MIDDLE-LATE DEVONIAN ISLAND-ARC VOLCANOSEDIMENTARY COMPLEXES IN NORTHWESTERN RUDNY ALTAI
S.V. Saraev, T.P. Baturina, N.K. Bakharev, N.G. Izokh, and N.V. Sennikov
A.A. Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
Keywords: Middle-Late Devonian, island arc, rift buildings, geochemistry of volcanics and terrigenous rocks, Rudny Altai
Pages: 982-996
Abstract
A volcanosedimentary complex of Middle-Late Devonian deposits in northwestern Rudny Altai is described. Analysis of sedimentologic processes, the kind of manifestation and specific composition of volcanism, and petrographic and chemical compositions of sedimentary rocks permitted reconstruction of paleogeographic and geodynamic settings, which confirmed the hypothesis of the island-arc nature of the Rudny Altai zone in the Middle-Late Devonian. Also, an alternative variant of its rift nature is considered.
The rift buildings are referred to as local isolated complexes confined to positive paleovolcanic structures rising above the bottom in the fore-arc basin. The denudated part of the rift system is formed mainly by slope facies. Clastics of rift buildings, together with fragments of silicite and felsic-volcanics layers, compose widespread olistostrome breccias. We have established the humid type of lithogenesis, which, together with minor sea level fluctuations, favors karst processes and the formation of red-colored and bauxite-like rocks. The coeval volcanics composing lava nappes and tuff layers are mainly rhyolites and are often of ultrafelsic composition.
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