Abstract
The Altai Mountains form the northern part of the Cenozoic Central Asian intracontinental orogenic system that developed as a far-field effect of ongoing India-Eurasia convergence. Our study focuses on the southern Siberian Altai Mountains where basement rocks for apatite fission-track (AFT) analysis were sampled. These rocks are mainly Paleozoic granitoids that currently outcrop in several high mountain ranges along reactivated transpressive Paleozoic fault zones. These ranges are in most cases thrust systems adjacent to lacustrine intramontane basins. We present AFT results from the Chuya and Kurai ranges (3 samples) that are thrust over Late Cenozoic sediments of the Chuya-Kurai Basin and from the Shapshal range (4 samples) east of the Dzhulukul Basin. In addition, 5 samples were collected along a transect west of aforementioned study areas in the low-elevation areas of the Siberian Altai or Gorny Altai. Apparent AFT ages were found to be Mesozoic (roughly ranging between 180 and 80 Ma) and AFT length distributions show signs of thermal track fading (mean track lengths vary between 11.3 and 14.1 µm). AFT age and length data were modelled and thermal histories for the different sample sites reconstructed. These yield a two- to three-stage evolution: Late Jurassic-Cretaceous rapid basement cooling, a prolonged period of Late Cretaceous to Paleogene-Neogene stability, and a possible Late Cenozoic cooling to ambient temperatures.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Allen, M.B., Vincent, S.J., 1997. Fault reactivation in the Junggar region, northwest China: the role of basement structures during Mesozoic-Cenozoic compression. Journal of the Geological Society, London 154, 151–155.
Avouac, J.P., Tapponnier, P., 1993. Kinematic model of active deformation in Central Asia. Geophysical Research Letters 20, 895–898.
Bayasgalan, A., Jackson, J., Ritz, J.-F., Carretier, S., 1999. Forebergs, flower structures, and the development of large intracontinental strike-slip faults: the Gurvan Bogd fault system in Mongolia. Journal of Structural Geology 21, 1285–1302.
Bullen, M.E., Burbank, D.W., Garver, J.I., Abdrakhmatov, K,Ye., 2001. Late Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the northwestern Tien Shan: New age estimates for the initiation of mountain building GSA Bulletin 113, 1544–1559.
Buslov, M.M., Watanabe, T., 1996. Intrasubduction collision and its role in the evolution of an accretionary wedge: the Kurai zone of Gorny Altai (Central Asia). Russian Geology and Geophysics 37, 74–84.
Buslov, M.M., Zykin, V.S., Novikov, I.S., Delvaux, D., 1999. Cenozoic history of the Chuya depression (Gorny Altai): Structure and Geodynamics. Russian Geology and Geophysics, 40, 1687–1701.
Buslov, M.M., Saphonova, I.Yu., Watanabe, T., Obut, O.T., Fujiwara, Y., Iwata, K., Semakov, N.N., Sugai, Y., Smirnova, L.V., Kazansky, A.Yu., 2001. Evolution of the Paleo-Asian Ocean (Altai-Sayan region, Central Asia) and collision of possible Gondwana-derived terranes with the southern marginal part of the Siberian continent. Geosciences Journal 5, 203–224.
Buslov M.M., Watanabe, T., Smirnova, L.V., Fujiwara I., Iwata, K., De Grave, J., Semakov N.N., Travin, A.V., Kiryanova, A. P., Kokh, D.A., 2003. Role of strike-slip faults in Late Paleozoic-Early Mesozoic tectonics and geodynamics of the Altai-Sayan and East Kazakhstan folded zone. Russian Geology and Geophysics 44, 49–75.
Calais, E., Vergnolle, M., San’kov, V., Lukhnev, A., Miroshnitchenko, A., Amarjargal, S., Déverchère, J., 2003. GPS measurements of crustal deformation in the Baikal-Mongolia area (1994–2002): implications for current kinematics of Asia. Journal of Geophysical Research 108, 2501, doi:10.1029/2002JB002373, 13 pp.
