Structure, age, and mechanism of emplacement of the Amur and Kiselevka–Manoma accretionary complexes of the lower Amur region, Russian Far East

Abstract

The Amur and Kiselevka–Manoma accretionary complexes belong to the Cretaceous Khingan–Okhotsk active continental margin, which was formed in the east of Eurasia as a result of the subduction of the Pacific oceanic plates. The Kiselevka–Manoma complex is composed of oceanic pelagic and hemipelagic sedimentary rocks and intraplate oceanic basalts. It is located to the southeast, along the ocean-faced front of the Amur complex, which is predominantly composed of turbidites of the convergent boundary of lithospheric plates. The biostratigraphic study of radiolarians from rocks of the frontal part of the Amur complex allowed us to correlate them with rocks of the Kiselevka–Manoma complex and to define the period of accretion to be from the Late Aptian to the Middle Albian. The tectonostratigraphic interrelations of these two contrasting lithotectonic complexes are established and two possible models of their common emplacement are suggested. Both models suppose a continuous spatiotemporal relation of complexes with the primary paleolocation of the Kiselevka–Manoma complex in front of (on the ocean side) the Amur complex. The frontal part of the Amur complex and the Kiselevka–Manoma complex were emplaced synchronously with the western part of the East Sakhalin accretionary complex. This scenario defines the Early Cretaceous tectonic zonation of the region and the choice of the appropriate paleotectonic model. At the end of the Early Cretaceous, a single convergent boundary of the lithospheric plates is suggested with the position of the Sakhalin island arc system south of the Khingan–Okhotsk active continental margin.