TECTONIC EVOLUTION OF THE MESOZOIC VERKHOYANSK-KOLYMA BELT (NE ASIA)

Abstract

The Verkhoyansk–Kolyma belt (VK) forms the western part of the Verkhoyansk–Chukotka Mesozoic orogen (NE Asia) and lies between the Siberian craton on the western side, the Mesozoic–Cenozoic Koryak–Kamchatka accretionary orogen on the eastern side, and the Arctic Alaskan craton to the north. The VK results from the collision of the Siberian craton and the Kolyma–Omolon composite terrane (KO), which acted as an indentor resulting the Kolyma orocline. The KO is made up of ophiolite and olistostromal and schistose units that were amalgamated during the Middle–Late Jurassic by thrust and nappe tectonics under greenschist facies metamorphism. This was followed in Latest Jurassic by thrusting and strike-slip faulting related to the collision of the KO composite terrane with the Siberian craton. This collision also produced the Verkhoyansk fold-and-thrust belt in the Siberian continental margin. In the earliest Cretaceous, collision of the Alaskan and Siberian margins resulted in further thrust and strike-slip tectonism.