Lithospheric controls on late Cenozoic construction of the Mongolian Altai

Abstract

The Altai is one of the great Cenozoic intracontinental and intraplate mountain ranges of central Asia, but it is one of the less studied mountain belts on Earth from a modern structural geology standpoint, and few western scientists are familiar with its tectonic evolution. The range is located dominantly in Mongolia with important sectors in Russia, China, and Kazakhstan and structurally links with the Chinese Tien Shan and Russian Sayan ranges. The Altai is tectonically active and is best understood as two kinematically distinct mountain belts that intersect at 46°N, 96°E: the right‐lateral transpressive western Altai and the left‐lateral transpressive Gobi Altai. Transpressional deformation dominates the late Cenozoic deformation of the Altai and is manifested by throughgoing strike‐slip faults, restraining bends, thrust fault‐bounded ranges linked by strike‐slip faults, and possibly inverted Mesozoic graben. Regionally, there is strong correlation between Cenozoic fault trends and older basement strike trends. Cenozoic deformation regimes appear to be dictated by the angular relationship between preexisting basement structural trends and the prevailing NE directed maximum compressive stress. The Altai is constructed on Paleozoic terranes dominantly consisting of arc and subduction complex assemblages and passive margin sedimentary rocks juxtaposed to the west, southwest and south of the Precambrian block that underlies the Hangay Dome area of central Mongolia. Because the Hangay Dome is characterized by diffuse extension and not transpression, regionally upwarped topography, late Cenozoic volcanism, and elevated heat flow, it is kinematically separate from the Altai region and has previously been interpreted to overlie a mantle plume or asthenospheric diapir. It is proposed that anomalously hot mantle beneath the Hangay Dome coupled with the regionally domed surface topography creates a radial horizontal stress field that acts against the regional NE directed maximum horizontal stress within the Altai. These conditions may deflect postulated NE flowing lithospheric mantle/lower crust that is believed to be driving the shallow upper crustal deformation in the Altai.