Late Riphean episode in the formation of crystalline rock complexes in the Dzabkhan microcontinent: Geological, geochronologic, and Nd isotopic-geochemical data

The Early Caledonian Central Asian Orogenic Belt hosts fragments of continental blocks with Early and Late Precambrian crystalline basement. One of the structures with an Early Precambrian basement was thought to be the Dzabkhan microcontinent, which was viewed as an Early Precambrian “cratonal terrane”. The first geochronologic data suggest that the basement of the Dzabkhan microcontinent includes a zone of crystalline rocks related to Late Riphean tectonism. Geological, geochronological (U-Pb zircon dates), and Nd isotopic-geochemical data were later obtained on the northwestern part of the Dzabkhan microcontinent. The territory hosts the most diverse metamorphic complexes thought to be typical of the Early Precambrian basement. The complexes were determined to comprise the Dzabkhan-Mandal and Urgamal zones of high-grade metamorphic rocks. Gabbrodiorites related to the early metamorphic episode and dated at 860 ± 3 Ma were found in the Dzabkhan-Mandal zone, and the gneiss-granites marking the termination of this episode were dated at 856 ± 2 Ma. The granitoids of the Dzabkhan batholith, whose emplacement was coeval with the termination of the late high-grade metamorphic episode in rocks of both zones, have an age of 786 ± 6 Ma. Similar age values were determined for the granitoids cutting across the Late Precambrian rocks of the Songino and Tarbagatai blocks, which mark the stage when the mature Late Riphean continental crust was formed. The Late Riphean magmatic and metamorphic rocks of the Dzabkhan microcontinent were found out to have Nd model ages mostly within the range of 1.1–1.4 Ga at ɛ Nd (T) from +1.9 to +5.5. The Nd model age of the metaterrigenous rocks is 2.2−1.3 Ga at ɛ Nd (T) from −7.2 to +3.1. The results of our studies provide evidence of convergence processes, which resulted in the Late Riphean (880−780 Ma) continental crust in Central Asia. Simultaneously with these processes, divergence processes that were responsible for the breakup of Rodinia occurred in the structures of the ancient cratons. It is reasonable to suggest that divergence processes within ancient continental blocks and Rodinia shelf were counterbalanced by the development of the Late Riphean continental crust in the convergence zones of its surrounding within established interval.