Hidden Middle Devonian Magmatism of North-Eastern Siberia: Age Constraints from Detrital Zircon U–Pb Data

Abstract

We present new data on the tectonic evolution of north-eastern Siberia using an integrated provenance analysis based on U–Pb detrital zircon dating and sandstone petrography of Devonian sedimentary strata. Our petrographic data suggest that Upper Devonian sandstones of north-eastern Siberia were derived from a local provenance, supported by the widespread distribution of ca. 1900–2000 Ma magmatic events in the basement of the neighboring Ust’-Lena and Olenek uplifts. Devonian detrital zircon age distributions of the Devonian sandstones are similar to ages of Middle Paleozoic magmatic rocks of Yakutsk-Vilyui large igneous province (LIP). Therefore, we suggest that the studied sandstones were derived from proximally-located uplifted blocks composed of Proterozoic–Devonian rocks and Middle–Late Devonian volcanics. Moreover, the abundance of Middle–Late Devonian zircons is suggestive of a wider distribution of coeval magmatism across north-eastern Siberia than previously supposed. We propose that widespread Devonian magmatism associated with the Yakutsk-Vilyui LIP also occurred to the east of our study area and is now buried beneath thick Carboniferous–Jurassic sedimentary rocks of the eastern Siberian passive margin, subsequently deformed into the Late Jurassic–Cretaceous Verkhoyansk fold-and-thrust belt. We also propose that the major pulse of the Yakutsk-Vilyui LIP occurred in north-eastern Siberia during the Middle Devonian at ca. 390 Ma, some 15 million years earlier than within the Vilyui rift basin in eastern Siberia (ca. 375 Ma).

Keywords

• Siberia
• Arctic
• Middle Paleozoic
• paleogeography
• detrital zircons