North-Asian black shale ore-bearing megaprovince in the Northеastern Eurasia and its prospective minerogeny

Abstract

The North-Asian ore-bearing black shale megaprovince has first been distinguished in the northеastern Eurasia. Its distinguishing within the two contiguous platforms, the Siberian and East Siberian (buried under the Verkhoyansk-Kolyma folded area) ones, is based on a cyclic formation of rock sequences enriched in clayey and organic matter in the boreal sea basin. Within these contiguous platforms, clayey and black shale rocks was identified, assigned to geological formations of the “class of black shale troughs, depressions, and basins”. Their appearance was synchronous in the evolution of the North-Asian megaprovince. The sedimentogenesis evolution proceeded in the shallow-water Boreal sea basin on the consolidated continental crust from the beginning of the Riphean eonothem through the Early Cretaceous, inclusively, during more than 1513 Ma. The megaprovince embraces ten minerogenic epochs. Its minerogenic specialization is potentially promising for exogenous accumulations of diamonds; dispersed noble metals; elements of the chalcophile, siderophile, and rare metal groups; concentrated hydrocarbons; and energy (combustible) minerals. It was closely genetically related to systemic restructuring of the regime of chemogenous and terrigenous sedimentogenesis in the boreal sea basin and to reactivation of the tectonic processes and magmatic activity within its surrounding continental land.