Abstract
Mesozoic rift basins locally bounding metamorphic core complexes have been recognized in Transbaikalia and northern China. Numerous basement outcrops located between these two regions, in eastern Mongolia, are considered as pre-Palaeozoic in age. One of these, the Ereendavaa Range, appears as a gneissic core marked by amphibolite-facies metamorphic conditions. The range is overlain to the NW by the unmetamorphosed Mesozoic Onon Basin. Below the basin, the upper part of the range consists of a gently NW-dipping shear zone associated with top-to-the-NW motion. The structural pattern is consistent with syn-extensional exhumation of the range. Preliminary geochronological data indicate that the shear zone is late Jurassic to early Cretaceous in age, coeval with the Onon Basin. These new data from eastern Mongolia constitute a link between Transbaikalia and northern China, indicating that NW–SE extensional Mesozoic tectonics occurred throughout the entire region.
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Acknowledgments
This paper follows field work sponsored by AREVA and the French Bureau de Recherche Géologique et Minière (BRGM). Part of the work benefited from support of the Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in Ulaanbaatar, as well as the Institute of the Earth’s Crust, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Irkutsk. We thank Dondov Tomurhuu, Enkhjargal Boldbaatar, Dmitry P. Gladkobchub and Anatoli Mazukabzov for their support during field work at the Ereendavaa and the Zagan localities, respectively. Geochronological data were provided by the BRGM. Reviews by B. Natal’in, A. Yin, A. Kröner and an anonymous reviewer were very constructive. Y.D. benefits from a research grant from AREVA.
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Daoudene, Y., Gapais, D., Ledru, P. et al. The Ereendavaa Range (north-eastern Mongolia): an additional argument for Mesozoic extension throughout eastern Asia. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 98, 1381–1393 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-008-0412-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-008-0412-2