Home – Home – Jornals – Russian Geology and Geophysics 2014 number 2

We present new data on the geologic position, chemical composition, and isotope characteristics of the Early Cretaceous granitoids of the Samarka terrane, Sikhote-Alin’, formed on a transform continental margin. Geological and geochronological data show that these granitoids were generated at two stages of magmatism: in the first half (Hauterivian-Barremian, 130–123 Ma) and second half (Albian-Cenomanian, 110–98 Ma) of the Early Cretaceous. Granitoids of the first stage form an autonomous (free of basic precursors) unimodal melanogranite-granite association and are characterized by normal alkalinity with domination of K over Na, low contents of Ca, and elevated contents of Al₂O₃. By composition, these are S–granites with a model Nd age of ~1.3 Ga. Granitoids of the second stage are of more diverse petrogeochemical types. They show wider variations in K/Na and Shend Index are richer in Ca and, sometimes, Sr, and are poorer in P than the granitoids of the first stage. Their compositions form a continuous trend from S– to I–granites, and their model Nd age is ≤1.2 Ga. Comparison of the petrochemical, trace-element, and isotope characteristics of the Early Cretaceous granitoids and upper-crustal rocks (sandstones and siltstones of the turbidite matrix of a Jurassic accretionary prism and basalts from the inclusions in it) of the Samarka terrane and the coeval garrboids has shown that the potassic S–granitoids formed at the early (Hauterivian-Barremian) stage of magmatism as a result of the anatexis of upper-crustal sedimentary rocks. At the late (Albian-Early Cenomanian) stage, the intrusion of mantle magmas led to a temperature increase in the lower crust, which favored more active anatexis, involvement of high-melting substrates (oceanic basalts) in the granite formation, and interaction of mantle and crustal magmas. This resulted in a great diversity of granitoids (from S– to I–type).