Ophiolitic mélanges in crustal-scale fault zones: implications for the Late Palaeozoic tectonic evolution in West Junggar, China

Abstract

The Baijiantan and Darbut ophiolites in West Junggar are exposed in steep fault zones (>70°) containing serpentinite mélange, in contact on either side with regionally distributed Upper Devonian-Lower Carboniferous ocean floor peperitic basalts and overlying sedimentary successions. The ophiolitic mélanges show classic structural features created by strike-slip faulting and consistent shear sense indicators of left-slip kinematics. Sandstone blocks within the mélanges resemble the surrounding sediments in lithology and age, indicating that the ophiolitic mélanges consist of locally derived rocks. The ophiolitic mélanges therefore originated from left-slip fault zones within a remnant basin and are not plate boundaries nor subduction suture zones. Sandstone is the youngest lithology involved in the mélange and provides a maximum age for the mélange of 322 Ma, whereas stitching plutons are younger than 302 Ma. Multiple clusters in zircon ages from single gabbro blocks in the mélange at ~375, ~360, ~354, and ~340 Ma are inconsistent with accretionary incorporation of subducting ocean crust but rather suggest that episodic movement of the faults provided pathways for magma from the mantle into magma chambers. Late Paleozoic tectonic evolution of West Junggar involved Late Devonian to Carboniferous relative motion between the Junggar block and West Junggar ocean basin, which triggered the left-slip fault zones within a remnant ocean basin, along which the oceanic crust was disrupted to form linear ophiolitic mélanges. Final filling of this remnant ocean basin and its dismemberment by strike-slip faulting occurred in the late Carboniferous, followed by crustal thickening by juvenile granites at the Carboniferous-Permian boundary.