Paleoproterozoic sequences and magmatic complexes of the Losevo suture zone of the Voronezh crystalline massif: Geological position,material composition,geochemistry, and paleogeodynamics

In order to resolve the contradictions associated with uncertainty in the identification of the material composition, subdivision, and conditions of formation of the Paleoproterozoic intrusive, metavolcanogenic, and metasedimentary sequences of the Losevo suture zone of the Voronezh crystalline massif, this work presents geological, petrographic, petrochemical, and geochemical features of these sequences. The stratigraphic and magmatic scheme of the central part of the Losevo suture zone is clarified. In particular, the Paleoproterozoic Losevo Series is divided into two sequences: Strelitsa (marginal sea) and Podgornoe (island arc). A new hypabyssal Novo-Voronezh metagabbro-diabase complex, comagmatic to metatholeiites of the Podgornoe sequence, is distinguished. The isotope age of the Strelitsa sequence is assumed to be 2172 ± 17 Ma on the basis of the results of age dating of zircon cores from the Usman plagiogranites, intruding this sequence. The upper age boundary of the Strelitsa sequence corresponds to the age of premetamorphic gabbro of the Rozhdestvenskoe complex, comagmatic to metavolcanites (2120 ± 11–2158 ± 43 Ma). The age of the Usman plagiogranite complex is clarified. On the basis of geological-structural and petrographic-mineralogical analyses of metavolcanogenic rocks, lithological analysis of metasedimentary formations, and new geochemical data obtained from metavolcanites and metamorphosed deposits, the pattern of paleogeodynamic evolution of the Losevo suture zone in the first half of the Paleoproterozoic is proposed. The next stages are distinguished: (1) intrusion of tholeiites of transition T-MORB type in spreading zones and deposition of terrigenous strata in the marginal sea basins; (2) intrusion of Nb-depleted tholeiites and plagiorhyolites, the geochemical characteristics indicating their formation in the subduction setting; (3) intrusion of gabbroids of the Rozhdestvenskoe complex; (4) formation of an island arc synchronously with stage 2, tholeiitic and calc-alkaline (Podgornoe sequence) volcanism; (5) intrusions of gabbro-diabases, subsynchronous to volcanism, of the Novovoronezh complex and diorite-granitoides, crystallization of granitoides of the Usman complex; (6) a break in sedimentation and formation of molasses of the Voronezh (Somovo) Formation.