Latest Cambrian stage of evolution of Precambrian continental crust in the Aktyuz high-pressure Complex (Chu-Kendyktas terrane; North Tien Shan): New evidence from the SW part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt

Abstract

Metamorphic crustal formations of the Aktyuz block (SE part of the Chu-Kendyktas terrane; SW segment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt) include garnet-bearing orthogneisses and gneissic granites of the Aktyuz Complex, garnet-bearing ortho- and paragneisses of the Kemin Complex and paragneisses with schists of the Kokdzhon Complex. The gneisses of the Aktyuz and Kemin Complexes associated with intensively altered eclogites, are referred to the retrogressed felsic granulites, which likely experienced high-pressure re-equilibration and dehydration melting under eclogite facies conditions. The eclogite-bearing garnet-mica gneisses of the Aktyuz Complex contain zircons with magmatic cores, overgrown by the rims with the low Th/U ratios of 0.005–0.05. The obtained age clusters of ca. 844 Ma and ca. 490 Ma likely characterize two stages of the rocks’ evolution in the late Neoproterozoic (emplacement of the gneisses’ protoliths) and in the latest Cambrian (high-pressure metamorphism of the gneisses’ protoliths). The garnet-epidote gneissic granites of the Aktyuz Complex and garnet-bearing chloritized orthogneisses of the Kemin Complex yielded late Neoproterozoic (Tonian) protoliths’ crystallization ages of 820–805 Ma, but these rocks do not show any evidence of the later re-equilibration and apparently avoided high-pressure metamorphism. Thus, the protoliths of the late Neoproterozoic orthogneisses represented by anorogenic granitoids, comprised Precambrian basement of the Aktyuz block in the Chu-Kendyktas terrane, and some part of the felsic rocks was involved into Early Palaeozoic subduction processes. Detrital zircons from the metasedimentary formations of the Kokdzhon and Kemin Complexes of the Aktyuz block display the main age peaks at 600, 800, 1000 Ma and weaker peaks at ∼1.5 and 2.5 Ga. The protoliths of the rocks were terrigenous lithologies, which are believed to have been formed after eroded felsic complexes of mostly Ediacaran, late Neoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic and Palaeoproterozoic-to-Neoarchean ages, and accumulated during the Cambrian. The rocks likely made up sedimentary cover of the Chu-Kendyktas terrane and constituted the sand-siltstone-shale series. The presence of varisized rims of 495–471 Ma in the detrital zircons of the metasedimentary formations of the Kokdzhon and Kemin Complexes is consistent with the near-peak-to-retrograde stages of the latest Cambrian-Middle Ordovician metamorphic evolution of the rocks. The age estimates obtained for the crustal complexes of the Aktyuz block correlate well with those of the similar complexes known from the adjacent Issyk-Kul (North Tien Shan) terrane (Makbal Complex) and Zheltau terrane (Southern Kazakhstan; Koyandy Complex) in the SW part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt.