Geodynamics of the northwestern sector of the pacific mobile belt in the Late Cretaceous-Early Paleogene

Abstract

In the Late Cretaceous starting from the early Coniacian, three parallel suprasubduction structural units have developed contemporaneously in the northwestern Paleopacific framework: (1) the Okhotsk-Chukchi arc at the Asian continental margin, (2) the West Kamchatka and Essoveem ensialic arcs at the northwestern margins of the Kamchatka and Central Koryak continental blocks, and (3) the Achaivayam-Valagin ensimatic arc that extended to the southwest as the Lesser Kuril ensialic arc at the southern margin of the Sea of Okhotsk continental block. In this setting, the geodynamics of the Paleopacific plates exerted an effect only on the evolution of the outer (relative to the continent) ensimatic island arc, whereas the vast inner region between this arc and the continent evolved independently. As is seen from the character of the gravity field and seismic refractor velocity, the Kamchatka and Sea of Okhotsk continental blocks differ in the structure of the consolidated crust. These blocks collided with each other and the Asian continent in the middle Campanian (77 Ma ago). The extensive pre-Paleogene land that existed on the place of the present-day Sea of Okhotsk probably supplied the terrigenous material deposited since the late Campanian on the oceanic crust of the backarc basin to the south of the rise of inner continental blocks as the Khozgon, Lesnaya, and Ukelayat flysch complexes. The accretion of the Olyutor (Achaivayam) and Valagin segments of the ensimatic arc had different consequences due to the difference in thickness of the Earth’s crust. The Valagin segment was formed on an older basement and had a much greater thickness of the crust than the Olyutor segment. As follows from computations and the results of physical modeling, the island arcs having crust more than 25 km in thickness collide with the continental margin and are thrust over the latter. In the case under consideration, the thrusting of the Valagin segment led to metamorphism of the underlying rocks. The crust of the Olyutor segment was much thinner. The contact of this segment with the continental margin resulted only in surficial accretion, which did not bring about metamorphism, and the underlying lithospheric plate continued to plunge into the subduction zone.