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This study presents the first suite of apatite fission-track (AFT) ages from the SE part of the Western Sudetes. AFT cooling ages from the Orlica-snie(z) over dotnik Dome and the Upper Nysa Klodzka Graben range from Late Cretaceous (84 Ma) to Early Palaeocene-Middle Eocene (64-45 Ma). The first stage of basin evolution (similar to 100-90 Ma) was marked by the formation of a local extensional depocentre and disruption of the Mesozoic planation surface. Subsequent far-field convergence of European microplates resulted in Coniacian-Santonian (similar to 89-83 Ma) thrust faulting. AFT data from both metamorphic basement and Mesozoic sedimentary cover indicate homogenous Late Cretaceous burial of the entire Western Sudetes. Thermal history modeling suggests that the onset of cooling could be constrained between 89 and 63 Ma with a climax during the Palaeocene-Middle Eocene basin inversion phase.
The Permo-Triassic period marks the time interval between Hercynian (Variscan) orogenic events in the Tien Shan and the North Pamir, and the Cimmerian accretion of the Gondwana-derived Central and South Pamir to the southern margin of the Paleo-Asian continent. A well-preserved Permo-Triassic volcano-sedimentary sequence from the Chinese North Pamir yields important information on the geodynamic evolution of Asia’s pre-Cimmerian southern margin. The oldest volcanic rocks from that section are dated to the late Guadalupian epoch by a rhyolite and a dacitic dike that gave zircon U-Pb ages of ~260 Ma. Permian volcanism was largely pyroclastic and mafic to intermediate. Upsection, a massive ignimbritic crystal tuff in the Chinese Qimgan valley was dated to 244.1 +/- 1.1 Ma, a similar unit in the nearby Gez valley to 245 +/- 11 Ma, and an associated rhyolite to 233.4 +/- 1.1 Ma. Deposition of the locally ~200 m thick crystal tuff unit follows an unconformity and marks the onset of intense, mainly mafic to intermediate, calc-alkaline magmatic activity. Triassic volcanic activity in the North Pamir was coeval with the major phase of Cimmerian intrusive activity in the Karakul-Mazar arc-accretionary complex to the south, caused by northward subduction of the Paleo-Tethys. It also coincided with the emplacement of basanitic and carbonatitic dikes and a thermal event in the South Tien Shan, to the north of our study area. Evidence for arc-related magmatic activity in a back-arc position provides strong arguments for back-arc extension or transtension and basin formation. This puts the Qimgan succession in line with a more than 1000 km long realm of extensional Triassic back-arc basins known from the North Pamir in the Kyrgyz Altyn Darya valley (Myntekin formation), the North Pamir of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and the Afghan Hindukush (Doab formation) and further west from the Paropamisus and Kopet Dag (Aghdarband, NE Iran).
The Big Naryn Complex (BNC) in the East Djetim-Too Range of the Kyrgyz Middle Tianshan block is a tectonized, at least 2 km thick sequence of predominantly felsic to intermediate volcanic rocks intruded by porphyric rhyolite sills. It overlies a basement of metamorphic rocks and is overlain by late Neoproterozoic Djetim-Too Formation sediments; these also occur as tectonic intercalations in the BNC. The up to ca. 1100 m thick Lower Member is composed of predominantly rhyolites-to-dacites and minor basalts, while the at least 900 m thick pyroclastic Upper Member is dominated by rhyolitic-to-dacitic ignimbrites. Porphyric rhyolite sills are concentrated at the top of the Lower Member. A Lower Member rhyolite and a sill sample have LA-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon crystallization ages of 726.1 +/- 2.2 Ma and 720.3 +/- 6.5 Ma, respectively, showing that most of the magmatism occurred within a short time span in the late Tonian-early Cryogenian. Inherited zircons in the sill sample have Neoarchean (2.63, 2.64 Ga), Paleo- (2.33-1.81 Ga), Meso- (1.55 Ga), and Neoproterozoic (ca. 815 Ma) ages, and were derived from a heterogeneous Kuilyu Complex basement. A 1751 +/- 7 Ma Ar-40/Ar-39 age for amphibole from metagabbro is the age of cooling subsequent to Paleoproterozoic metamorphism of the Kuilyu Complex. The large amount of pyroclastic rocks, and their major and trace element compositions, the presence of Neoarchean to Neoproterozoic inherited zircons and a depositional basement of metamorphic rocks point to formation of the BNC in a continental magmatic arc setting.