Cunningham, D., Windley, B., Dorjnamjaa, D., Badamgarov, J., Saandar, M., 1996. A structural transect across the Mongolian western Altai: active transpressional mountain building in Central Asia. Tectonics 15, 142–156.
De Corte, F., Bellemans, F., Van den haute P., Ingelbrecht, C., Nicholl, C., 1998. A new U doped glass certified by the European Commission for the calibration of fission-track dating. In: Van den haute, P. and De Corte, F. (Eds.), Advances in fission-track geochronology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 67–78.
De Grave, J., Van den haute, P., 2002. Denudation and cooling of the Lake Teletskoye region in the Altai Mountains (South Siberia) as revealed by apatite fission-track thermochronology. Tectonophysics 349, 145–159.
De Grave, J., Buslov, M.M., Van den haute, P. (2007). Distant effects of India-Eurasia convergence and intracontinental deformation in Central Asia: constraints from apatite fission-track thermochronology. Journal of Asian Earth Science, 29, 188–204.
Dehandschutter, B., Delvaux, D., Boven, A., 1997. The Lake Teletsk tectonic depression (Altai): new kinematic data and chronological relations. Annual Report of the Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium 1995–1996, 147–167.
Dehandschutter, B., Vysotsky, E., Delvaux, D., Klerkx, J., Buslov, M.M., Seleznev, V.S., De Batist, M., 2002. Structural evolution of the Teletsk graben (Russian Altai). Tectonophysics 351, 139–167.
Delvaux, D., Moeys, R., Stapel, G., Melnikov, A., Ermikov, V., 1995a. Paleostress reconstructions and geodynamics of the Baikal region, Central Asia, Part 1. Palaeozoic and Mesozoic pre-rift evolution. Tectonophysics 252, 61–101.
Delvaux, D., Theunissen, K., Van der Meer, R., Berzin, N., 1995b. Dynamics and paleostress of the Cenozoic Kurai-Chuya depression of Gorny Altai (South Siberia): tectonic and climatic control. Russian Geology and Geophysics 36, 26–45.
Dobretsov, N.L., Vladimirov, A.G., 2001. Continental growth in the Phanerozoic: Evidence from Central Asia. Geology, magmatism and metamorphism of the western part of Altai-Sayan Fold Region. IGCP-420, 3rd Workshop, Field Excursion Guide. Novosibirsk, pp. 139.
Dobretsov, N.L., Berzin, N.A., Buslov, M.M., Ermikov, V.D., 1995. General aspects of the evolution of the Altai region and the interrelationships between its basement pattern and the neotectonic structural development. Russian Geology and Geophysics 36, 3–15.
Dobretsov, N.L., Buslov, M.M., Delvaux, D., Berzin, N.A., Ermikov, V.D., 1996. Meso-and Cenozoic tectonics of the Central Asian mountain belt: effects of lithospheric plate interaction and mantle plumes. International Geology Review 38, 430–466.
Graham, S.A., Hendrix, M.S., Johnson, C.L., Badamgarav, D., Badarch, G., Amory, J., Porter, M., Barsbold, R., Webb, L.E., Hacker, B.R., 2001. Sedimentary record and its implications of Mesozoic rifting in southeast Mongolia. GSA Bulletin 113, 1560–1579.
Green, P.F., Duddy, I.R., Gleadow, A.J.W., Tingate, P.R., Laslett, G.M., 1986. Thermal annealing of fission tracks in apatite.1. A qualitative description. Chemical Geology (Isotopes Geoscience Section) 59, 237–253.
Hendrix, M.S., Dumitru, T.A., Graham, S.A., 1994. Late Oligocene — Early Miocene unroofing in the Chinese Tien Shan: an early effect of the India-Asia collision. Geology 22, 487–490.
