Accretionary processes and metallogenesis of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt: Advances and perspectives

Abstract

As one of the largest Phanerozoic orogens in the world, the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) is a natural laboratory for studies of continental dynamics and metallogenesis. This paper summarizes the research progresses of the accretionary processes and metallogenesis of the CAOB since the People's Republic of China was founded, and puts forward the prospect for future research. During the early period (1950s-1970s), several geological theories were applied to explain the geological evolution of Central Asia. In the early period of China's reform and opening-up, the plate tectonics theory was applied to explain the evolution of the northern Xinjiang and Xingmeng regions, and the opinion of subduction-collision between Siberian, Kazakhstan, and China-North Korea-Tarim plates was proposed. The idea of the Solonker-Yanbian suture zone was established. In the 1990s, the study of the CAOB entered a period of rapid development. One school of scholars including geologists from the former Soviet Union proposed a multi-block collision model for the assemblage of the CAOB. In contrast, another school of scholars, led by a Turkish geologist, Celal Şengör, proposed that the Altaids was formed through the growth and strike-slip duplicates of a single island arc, and pointed out that the Altaids is a special type of collisional orogen. During this period, Chinese geologists carried out a lot of pioneering researches on ophiolites and high-pressure metamorphic rocks in northern China, and confirmed the main suture zones accordingly. In 1999, the concept of "Central Asian metallogenic domain" was proposed, and it became one of the three major metallogenic domains in the world. Since the 21st century, given the importance for understanding continental accretion and metallogenic mechanism, the CAOB has become the international academic forefront. China has laid out a series of scientific research projects in Central Asia. A large number of important scientific research achievements have been spawned, including the tectonic attribution of micro-continents, timing and tectonic settings of ophiolites, magmatic arcs, identification and anatomy of accretionary wedges, regional metamorphism-deformation, (ultra)high-pressure metamorphism, ridge subduction, plume-plate interaction, archipelagic paleogeography and spatio-temporal framework of multiple accretionary orogeny, continental growth, accretionary metallogenesis, structural superposition and transformation, etc. These achievements have made important international influences. There still exist the following aspects that need further study: (1) Early evolution history and subduction initiation of the Paleo-Asian Ocean; (2) The accretionary mechanism of the extroversion Paleo-Asian Ocean; (3) The properties of the mantle of the Paleo-Asian Ocean and their spatiotemporal distribution; (4) The interaction between the Paleo-Asian Ocean and the Tethys Ocean; (5) Phanerozoic continental growth mechanism and its global comparison; (6) Accretionary metallogenic mechanism of the Central Asi...

Radiolarian age and geochemistry of cherts from the Atbashi accretionary complex, Kyrgyz South Tianshan

“…(b) Geological map of the Tianshan orogen in Kyrgyzstan showing the major Palaeozoic Ili-Central Tianshan magmatic arc and the South Tianshan accretionary complex with emphasis on the Atbashi Ridge. The sample locations of the four analysed cherts are marked (modified after Sang et al, 2018) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] Alexeiev, Xiao, Kröner, & Badarch, 2007;Xiao, Song, Windley, Li, & Zhang, 2020;Xiao, Huang, Han, Sun, & Li, 2010;Yakubchuk, 2017).…”

Early Permian to Late Triassic tectonics of the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt: geochronological and geochemical constraints from gabbros and granites in the northern Alxa area, NW China

“…1a). The CAOB mainly consists of microcontinents, island arcs, ophiolitic remnants and ocean plate stratigraphy (Wan et al 2018), is famous as the world's largest accretionary orogenic belt and represents a major site of significant Phanerozoic continental growth (Sengör et al 1993;Jahn et al 2000;Badarch et al 2002;Xiao et al 2004Xiao et al , 2009Xiao et al , 2015Xiao et al , 2019. Some authors also call the CAOB the Altaids (Sengör et al 1993;Windley et al 2007).…”

“…In past decades, many studies have been carried out, focusing on the closure of the ocean, the consequent architecture of the orogenic belt and the related continental growth (Zuo et al 1990;Wang et al 1993Wang et al , 1994Wu & He, 1993;Wu et al 1998;Xiao et al 2003Xiao et al , 2004Xiao et al , 2009Charvet et al 2011;Xu et al 2013;Liu et al 2016Liu et al , 2017Liu et al , 2018Fei et al 2019). The PAO is widely accepted to have finally closed along the northern margins of the North China and Tarim cratons (Sengör et al 1993;Xiao et al 2015Xiao et al , 2019. However, because of the different research methods used by different authors and the complex processes of accretionary orogenesis in the CAOB, the timing of the final closure of the PAO is still under debate, with a wide time span ranging from the Late Devonian to the Triassic (Xiao et al 2009;Han et al 2010;Charvet et al 2011;Xu et al 2013;Liu et al 2016Liu et al , 2017.…”

U–Pb age and Hf isotopic composition of detrital zircons from the modern river of the South Tianshan orogenic belt and their implications for Palaeozoic tectonic and crustal evolution

“…The Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB; Figure 1a), the largest Phanerozoic accretionary orogenic belt in the world (Xiao et al, 2014), is composed of abundant island arcs, accretionary wedges, ophiolites, back‐arc basins, oceanic arcs, and ancient continental blocks (Eizenhöfer & Zhao, 2018; Glorie et al, 2019; Vrublevskii, Nikiforov, Sugorakova, & Kozulina, 2020; Wang et al, 2020; Xiao et al, 2015; Xiao et al, 2020; Zhao et al, 2018; Zheng, Li, Zhang, Xiao, & Li, 2019; Zheng, Zhao, & Yang, 2019). The CAOB is characterised by the coexistence of young orogenic belts and old micro‐continents.…”