The Salt Range in Pakistan exposes Precambrian to Pleistocene strata outcropping along the Salt Range Thrust (SRT). To better understand the in-situ Cambrian and Pliocene tectonic evolution of the Pakistan Subhimalaya, we have conducted low-temperature thermochronological analysis using apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He and fission track dating. We combine cooling ages from different samples located along the thrust front of the SRT into a thermal model that shows two major cooling events associated with rifting and regional erosion in the Late Palaeozoic and SRT activity since the Pliocene. Our results suggest that the SRT maintained a long-term average shortening rate of similar to 5-6 mm/yr and a high exhumation rate above the SRT ramp since similar to 4 Ma.
Precambrian microcontinents represent key tectonic units in the accretionary collages of the western Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), and their geological history is reasonably well established since the Mesoproterozoic but remains weakly constrained for older epochs due to a scarcity of exposed Palaeoproterozoic and Archaean rocks. Early Precambrian rocks were previously reported from several metamorphic complexes in the Kyrgyz Tianshan orogenic belt, mainly based on multigrain conventional zircon dating, but the present study only confirmed such rocks at one site, namely in the Kuilyu Complex of eastern Kyrgyzstan. New single grain SHRIMP II zircon ages, geochemical data, and whole-rock Nd isotopic compositions for granitoid gneisses of the Kuilyu Complex elucidate the age, origin and tectonic settings of this oldest continental fragment in the Tianshan. The Kuilyu Complex is part of the basement in the Ishim - Middle Tianshan microcontinent. It consist of a strongly deformed and metamorphosed supracrustal assemblage of paragneisses and schists which are tectonically interlayered with amphibolites, migmatites and granitoid gneisses. Our zircon dating indicates that the Kuilyu Complex contains two suites of Palaeoproterozoic granitoid gneisses with magmatic protolith ages of ca. 2.32-2.33 Ga and 1.85 Ga. Granitoid magmatism at 1.85 Ga was almost immediately followed by amphibolite-facies metamorphism at ca 1.83 Ga, evidenced by growth of metamorphic zircon rims. The older, ca 2.3 Ga granitoid gneisses chemically correspond to calc-alkaline, metaluminous, I-type magnesian quartz diorite and granodiorite. The protolith of the younger, ca. 1.85 Ga granite-gneiss is an alkalic-calcic, metaluminous to peraluminous, ferroan medium-grained porphyric granite with chemical features resembling A-type granites. The 2.3 Ga and 1.85 Ga granitoid gneisses have slightly to distinctly negative initial epsilon(Nd) values of -1.2 and -6.6, and similar depleted mantle Nd model ages of 2.7-2.6 Ga, which imply melting of Neoarchaean continental crust. The zircon age patterns of the Kuilyu Complex resemble those of exposed rocks in the Tarim Craton, where episodes of granitoid magmatism at ca. 2.3-2.4 and 1.85 Ga, followed by amphibolite-facies metamorphism at ca 1.85 Ga, are also recorded. Similarities in the early Precambrian magmatic and metamorphic episodes as well as similar histories during the Neoproterozoic and early Palaeozoic suggest that the Ishim-Middle Tianshan microcontinent was rifted off the Tarim Craton. Similar age patterns also suggest possible tectonic links of the Kuilyu and Tarim continental blocks with the Baidrag Block of central Mongolia. In contrast, substantial differences in age and Precambrian evolution between the Anrakhai block of southern Kazakhstan and the Kuilyu Complex argue against a previous connection and suggest the former to represent an independent continental terrane. Current data show that early Precambrian rocks in the western CAOB outside Tarim only occur at two sites, namely in the Anrakhai Complex of southern Kazakhstan and in the Kuilyu Complex of eastern Kyrgyzstan. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The Misho complex in Northwest Iran is a prominent topographic massif bounded by well known active faults. Our new structural analysis of this area indicates that faulting has important role in the exhumation of this complex. The conjugate orientation of the North and South Misho Faults caused uplift in the Misho and exhumation of the Precambrian crystalline basement. Our structural and stratigraphic data shows that rapid uplift could have been initiation since the 21-22 Ma and exhumation rate was about 0.16 to 0.24 km/Ma. To refine this age, we performed U/Pb analysis of detrital zircon from the Upper Red Formation using LA-ICP-MS. We conducted AFT analysis on 6 basement samples from the hanging wall and 1 sample from the Upper Red Formation in the footwall NMF. Uplift in the hanging wall of NMF led to resting of sample 916 marl. This geochronologic and thermochronologic data shows that exhumation in the MC is diachronously along strike and affected by faults. The phase of exhumation is documented in the study area and entire Iranian plateau is related to the final closure of the Neo-Tethys and northward motion of the Arabian Plate.