Howard, J.P., Cunningham, W.D., Davies, S.J., Dijkstra, A.H., Badarch, G., 2003. The stratigraphic and structural evolution of the Dzereg Basin, western Mongolia: clastic sedimentation, transpressional faulting and basin destruction in an intraplate, intracontinental setting. Basin Research 15, 45–72.
Hurford, A.J., 1990. Standardization of fission track dating calibration: Recommendation by the Fission Track Working Group of the I.U.G.S. Subcommission on Geochronology. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geoscience Section) 80, 171–178.
Hurford, A.J., Green, P.F., 1983. The zeta age calibration of fission-track dating. Geoscience 1, 285–317.
Johnson, C.L., 2004. Polyphase evolution of the East Gobi basin: sedimentary and structural records of Mesozoic-Cenozoic intraplate deformation in Mongolia. Basin Research 16, 79–99.
Jolivet, M., Brunel, M., Seward, D., Xu, Z., Yang, J., Roger, F., Tapponnier, P., Malavieille, J., Arnaud, N., Wu, C., 2001. Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonics of the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau: fission-track constraints. Tectonophysics 343, 111–134.
Jonckheere, R., 2003. On the densities of etchable fission tracks in a mineral and co-irradiated external detector with reference to fission-track dating of minerals. Chemical Geology 200, 41–58.
Ketcham, R.A., Donelick, R.A., Carlson, W.D., 1999. Variability of apatite fission-track annealing kinetics: III. Extrapolation to geologic time scales. American Mineralogist 84, 1235–1255.
Ketcham, R.A., Donelick, R.A., Donelick, M.B., 2000. AFTSolve: A program for multi-kinetic modelling of apatite fission-track data. Geological Materials Research 2, 1–32.
Khain, E.V., Bibikova, E.V., Salnikova, E.B., Kröner, A., Gibsher, A.S., Didenko, A.N., Degtyarev, K.E., Fedotova, A.A., 2003. The Palaeo-Asian ocean in the Neoproterozoic and early Palaeozoic: new geochronological data and palaeotectonic reconstructions. Precambrian Research 122, 329–358.
Kravchinsky, V.A., Cogné, J.-P., Harbert, W.P., Kuzmin, M.I., 2002. Evolution of the Mongol-Okhotsk ocean as constrained by new paleomagnetic data from the Mongol-Okhotsk suture zone, Siberia. Geophysical Journal International 148, 34–57.
Laslett, G.M., Green, P.F., Duddy, I.R., Gleadow, A.J.W., 1987. Thermal annealing of fission tracks in apatite. 2. A quantitative analysis. Chemical Geology (Isotopes Geoscience Section) 65, 1–13.
Molnar, P., Tapponnier, P., 1975. Cenozoic tectonics of Asia: Effects of a continental collision. Science 189, 419–426.
Nikolaeva, T.V., Shuvalov, V.F., 1995. Mesozoic and Cenozoic evolution of surface topography in Mongolia. Geomorfologiya 2, 54–65.
Novikov, I.S., 2002. Late Paleozoic, Middle Mesozoic, and Late Cenozoic stages of the Altai orogeny. Russian Geology and Geophysics 43, 432–443.
Novikov, I.S., Delvaux, D., Agatova, A.R., 1998. Neotectonics of the Kurai ridge (Gorny-Altai). Russian Geology and Geophysics 39, 970–977.
Philip, H., Ritz, J.-F., 1999. Gigantic paleolandslides associated with active faulting along the Bogd fault (Gobi-Altay, Mongolia). Geology 27, 211–214.
Pinous, O.V., Sahagian, D.L., Shurygin, B.N., Nikitenko, B.L., 1999. High-resolution sequence stratigraphic analysis and sea-level interpretation of the middle and upper Jurassic strata of the Nyurolskaya depression and vicinity (southeastern West Siberia, Russia). Marine and Petroleum Geology 16, 245–257.
Pollitz, F., Vergnolle, M., Calais, E., 2003. Fault interaction and stress triggering of twentieth century earthquakes in Mongolia. Journal of Geophysical Research 108, 2503, doi:10.1029/2002 JB002375, 14 pp.
