Thermal and exhumation history of Sakhalin Island (Russia) constrained by apatite U-Pb and fission track thermochronology

Abstract

Sakhalin Island represents a key locality to study the tectonic evolution of the western Pacific. The island is located at the Amur-Okhotsk plate margin and records a complex thermotectonic history. Apatite double dating (U-Pb and fission track) and thermal history modelling were applied to three late Eocene granitoid massifs within central and southern Sakhalin: the Aniva, Okhotsk and Langeri complexes. Apatite U-Pb results yield consistent late Eocene (∼40–37Ma) ages, suggesting rapid post-magmatic cooling. Apatite fission track results reveal bimodal age distributions with late Eocene – early Oligocene (∼38–33Ma) and early Miocene (∼20–17Ma) age populations that can be correlated with variations in Uranium and Chlorine concentrations. Thermal history modelling translates the AFT age bimodality into two-phase cooling histories. The timing of the early cooling phase (∼38–33Ma) corresponds with the apatite U-Pb ages, indicating rapid cooling to at least ∼100°C during the late Oligocene. The second cooling phase at ∼20–17Ma cooled the samples to near-surface temperatures. Both cooling phases correspond with regional unconformities and subsequent accelerations in sedimentation rate, suggesting that cooling was a response to rapid exhumation. In addition, our data suggests that the studied terranes record differential exhumation with respect to the structural architecture. The Miocene exhumation pulse is coeval with the timing of transpressional fault displacement and the subsequent opening of the Kuril Basin.