Building a Young Mountain Range: Insight into the Growth of the Greater Caucasus Mountains from Detrital Zircon (U-Th)/He Thermochronology and 10Be Erosion Rates

Forte, Adam M.; Gutterman, Kate R; Soest, M. C. van; Gallagher, Kerry

doi:10.1002/essoar.10507045.3

Cited by 1 publication

(5 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…Even samples with few zircons (KZ2, KZ4, KZ5) still contain several grains of ~300 Ma age (Figure 4). This signature is also consistent with previously published detrital zircon spectra from modern river catchments that drain the Kazbegi region and are dominated by ages of ~450 and ~300 Ma (Figures 3 and 8;Forte et al, 2022;Tye et al, 2020). Thus, these data suggest that the Cenozoic suture lies along, or to the south of, the stratigraphic juxtaposition of Cretaceous rocks on Cenozoic strata (Figures 3 and 8; Kandelaki & Kakhazdze, 1957;Trexler et al, 2022).…”

Section: Caucasus Basinsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…In the western Svaneti region of Georgia, all samples in the northern, siliciclastic-dominated portions of the range (SV1, SV2, SV3, SV4, SV7, SV8) appear to share a provenance affinity with the Greater Caucasus crystalline core (Figure 3; Tye et al, 2020;Vasey et al, 2020), with all samples yielding major age peaks at ~450 and ~300 Ma, along with significant Precambrian and older Paleozoic grains (Figures 4 and 8). This result is consistent with recent detrital zircon data from modern river catchments that drain this region that also contain peaks at ~450 and ~300 Ma (Figures 3 and 8;Forte et al, 2022), suggesting that the major provenance break is south of all these samples.…”

Section: Caucasus Basinsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Closure of the Caucasus Basin and exhumation of the Greater Caucasus Mountains appears to have initiated by ~35 Ma (Avdeev & Niemi, 2011;Vincent et al, 2007Vincent et al, , 2011, with a marked acceleration in exhumation and deformation at ~10 to 5 Ma (Avdeev & Niemi, 2011;Forte et al, 2022;Mitchell & Westaway, 1999;Mosar et al, 2010;Vasey et al, 2020;Vincent et al, 2020). The present-day orogen is singly vergent in the western part of the range and doubly-vergent in the central and eastern parts (Forte et al, 2014;Mosar et al, 2010Mosar et al, , 2022, with active surface deformation largely concentrated within foreland fold-thrust belts to the south of the core of the range (e.g.…”

Section: Cenozoic Closure Of the Caucasus Basin And Development Of Th...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Building on prior work studying the Caucasus Basin and related rocks (e.g. Forte et al, 2022;Mosar et al, 2022;Trexler et al, 2022;Vasey et al, 2020), we primarily organize our results into samples collected along major river corridors in the western Svaneti (SV) and the eastern Kazbegi (KZ) regions of Republic of Georgia, separated by ~200 km along-strike (Figures 2b and 3). We also include a sample from Jurassic strata of the Northern Caucasus in Russia (RU) in a region of primarily magmatic and metamorphic rocks known as the Bechasyn Zone (Figure 2b; e.g.…”

Section: Caucasusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Samples from this study are indicated by circles (detrital zircon) or squares (igneous zircon U-Pb and Hf isotopes). Published detrital zircon samples are indicated by diamonds for (meta)sandstone samples (Cowgill et al, 2016;Vasey et al, 2020) or catchmentdelineating black polygons for modern sand samples (Forte et al, 2022;Tye et al, 2020). Detrital zircon samples are coloured by depositional age as interpreted in the text.…”

Section: Evolution Of the Caucasus Arc-back-arc Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Episodic evolution of a protracted convergent margin revealed by detrital zircon geochronology in the Greater Caucasus

Vasey,

Garcia,

Cowgill

et al. 2023

Basin Research

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Convergent margins play a fundamental role in the construction and modification of Earth's lithosphere and are characterized by poorly understood episodic processes that occur during the progression from subduction to terminal collision. On the northern margin of the active Arabia‐Eurasia collision zone, the Greater Caucasus Mountains provide an opportunity to study a protracted convergent margin that spanned most of the Phanerozoic and culminated in Cenozoic continental collision. However, the main episodes of lithosphere formation and deformation along this margin remain enigmatic. Here, we use detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology from Paleozoic and Mesozoic (meta)sedimentary rocks in the Greater Caucasus, along with select zircon U–Pb and Hf isotopic data from coeval igneous rocks, to link key magmatic and depositional episodes along the Caucasus convergent margin. Devonian to Early Carboniferous rocks were deposited prior to Late Carboniferous accretion of the Greater Caucasus crystalline core onto the Laurussian margin. Permian to Triassic rocks document a period of northward subduction and forearc deposition south of a continental margin volcanic arc in the Northern Caucasus and Scythian Platform. Jurassic rocks record the opening of the Caucasus Basin as a back‐arc rift during southward migration of the arc front into the Lesser Caucasus. Cretaceous rocks have few Jurassic‐Cretaceous zircons, indicating a period of relative magmatic quiescence and minimal exhumation within this basin. Late Cenozoic closure of the Caucasus Basin juxtaposed the Lesser Caucasus arc to the south against the crystalline core of the Greater Caucasus to the north and led to the formation of a hypothesized terminal suture. We expect this suture to be within ~20 km of the southern range front of the Greater Caucasus because all analysed rocks to the north exhibit a provenance affinity with the crystalline core of the Greater Caucasus.

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Section: Caucasus Basinsupporting

confidence: 90%