital zircons with Ediacaran 650–550 Ma ages in turbidites suggest that during the Neoproterozoic, these crustal fragments may have comprised a single continental domain with the Karakum-Tajik (Garm massif) and Tarim microcontinents, where magmatic rocks and detrital zircons with such ages have been also previously dated. Devonian slope turbidite facies of the Tarim Craton in the south Ferghana Range contain Precambrian detrital zircons with ages matching those of the Tarim, and numerous Paleozoic zircons clustering at 446 and 441 Ma. Paleozoic zircon ages indicate the occurrence of unidentified Ordovician and early Silurian magmatic rocks in northern and western Tarim. New data provide further evidence that Paleozoic evolution of CAOB was controlled by northward motion of the Precambrian terranes rifted off the Gondwana and colliding with the continental masses of Kazakhstan and Siberia in the north.