LATE CENOZOIC VOLCANISM AT THE NORTHEASTERN FLANK OF THE SOUTH KHANGAI VOLCANIC REGION (CENTRAL MONGOLIA): GEOCHRONOLOGY AND FORMATION CONDITIONS

Abstract

The South Khangai volcanic region holds a special place within the Cenozoic intraplate province of Central Asia due to a long evolutionary history continuously traced within the range of the last 100 Ma and a south-to-north elongated shape. Such a configuration of the region is related to a sequential northward shift of centers of volcanism for more than 800 km and is considered as a trace of the South Khangai hot spot of the mantle imprinted in the structure of the lithosphere during its passage over a mantle plume. The position of the volcanic region in the modern structure of the province coincides with the boundary between the Amur and Mongolian microplates formed in the Late Cenozoic [4] as the result of disintegration of inner areas of Central Asia caused by collision between the Indian and Asian lithospheric plates.