Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
In the South Tien Shan range (Kyrgyzstan), the Late Paleozoic geodynamic evolution remains debated especially to the west of the Talas-Fergana fault (TFF) fault where suture-related high-pressure (HP) rocks are scarce. We provide new petrological and geochronological data on garnet amphibolites from the Chatkal range, to the west of the TFF, northwest of the South Tien Shan suture. These rocks are retrogressed eclogites. We used a micro-mapping approach combined with forward modeling and empirical thermobarometry to decipher the P–T path of these amphibolitized eclogites. The metamorphic peak conditions culminated at 490 ± 50 °C and 18.5 ± 2 kbar and were followed by higher temperature retrogression (∼560 °C at 11–7 kbar). In order to constrain the age of the HP stage, we dated allanite crystals texturally coeval to the HP mineral assemblage. Allanite grains dated in situ with a U–Pb LA-ICPMS methodology yield an age of 301 ± 15 Ma. Compared with previously published data for the east of the TFF, these P–T constraints allow improving the understanding of the Late Paleozoic geodynamic evolution of the South Tien Shan. To the east of TFF, the Turkestan Ocean closed around 320 Ma with the collision of the Tarim Craton with the Kazakh microcontinent. To the west of TFF, the Turkestan Ocean closed around 300 Ma, when the Alai block collided with the Kazakh microcontinent. This later collision involved nappe-stacking and intense subvertical folding in the western South Tien Shan. This complex folding explains the S-shape of the suture to the west of the TFF that cannot be observed in the eastern part. These new data allow us to propose a distinct tectonic evolution of the two sides of the TFF, which suggests that this fault was a major transform fault before being a strike-slip intra-continental fault.
ISSN: 0264-3707

hal-01347171
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01347171
DOI : 10.1016/j.jog.2015.06.005

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The NW-trending Talas-Ferghana Fault (TFF) in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, is one of the largest intracontinental strike-slip faults in the world. It extends over a distance of more than 2000 km from southern Tourghai to western Tarim and exhibits a maximum dextral offset of ∼200 km during the late Palaeozoic to present. The history of the fault provides important insights for the understanding of the evolution of southern Central Asia but remains poorly constrained due to lack of reliable geochronological data. We present new Ar-Ar ages and structural data from the Kyrgyz West Tianshan, that elucidate the kinematic history of the TFF in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. 40Ar/39Ar ages on mylonitic white micas document a deformational history consisting of several episodes. A late Carboniferous age of 312 ± 4 Ma point to initiation of top-to-the-south and dextral transpressional deformation during a metamorphic overprint in Precambrian and Palaeozoic rocks along the northern compartment of the TFF. The main phase of dextral motion along the entire fault occurred in the Permian as suggested by minimum ages of 260-290 Ma obtained at two different locations in the NW and central parts of the TFF. Partial isotopic resetting occurred between 240 and 210 Ma and younger ages of <200-210 Ma are ascribed to late brittle reactivation and hydrothermal fluid flow in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic times. The Jurassic trans-tensional phase is featured by emplacement of 195 ± 3 Ma pegmatitic dykes. The Ar-Ar mineral ages and structural data argue for a major phase of dextral shearing, affecting the entire region from the West Tianshan to Mongolia in the late Permian and leading to formation of almost equally spaced major NW-trending dextral strike-slip faults. The uniform character of this deformation indicates that the process of amalgamation in this part of the CAOB ended prior to the late Permian, and Central Asia evolved as a single coherent continental block since that time.
ISSN: 0743-9547

hal-00831326
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00831326
DOI : 10.1016/j.jseaes.2013.02.012