Mеsozoic Tectonothermal Evolution of the Zagan Metamorphic Core Complex in Western Transbaikalia: 40Ar/39Ar and FTA Dating

Abstract

A model of tectonothermal evolution of the Zagan metamorphic core complex (MCC) based on the new data from 40Ar/39Ar dating of amphibole, mica, and apatite fission-track dating is discussed. A relationship with the long-range impact of processes from the collision of the North China (Amurian–North China) block with the Siberian continent in the Mesozoic era is proposed. The Zagan MСС was formed in the Cretaceous period on the southern flank of a high mountain uplift of Western Transbaikalia, composed of late Paleozoic granitoids of the Angara–Vitim batholith. According to 40Ar/39Ar dating of amphiboles and micas from the mylonite zone, the active development time of the Zagan MCC corresponds to the early Cretaceous epoch (131, 114 Ma). The tectonic exposure of the core from about 15 km to the depths of about 10 km occurred at a rate of tectonic erosion of 0.4–0.3 mm/year as a result of post-collisional extension of the Mongol–Okhotsk orogen. Apatite fission-track dating shows that further exhumation and cooling of the rocks to about 3 km occurred in the lower-upper Cretaceous epoch (112, 87 Ma). The erosional denudation rate was about 0.3 mm/year.MCC- metamorphic core complexes, AFT- apatite fission-track