The Late Cretaceous-Paleogene active margin of Northeastern Asia: Geodynamic setting of terrigenous sedimentary basins in the Central Koryak terrane

Abstract

The northeastern segment of the Late Cretaceous suprasubduction Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt is not an analogue of Andean-type continental margin. During its formation, the belt was separated from the Paleopacific by a complexly built assembly that comprised the Central Koryak continental block and the Essoveem volcanic arc at its margin. Various types of independent terrigenous sedimentary basins were formed in the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleogene at the subsided portion of the microcontinent and its slope. The Uchkhichkhil-type basin was characterized by deposition of polymictic clastic sediments produced during erosion of the volcanic arc and pyroclastic material derived from active volcanic centers of this arc that extended along the microcontinent margin that faced the Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt. The deposition of quartz-feldspathic flyschoid sequences as products of scouring of sialic basement of the continental block was inherent to the Ukelayat type of sedimentation. The closure of the minor oceanic basin that separated the Asian margin from microcontinent in the late Campanian resulted in the cessation of subduction-related activity of the Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt and the Essoveem arc and initiated the formation of the Late Cretaceous accretionary margin of Asia. The deep structure of the central Koryak Highland deduced from the results of seismic surveying with the earthquake converted-wave method has corroborated the geotectonic interpretation.