Metamorphosed Ultramafic and Mafic Lithoclasts and Detrital Minerals from Sandstones of Clastic Ophiolitic Deposits of the Rassokha Terrane: A Setting of Formation of the Chersky Range Ophiolites

Abstract

Ophiolite-derived clastic rocks of the Rassokha terrane in the Chersky Range of the Verkhoyansk−Kolyma folded area were studied to obtain representative characteristics of the eroded source metamorphosed ultramafic and mafic rocks, to gain an insight into the possible geodynamic setting in which the protoliths of these rocks were formed, and to identify the possible source of the eroded material. The composition of lithoclasts and detrital minerals of the serpentinite and listwanite sandstones suggests that their source was composed of serpentinite, chloritite, listwanite, and dolomite rocks and that this source was proximal. Prior to the source erosion, the ultramafic and mafic rocks were metamorphosed and recrystallized, listwanite was formed, and the ultramafic rocks were tectonically disintegrated and combined with units of carbonate rocks (dolomite). Ultramafic rocks from lithoclasts experienced allochemical metamorphic retrogression during at least the latest stage of their serpentinization in a nonoceanic setting, where also the listwanite was formed. The Late Neoproterozoic ophiolites of the collisional belt of the Chersky Range were the most probable source for the protoliths of the clastic material. The protoliths of the ophiolite rock were probably formed in a backarc setting. Considered together with the published ages, our data indicate that relics of suprasubduction oceanic lithosphere of the Neoproterozoic basin occurred in the Chersky Range.