SHRIMP zircon chronology of HP-UHP rocks of the Makbal metamorphic complex in the Northern Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan

Permian age of orogenic thickening and crustal melting in the Garm Block, South Tien Shan, Tajikistan

“…According to recent publications Archean and Paleoproterozoic amphiboliteto granulite-facies metamorphic events were confirmed only in the northern margin of the Tarim Craton Shu et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2012Zhang et al, , 2013 and the Dunhuang Block He et al, 2012He et al, , 2013He et al, , 2014. Numerous slivers of metamorphic rocks in the Kyrgyz Northern Tien Shan yielded Meso-and Neoproterozoic ages (Konopelko et al, 2012(Konopelko et al, , 2014Kröner et al, 2009Kröner et al, , 2011Kröner et al, , 2012Kröner et al, , 2013, and may be parts of a larger Mesoproterozoic continent whose fragments are preserved in Kazakhstan, the Chinese Central Tien Shan and the Tarim Craton . A few Paleozoic medium P/Tseries metamorphic belts in the southern CAOB include Early Paleozoic metamorphism in the Altai (Jiang et al, 2010;Kruk et al, 2013) while the Lolabulak-Baysuntau belt in Uzbekistan displays Devonian metamorphic ages (Mirkamalov et al, 2012).…”

Final Assembly of the Southwestern Central Asian Orogenic Belt as Constrained by the Evolution of the South Tianshan Orogen: Links With Gondwana and Pangea

“…The CTB consists of the Kyrgyz Middle Tianshan (also referred to as Ishim–Middle Tianshan) and the Chinese Central Tianshan (Kröner et al, ; Qian et al, ; Windley et al, ). The tectonic boundary between the CTB and KNTS is marked by the Terskey–North Nalati suture zone that contains Cambrian to early Ordovician ophiolitic mélanges, UHP eclogite‐facies rocks (i.e., Makbal), and associated turbidites (Klemd et al, ; Konopelko et al, ; Kröner et al, ; Lomize et al, ; Meyer et al, ; Qian et al, ; Rojas‐Agramonte et al, ). Early Precambrian rocks in the CTB yielded Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic ages (Kröner et al, ; Wang, Gao, et al, ; Wang, Gao, et al, ), and they are unconformably overlain by early Neoproterozoic siliciclastic rocks and limestones; late Neoproterozoic volcano‐sedimentary rocks, dolomites, and glacial diamictites; and Cambrian to early Ordovician shallow‐marine phosphorous clastic‐carbonate formations (Levashova et al, ).…”

“…Some authors proposed that the opening of the South Tianshan Ocean was initiated by back-arc rifting off the CTB from the northern Tarim Craton in the early Devonian , Han, Zhao, Cawood, et al, 2016. However, this is inconsistent with the closure of the Terskey Ocean at~470 Ma (Konopelko et al, 2012;Lomize et al, 1997;Qian et al, 2009) and the >440 Ma Wuwamen ophiolite (this study) as well as the~448-422 Ma ophiolitic mélanges with early Ordovician to early Silurian fossils in the Kyrgyz South Tianshan (Table S10 and Figure 12; Alexeiev et al, 2016;Biske & Seltmann, 2010;Dolgopolova et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2016). In addition, Safonova et al (2016) reported late Silurian to early Carboniferous elements consistent with an ocean plate stratigraphy in the Kyrgyz South Tianshan and thus suggested that the South Tianshan Ocean was a relatively large oceanic realm during this period.…”

“…The final assembly of Gondwana was achieved by multiple orogenic events between 570 and 470 Ma, such as the Brasiliano Orogen, the North Indian Orogen, and the Ross‐Delamerian Orogen (Cawood et al, ; Cawood & Buchan, ; Collins & Pisarevsky, ). Intriguingly, the western CAOB recorded coeval orogenic events, as indicated by the 530–470 Ma (ultra)high‐pressure [(U)HP] metamorphism in the Kokchetav, Anrakhai, Aktyuz, Makbal, and Barleik metamorphic terranes (Figure ; Alexeiev et al, ; Hermann et al, ; Klemd et al, ; Konopelko et al, ; Liu, Han, et al, ; Rojas‐Agramonte et al, ). The Tarim and North China cratons bordering the CAOB to the north were thought to have been incorporated into northeast Gondwana based on the ~510–470 Ma (U)HP metamorphism along their southern margins (Han, Zhao, Cawood, et al, ; Metcalfe, ), which is in contrast with suggestions that both were unconnected with the Gondwana margin throughout the Paleozoic (Cocks & Torsvik, ; Wilhem et al, ).…”

Late Devonian–early Permian accretionary orogenesis along the North Tianshan in the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt

“…The Ili-Tianshan unit is part of the southeastern limb of the Kazakhstan Orocline, and is considered to comprise three Palaeozoic island arcs with Precambrian basements, namely, Syr Darya, Issyk Kul, and Borohoro Arcs ( Figure 3), which are mutually separated from south to north by the intervening Terskey and Ili suture zones (Alexyutin et al 2005;Samygin and Burtman 2009;Alexeiev et al 2011;Seltmann et al 2011;Konopelko et al 2012;Kröner et al 2012). Neoproterozoic gneisses (zircon U-Pb ages) occur in several places within the Ili unit in China including the Wenquan area south of Sailimu Lake (904 ± 13 to 916 ± 9 Ma, Hu et al 2010), and at Bingdaban and Laerdundaban (882 ± 33 to 969 ± 11 Ma, Chen et al 2000;Yang et al 2008;).…”