Late Paleozoic Element Migration and Accumulation under Intracontinental Sinistral Strike‐slip Faulting in the West Junggar Orogenic Belt, NW China

Abstract

AbstractThe migration, accumulation and dispersion of elements caused by tectonic dynamics have always been a focus of attention, and become the basis of tectono‐geochemistry. However, the effects of faulting, especially strike‐slip faulting, on the adjustment of geochemical element distribution, are still not clear. In this paper, we select the West Junggar Orogenic Belt (WJOB), NW China, as a case study to test the migration behavior of elements under tectonic dynamics. The WJOB is dominated by NE‐trending large‐scale sinistral strike‐slip faults such as the Darabut Fault, the Mayile Fault, and the Baerluke Fault, which formed during the intracontinental adjustment under N–S compression during ocean‐continental conversion in the Late Paleozoic. Geochemical maps of 13 elements, Al, W, Sn, Mo, Cu, Pb, Zn, As, Sb, Hg, Fe, Ni, and Au, are analyzed for the effects of faulting and folding on element distribution at the regional scale. The results show that the element distribution in the WJOB is controlled mainly by two mechanisms during tectonic deformation: first is the material transporting mechanism, where the movement of geological units is consistent with the direction of tectonic movement; second is the diffusion mechanism, especially by tectonic pressure dissolution driven by tectonic dynamics, where the migration of elements is approximately perpendicular or opposite to the direction of tectonic movement. We conclude that the adjustment of element distributions has been determined by the combined actions of transporting and diffusion mechanisms, and that the diffusion mechanism plays an important role in the formation of geochemical Au blocks in the WJOB.