A Review of Early Permian (300–270 Ma) Magmatism in Eastern Kazakhstan and Implications for Plate Tectonics and Plume Interplay

Abstract

The history of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) was marked by several major events of magmatism which produced large volumes of volcanic and intrusive (mafic-ultramafic and granitic) rocks within a relatively short time span (30–40 Ma) over a vast area. The magmatic activity postdated the orogenic stages of accretionary-collisional belts in Central Asia and likely resulted from the impact of mantle plumes that formed Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs). The formation of the Tarim–South Mongolia LIP at 300–270 Ma is the best known among the major Permian events of basaltic and granitic magmatism. Early Permian igneous rocks (volcanic, subvolcanic and intrusive suites that vary from ultramafic to felsic compositions) of the same age range (300 to 270 Ma) have been recently found also in Eastern Kazakhstan, within the late Paleozoic Altai collisional system. The compositions and ages of the rocks suggest that the Eastern Kazakhstan magmatism was the northward expansion of the Tarim LIP. The spread of the Tarim LIP was apparently facilitated by lithospheric extension after the Siberia-Kazakhstan collision. The extension led to rheological weakening of the lithosphere whereby deep mantle melts could penetrate to shallower depths. The early Permian history of Eastern Kazakhstan was controlled by the interplay of plate tectonic and plume processes: plate-tectonic accretion and collision formed the structural framework, and the Tarim mantle plume was a heat source maintaining voluminous magma generation.

Geological History of the Great Altai: Implications for Mineral Exploration

“…In recent years, many objects mentioned in that work were re-dated using modern methods (U-Pb SHRIMP-II and LA_ICP-MS on magmatic zircon grains). The results of these studies are presented in some recent works, including with participation of the authors of this article [16,17,23,26,29,32]. It was proved that all the objects of East Kazakhstan, considered in [106] as Early and Middle Triassic, are in fact of Early Permian age.…”

“…Large deposits of rare-metal (Li-Cs-Ta-Nb-Be) pegmatites in the Kalba-Narym zone formed during the emplacement of phase 1 granitic batholith [16,17,26,32]. The large-scale Early Permian magmatism that covered vast territories in the western Central Asian Orogenic Belt and extended northward into the Great Altai region was presumably maintained by the activity of a mantle plume [26,29,[84][85][86], which formed the Tarim Large Igneous Province. Many ore deposits in the western part of the Central Asian orogenic belt were formed precisely in the Early Permian [87][88][89].…”

“…The Middle Carboniferous clastic deposition was interrupted by lava flows and deposition of tuff in a continental setting. The post-collisional Early Permian magmatism was especially extensive and produced 300 to 270 Ma compositionally diverse basaltandesite volcanic suites, gabbro-picritic hypabyssal and gabbro-monzonite-granite and plagiogranite intrusions, dolerite and lamprophyre dikes, and granodiorite-granite and granite-leucogranite batholiths [16,17,19,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

Mineralogical Tracers of Gold and Rare-Metal Mineralization in Eastern Kazakhstan

“…The rare-metal deposits within the Great Altai mainly occur within the Kalba-Narym belt and are related with Permian postcollisional granitic magmatism [7,10,[21][22][23]. Rare-metal pegmatites in the Central Kalba ore district (Figure 4) host the largest pegmatitic (Bakennoye, Yubileinoye, Belaya Gora, Upper Baimurza, etc.)…”

Geology, magmatism and specific features of mineralization of Bakyrchik ore field (Eastern Kazakhstan)

“…3, b, d). According to [9] and other processes, the formation of plagiogranite magmas of the Kunush complex can be associated with the melting of the substrate of the sinking ocean lithospheric plate in the subduction zone [9][10]. V. Yurkov, and others.…”