The Ust-Belaya ophiolite terrane, West Koryak Orogen: Isotopic dating and paleotectonic interpretation

Abstract

The Ust-Belaya ophiolite terrane in the West Koryak Orogen, which is the largest in northeastern Asia, consists of three nappe complexes. The upper Ust-Belaya Nappe is composed of a thick (>5 km) sheet of fertile peridotites and mafic rocks (remnants of the proto-Pacific lithosphere); its upper age boundary is marked by Late Neoproterozoic plagiogranites. In the middle Tolovka-Otrozhny Nappe, the Late Precambrian lherzolite-type ophiolites are supplemented by fragments of tectonically delaminated harzburgite-type ophiolites, which make up the Tolovka rock association. The isotopic age of metadacite (K-Ar method, whole-rock sample) and zircons from plagiogranite porphyry (U-Pb method, SHRIMP) determines the upper chronological limit of the Tolovka ophiolites as 262–265 Ma ago. It is suggested that igneous rocks of these ophiolites were generated in a backarc basin during the Early Carboniferous and then incorporated into the fold-nappe structure in the Mid-Permian. This was the future basement of the Koni-Taigonos arc, where the Early Carboniferous ophiolites together with Late Neoproterozoic precursors were subject to low-temperature metamorphism and intruded by plagiogranite porphyry dikes in Permian-Triassic. The polymicte serpentinite melange, which was formed in the accretionary complex of the Koni-Taigonos arc comprises rock blocks of the upper units of Late Precambrian ophiolites (in particular, plagiogranite), the overlying Middle to Upper Devonian and Early Carboniferous deposits, as well as Early Carboniferous (?) Tolovka ophiolites and meta-ophiolites. Melange of this type with inclusions of Late Precambrian “oceanic” granitoids also developed in the lower Utyosiki Nappe composed of Middle Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous sedimentary and volcanic sequences, the formation of which was related to the next Uda-Murgal island-arc systems.