Lithostratigraphic and geochronological constraints on the evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt in SW Mongolia: Early Paleozoic rifting followed by late Paleozoic accretion

Abstract

New zircon ages, together with a revision of the lithostratigraphy of "suspect" terranes in SW Mongolia, suggest that the collage of continental and oceanic units in this region resulted from recurrent magmatic reworking and deformation of Silurian–early Devonian proximal and distal passive margin sequences of the Paleo-Asian Ocean. Tectonic evolution of studied area during Palaeozioc and Mesozoic is discussed in detail.

Keywords

• Accretionary tectonics
• Central Asian Orogenic Belt
• Mongolia
• Paleozoic
• tectono-stratigraphy
• zircon geochronology