Şengör, A.M.C., Natal’in, B.A., Burtman, V.S., 1993. Evolution of the Altaid tectonic collage and Palaeozoic crustal growth in Eurasia. Nature 364, 299–307.
Sobel, E.R., Dumitru, T.A., 1997. Thrusting and exhumation around the margins of the western Tarim Basin during the India-Asia collision. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, 5043–5064.
Tapponnier, P., Molnar, P., 1979. Active faulting and Cenozoic tectonics of the Tien Shan, Mongolia, and Baykal regions. Journal of Geophysical Research 84 3425–3459.
Thomas, J.C., Lanza, R., Kazansky, A., Zykin, V., Semakov, N., Mitrokhin, D., Delvaux, D., 2002. Paleomagnetic study of Cenozoic sediments from the Zaisan basin (SE Kazakhstan) and the Chuya depression (Siberian Altai): tectonic implications for central Asia. Tectonophysics 351, 119–137.
Tomurtogoo, O., Windley, B.F., Kröner, A., Badarch, G., Liu, D.Y., 2005. Zircon age and occurrence of the Adaatsag ophiolite and Muron shear zone, central Mongolia: constraints on the evolution of the Mongol-Okhotsk ocean, suture and orogen. Journal of the Geological Society, London 162, 125–134.
Van den haute, P., De Corte, F., Jonckheere, R., Bellemans, F., 1998. The parameters that govern the accuracy of fission-track age determinations: a re-appraisal. In: Van den haute, P. and De Corte, F. (Eds.), Advances in fission-track geochronology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 33–46.
Van der Beek, P., Delvaux, D., Andriessen, P.A.M., Levi, K.G., 1996. Early Cretaceous denudation related to convergent tectonics in the Baikal region, SE Siberia. Journal of the Geological Society London 153, 515–523.
Vergnolle, M., Pollitz, F., Calais, E., 2003. Constraints on the viscosity of the continental crust and mantle from GPS measurements and postseismic deformation models in western Mongolia. Journal of Geophysical Research 108, 2502, doi:10.1029/2002JB002374, 15 pp.
Vyssotski, A.V., Vyssotski, V.N., Nezhdanov, A.A., 2006. Evolution of the West Siberian Basin. Marine and Petroleum Geology 23, 93–126.
Wagner, G.A., Van den haute, P., 1992. Fission Track-Dating. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 285 pp.
Yuan, W., Carter, A., Dong, J., Bao, Z., An, Y., Guo, Z., 2006. Mesozoic-Tertiary exhumation history of the Altai Mountains, northern Xinjiang, China: new constraints from apatite fission track data. Tectonophysics 412, 183–193.
Zorin, Yu.A., 1999. Geodynamics of the western part of the Mongolia-Okhotsk collisional belt, Trans-Baikal region (Russia) and Mongolia. Tectonophysics 306, 33–56.
Zykin, V.S., Kazansky, A.Y., 1995. Main problems of stratigraphy and paleomagnetism of Cenozoic (prequaternary) deposits in the Chuya depression of Gorno Altay. Russian Geology and Geophysics 35, 75–90.
Zykin, V.S., Lebedeva, N.K., Buslov, M.M., Marinov, V.A., 1999. The Discovery of Marine Upper Cretaceous in the Altai Mountains. Doklady Akademii Nauka, Earth Science Section, 367, 610–613.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
De Grave, J., Buslov, M.M., Van den Haute, P., Dehandschutter, B., Delvaux, D. (2007). Meso-Cenozoic Evolution of Mountain Range - Intramontane Basin Systems in the Southern Siberian Altai Mountains by Apatite Fission-Track Thermochronology. In: Lacombe, O., Roure, F., Lavé, J., Vergés, J. (eds) Thrust Belts and Foreland Basins. Frontiers in Earth Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69426-7_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69426-7_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-69425-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69426-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)