Tectonic entities connection between West Junggar (NW China) and East Kazakhstan

Abstract

West Junggar (NW China) and East Kazakhstan are situated in the southwest of the Central Asian orogenic belt (CAOB). Tectonic entities in the two areas share the same tectonic evolution history and make up the famous horseshoe-shaped orocline in Central Asia. This paper presents a newly compiled cross-border tectonic sketch map of West Junggar and East Kazakhstan and proposes the extension of the Chingiz–Tarbagatai belt and the North Balkhash-West Junggar belt.The Chingiz–Tarbagatai Belt in East Kazakhstan consists mainly of Middle-Late Ordovician differentiated volcanic rocks, pyroclastic sediments and flysch; while in the Tarbagatai Mountain in China, Tarbagatai (Kujibai) ophiolite is newly found with zircon (gabbro) age of 478±3Ma and the Ordovician flysch metamorphosed to a greenschist facies is distinguished from Devonian–Carboniferous rock associations. Therefore, the Early Paleozoic Chingiz–Tarbagatai belt of East Kazakhstan evidently extends to the northern part of West Junggar along the Tarbagatai orogenic belt.The North Balkhash-West Junggar belt lying south to the Chingiz–Tarbagatai belt is separated by the EW-trending Baiyanghe–Heshituoluogai depression in West Junggar. Early Ordovician–Early Silurian ophiolitic fragments and related pyroclastic sediments are widely exposed in Tekturmas, North Balkhash and Agadyr of East Kazashtan. Similarly, Early Paleozoic ophiolites have also been verified in Tangbale, Mayile, Baerluke, Darbut and Karamay of West Junggar in recent years. Therefore, nearly all ophiolites in West Junggar and East Kazakhstan are proved to have formed in Early Paleozoic, which suggests that the evolution of the paleo-ocean in the two areas reached its peak in the Early Paleozoic. Based on the ages of the Tangbale, Karamay and Hongguleleng ophiolites, an Early Paleozoic continental accretionary belt extending from Tangbale to Hongguleleng is determined at the NW margin of the Junggar basin for the first time. According to spatiotemporal comparison, ophiolites exposed in West Junggar and East Kazakhstan might originate from the same paleo-ocean tectonic region, and then the North Balkhash in East Kazakhstan and the West Junggar were offset for a long distance with respect to each other by the major Junggar dextral fault.Because of the large-scale accretion of continental crust before Silurian, the Late Paleozoic ocean in West Junggar and East Kazakhstan became smaller with residual nature, and extensive arc-basin-trench systems might be absent during the closure of this residual ocean.