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Precambrian Research

Volume 354, March 2021, 106049
Precambrian Research

Evidence of the latest Paleoproterozoic (~1615 Ma) mafic magmatism the southern Siberia: Extensional environments in Nuna supercontinent

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2020.106049Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Dolerite sills in the Biryusa inlier of the southern Siberian craton have age ca. 1.61 Ga.

  • The dolerites were generated from mantle source produced by interaction between OIB and ACR-like magmas.

  • The dolerites and coeval rift-related sedimentary strata suggest an overall extensional tectonic environments at 1.65 – 1.60 Ga.

  • Ca. 1.65 – 1.58 Ga mafic and felsic intrusions within Nuna supercontinent suggest the overall extensional tectonic environments.

Abstract

The paper presents a new geological, geochronological, geochemical and Nd isotopic data on the latest Paleoproterozoic dolerite sills, exposed in the Biryusa inlier of the southern Siberian craton among the sandstones of sedimentary sequence traditionally suggested as Neoproterozoic. One dolerite sill yielded U-Pb (ID-TIMS) baddeleyite concordia age of 1613 ± 5 Ma, which interpreted as time of their emplacement. New geochronological data allow reconsider previously reported Neoproterozoic age of sedimentary sequence hosting dolerite sills studied and suggest for them at least Paleoproterozoic age. The dolerites correspond to subalkaline and alkaline tholeiitic basalts and less often subalkaline tholeiitic basaltic andesite according to their major-element compositions with lower to moderate mg#, varying from 26 to 58. All dolerites demonstrate a similar slightly negative ɛNd(t) values range from −2.2 to −2.5. Geological, geochemical and Nd isotopic data suggest that mafic melts responsible for genesis of the dolerites were generated in an intracontinental extensional setting from homogeneous mantle source produced by interaction between OIB and ACR-like magmas. Geochemical features of the studied dolerites together with geological observations, namely – a presence of coeval rift-related sedimentary strata in the neighboring Urik-Iya graben (paleorift), suggest an overall extensional tectonic environments in the southern part of the Siberian Craton at 1.65–1.60 Ga. Synthesis of data on ca. 1.65–1.58 Ga magmatism around the world showed that the spatial distribution of various ca. 1.65–1.58 Ga mafic and felsic intrusions, including dyke swarms, anorogenic granites, as well as intracontinental basins within Nuna supercontinent suggest the overall extensional tectonic environments, probably related to the retreat of subduction slabs surrounded the supercontinent.

Introduction

Short (usually < 5 my, sometimes < 2 my), or longer (<50 my) impulses of magmatic activity related to intracontinental extensional environments are common in the Earth’s history (e.g. Ernst, 2014). In some cases largest of them (>105 cubic km) can initiate the process of continental breakup. Mafic sills and large dyke swarms are the major indicators of such events. Is this magmatism is caused by an extension, of vice versa – the question is widely debated (e.g. Ernst, 2014, Cawood et al., 2016 and references therein). As the process of crystallisation of relatively thin sub-surface dykes and sills is rather quick, the isotopic ages of such bodies provide the best approximation of the age of the magmatic impulse. If the sequence of such impulses is relatively long, it might indicate the incipient rifting event, which should be accompanied by an initiation of intracontinental basins filled with specific sedimentary successions (Furlanetto et al., 2016, Verbaas et al., 2018, Geng et al., 2019). The findings of exposed successions of this kind in spatial and temporal association with well dated mafic dykes and sills are quite rare for Precambrian. Such findings should be considered as important indicators of an intracontinental extensions.

Numerous indicators of this kind have been reported from the southern edge of the Siberian Craton for the 1.76–1.70 Ga time interval (Didenko, 2010, Larin, 2011, Larin, 2014, Larin et al., 2013, Gladkochub et al., 2010a, Gladkochub et al., 2014, Gladkochub et al., 2019a). They include several dyke swarms, anorogenic granites, rift-related volcano-sedimentary associations. However, our new data suggest one more rifting event around 1.6 Ga and demonstrate that extensional environments in this area did not expired at 1.7 Ga, but persisted almost until the beginning of Mesoproterozoic.

