Geochemical features and sources of clastic material in Paleozoic terrigenous deposits of the northeastern flank of the South Mongolia–Khingan orogenic belt

Abstract

The results of geological and geochemical studies of terrigenous rocks of the main stratigraphic subdivisions in the northeastern flank of the South Mongolia–Khingan orogenic belt and also the results of U-Pb (LА-ICP-MS) geochronological studies of detrital zircons from these deposits are presented. It is demonstrated that the studied rocks differ significantly in the nature of distribution of detrital zircon ages and, consequently, they cannot be members of a single sedimentary sequence. The data obtained confirm the standpoint according to which the northeastern flank of the South Mongolia–Khingan orogenic belt represents a “joint” zone separating the Argun and the Bureya-Jiamusi Superterranes. This joint zone was formed as the result of closure of the oceanic basin separating the specified continental massifs in the Paleozoic era. The geochemical features of the studied rocks indicate their formation in the conditions of the island arc or the active continental margin. Lack of zircon generations younger than Ordovician age in the studied samples allows assuming that the sedimentary sequences identified within the northeastern flank of the studied belt as the Necla, Dagmara, siltstone-sandstone, and Gramatukha sequences that formed from the end of the Vendian (?) to the Devonian correspond to the youngest stages of belt formation. These sediments in the current structural plan evidently represent fragments of accretion complexes cropping out in fragments among the Cenozoic sequences of the Amur-Zeya Depression.