Age assessments for siliciclastic metasediments of the Bodonchin tectonic sheet, the South Altai metamorphic belt

In South Mongolia, the Hercynian structures of a linear collisional thrust-and-fold zone formed in the Carboniferous are bounded by the Caledonides of Central and North Mongolia on the north, being truncated on the south by the Indosinides of the Inner Mongolia. Tectonic sheets of the Caledonides-Hercynides junction zone confined to southern flank of the Mongolian-Gobi Altai are composed of high-gradient metamorphites of the South Altai metamorphic belt. The belt of these rocks traceable northwestward in China and eastern Kazakhstan delineates margin of the North Asian Caledonian paleocontinent. According to results of the previous geochronological study, the high- and low-gradient metamorphic rocks of the belt originated respectively 385 and 360–370 Ma ago. However, tectonic position of crystalline rock sequences, which have not been dated, remains unclear. Geochronological interval postulated for these rocks is very broad, ranging from the Early Precambrian to the Devonian. Dating results obtained in this work for detrital zircons from siliciclastic metasediments of the Bodonchin tectonic sheet of the belt show that their protoliths accumulated during the time span of 460–390 Ma (Late Ordovician-Early Devonian) on a passive continental margin. Transformation of the latter into active continental margin took place in the Early Devonian, when development of the Siberian subduction zone resulted in formation of the South Altai metamorphic belt at deep crustal levels of the Caledonian paleocontinent.