A geological transect across the suture separating northwestern South America from the Panama Arc helps document the provenance and thermal history of both crustal domains and the suture zone. During middle Miocene, strata were being accumulated over the suture zone between the Panama Arc and the continental margin. Integrated provenance analyses of those middle Miocene strata show the presence of mixed sources that includes material derived from the two major crustal domains: the old northwestern South American orogens and the younger Panama Arc. Coeval moderately rapid exhumation of Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene sediments forming the reference continental margin is suggested from our inverse thermal modeling. Strata within the suture zone are intruded by similar to 12 Ma magmatic arc-related plutons, marking the transition from a collisional orogen to a subduction-related one. Renewed late Miocene to Pliocene acceleration of the exhumation rates is the consequence of a second tectonic pulse, which is likely to be triggered by the onset of a flat-slab subduction of the Nazca plate underneath the northernmost Andes of Colombia, suggesting that late Miocene to Pliocene orogeny in the Northern Andes is controlled by at least two different tectonic mechanisms.
The Central Pontides of N Turkey represents a mobile orogenic belt of the southern Eurasian margin that experienced several phases of exhumation associated with the consumption of different branches of the Neo-Tethys Ocean and the amalgamation of continental domains. Our new low-temperature thermochronology data help to constrain the timing of these episodes, providing new insights into associated geodynamic processes. In particular, our data suggest that exhumation occurred at (1) similar to 110 to 90Ma, most likely during tectonic accretion and exhumation of metamorphic rocks from the subduction zone; (2) from similar to 60 to 40Ma, during the collision of the Kirehir and Anatolide-Tauride microcontinental domains with the Eurasian margin; (3) from similar to 0 to 25Ma, either during the early stages of the Arabia-Eurasia collision (soft collision) when the Arabian passive margin reached the trench, implying 70 to 530km of subduction of the Arabian passive margin, or during a phase of trench advance predating hard collision at similar to 20Ma; and (4) similar to 11Ma to the present, during transpression associated with the westward motion of Anatolia. Our findings document the punctuated nature of fault-related exhumation, with episodes of fast cooling followed by periods of slow cooling or subsidence, the role of inverted normal faults in controlling the Paleogene exhumation pattern, and of the North Anatolian Fault in dictating the most recent pattern of exhumation.
Understanding the geologic evolution of Northern Tibetan Plateau with multiple thermochronometers
(2018)
The early onset of deformation following the India-Asia collision, Neogene expanse of uplift, and complex systems that comprise strike-slip faults, thrust faults, and intermontane basins characterize the Cenozoic tectonism of Northern Tibetan Plateau and raise two prominent questions in orogenic geodynamics: 1) What mechanism(s) control(s) the transfer of stress related to the India-Asia collision across the distance of >2000 km; and 2) Why the development of high topography was delayed in the Northern Tibetan Plateau and what does it reveal about how the internal forces and external boundary conditions evolved. To address these two questions, we reconstruct a holistic spatial-temporal deformation history of the Northern Tibetan Plateau by using a range of thermochronometers, with closure temperature spanning from 350 degrees C to-60-70 degrees C. This multi-thermochronometer study reveals three stages of faulting related cooling, in the early Cretaceous, in Paleocene-Eocene and in middle-late Miocene. We observe that Paleocene-Eocene deformation was spatially restricted and mostly occurred on reactivated Cretaceous structures, indicating a control of pre-existing weakness on early Cenozoic deformation. Extensive Neogene deformation contrasts with restricted Paleocene-Eocene deformation and relatively quiescent shortening during the Oligocene-early Miocene, which implies a change in the regional tectonics regime. Global plate reconstructions show that this tectonic reorganization is coeval with an increase in Pacific-Asia plate convergence rates. We argue that this change in regional tectonics is a result of increasing constrictive environment of the eastern plate boundary, which changed the behavior of the Altyn Tagh fault the boundary fault of Northern Tibetan Plateau, causing it to change from feeding slip into structures out of the plateau to feeding slip into structures at plateau margins.
Marked along-strike changes in stratigraphy, mountain belt morphology, basement exhumation, and deformation styles characterize the Andean retroarc; these changes have previously been related to spatiotemporal variations in the subduction angle. We modeled new apatite fission track and apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He data from nine ranges located between 26 degrees S and 28 degrees S. Using new and previously published data, we constructed a Cretaceous to Pliocene paleogeographic model that delineates a four-stage tectonic evolution: extensional tectonics during the Cretaceous (120-75 Ma), the formation of a broken foreland basin between 55 and 30 Ma, reheating due to burial beneath sedimentary rocks (18-13 Ma), and deformation, exhumation, and surface uplift during the Late Miocene and the Pliocene (13-3 Ma). Our model highlights how preexisting upper plate structures control the deformation patterns of broken foreland basins. Because retroarc deformation predates flat-slab subduction, we propose that slab anchoring may have been the precursor of Eocene-Oligocene compression in the Andean retroarc. Our model challenges models which consider broken foreland basins and retroarc deformation in the NW Argentinian Andes to be directly related to Miocene flat subduction.