Age, Petrogenesis and Tectonic Implications of the Late Permian Peraluminous and Metaluminous Magmatic Rocks in the Middle Gobi Volcanoplutonic Belt, Mongolia

Abstract

The Mongol–Okhotsk Belt, the youngest segment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, formed by the evolution and closure of the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean. The oceanic closure formed two volcanoplutonic belts: Selenge Belt in the north and Middle Gobi Belt in the south (in present day coordinates). However, the origin and tectonic evolution of the Mongol–Okhotsk Belt in general, the origin and formation age of the Middle Gobi Belt in particular, remain enigmatic. To better understand the history of the magmatic activity in the Middle Gobi Belt, we conducted geochemical, U–Pb geochronological, zircon Hf, whole-rock Nd isotopic analyses of volcanic and plutonic rocks of the Mandalgovi suite, the major component of the Middle Gobi Belt. Our results show that the Mandalgovi suite consists of (i) 265 ± 2 Ma biotite-granite; (ii) 250 ± 3 Ma hornblende-granitoids; (iii) their volcanic equivalents of both: and (iv) gabbro-diorites. The geochemical compositions indicate that their precursor magmas were derived from crustal source. The protoliths of the biotite and hornblende-granitoids were metagraywacke and metabasalt, respectively. They are characterized by positive whole-rock εNd(t) and zircon εHf(t) values, indicating the molten protoliths were juvenile crust. The biotite-granites formed by remelting of fore-arc sediments by ridge subduction and later hornblende-granites were emplaced at an intra-oceanic arc by the subduction of the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean. We conclude that the magmatic rocks of the Middle Gobi formed in an active continental margin and/or intra-oceanic arc setting.