We carried out a multi-disciplinary geological, geochronological, geochemical and isotopic study of the late Paleoproterozoic dolerite sills, exposed in the Biryusa inlier, located next to Urik-Iya graben (Fig. 1) filled with rift-related sedimentary strata of a possibly similar age (Gladkochub et al., 2014). Apart from a precise dating of dolerites, we aimed to improve our knowledge of the age of their host strata. We also analysed similar data from other continents and propose some generalization and implications for the ca. 1.6 Ga global paleogeography.

Section snippets

Geological setting

The Siberian craton was formed in Paleoproterozoic (2.00 – 1.85 Ga) by the assembly of Archean and Paleoproterozoic terranes (building blocks) in one common structure (e.g. Rosen et al., 1994, Rosen, 2003, Gladkochub et al., 2006a, Glebovitsky et al., 2008, Donskaya, 2020). The craton is subdivided into several superterranes (Fig. 1). The basement rocks of these superterranes are exposed in southern part of the craton (from S-W to S-E) in the Kan, Biryusa, Sharyzhalgai, Baikal, Tonod, Stanovoy

Methods

Seven samples from Biryusa sills (Fig. 2) were collected for analysis of major-oxide, trace-elements, REE abundances. The Sm-Nd isotope systematics was analyzed in three samples, and U-Pb age was obtained for baddeleyite from one sample (No. 1130).

Major elements were analysed by wet chemistry at the Centre for Geodynamics and Geochronology of the Institute of the Earth’s Crust SB RAS (Irkutsk). Trace elements and rare earths were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Short review on general geology and mineralogy of dolerite sills

Several latest Paleoproterozoic dolerite sills are exposed in the middle reaches of the Biryusa River (Fig. 2). Studied sills are spread among the sandstones which are interpreted to belong in the Shangulezh Formation (lower part of the Karagas Group) sub-parallel to stratification (220 − 265° dip direction, 10 − 20° dip). Thickness of these sills vary from 20 up to 100–150 m.

Sills are composed of medium and coarse-grained dolerite. Rock-forming minerals are clinopyroxene and plagioclase. Less

Petrogenesis of dolerites

The studied Biryusa dolerites vary in the contents of strongly incompatible elements (Table 2, Fig. 5b), but show similar ratios of these elements, including Nb/Y, Zr/Y, Zr/Nb, Nb/Th, Th/Ta, Th/Yb, Nb/Yb, which reflect the sources and evolution of mafic melts, because they are invariants during partial melting and fractional crystallization. Similar incompatible element ratios as well as a narrow ɛNd(t) range in the studied dolerites allow their origination from a homogeneous source.

The studied

Conclusions

  • 1.

    An evidence of the latest Paleoproterozoic extension represented by dolerite intrusions has been discovered within the Biryusa inlier of the southern Siberian craton. The 1613 ± 5 Ma U-Pb baddeleyite concordia age of dolerites is interpreted as time of their emplacement.

  • 2.

    Geochemical and isotopic data suggest that mafic melts responsible for genesis of the Biryusa dolerites were generated in homogeneous mantle source produced by an interaction between OIB and ACR-like magmas.

  • 3.

    Geochemical

CRediT authorship contribution statement

D.P. Gladkochub: Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. T.V. Donskaya: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. S.A. Pisarevsky: Data curation, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. E.B. Salnikova: Data curation, Methodology, Visualization. A.M.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

We thank reviewers for their important comments which improved the manuscript. The research was supported by grant No. 18-17-00101 from the Russian Science Foundation (geochronological and geochemical investigations) and by grant No. 075-15-2019-1883 from the Ministry of Science and High Education of the Russian Federation. This is a contribution to IGCP 648, Supercontinent Cycles & Global Geodynamics.

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