Ophiolites and ocean plate stratigraphy (OPS) preserved across the Central Mongolian Microcontinent: A new mega-archive of data for the tectonic evolution of the Paleo-Asian Ocean

Following the breakup of Rodinia and the opening of the Paleo-Asian ocean the relative positions of geological units (now in Mongolia) remain uncertain, and in consequence relevant paleogeographic reconstructions are poorly construed. In this paper, we apply an integrated approach to the reconstruction of the Paleo-Asian ocean using preserved ophiolites and ocean plate stratigraphy (OPS) in the Mongolian Lake and Altay zones in western Mongolia, which surround the Precambrian Central Mongolian Microcontinent (CMM) in the center of Central Asia. The Lake Zone of Mongolia contains many sediments of Ocean Plate Stratigraphy (OPS) and their underlying basalt-dominated ophiolites, which occur in three main zones along the western margin of the Precambrian crystalline basement of the CMM. The ophiolites in all zones have similar isotopic ages of ca. 570 Ma. The sections of OPS, together with serpentinite mélanges and other volcanogenic-sedimentary assemblages, have been thrust in nappe sheets over the Zavkhan block of the CMM. In the Neoproterozoic microcontinents derived from Rodinia drifted towards Siberia, and a passive margin developed on the Zavkhan block on the eastern margin of the Paleo-Asian ocean. In mid-upper Neoproterozoic times the eastern side of the Paleo-Asian oceanic plate was thrust over the CMM, and in the early Cambrian the Khasagt and Tas Khairkhan ophiolites were obducted and a mid-ocean ridge (?) reached the CMM, preventing further obduction. In the Neoproterozoic the western margin of the Paleo-Asian ocean was subducted under the Rodinia-derived microcontinent and evolved into an active continental margin. In mid-Cambrian–early Ordovician times thick turbidites were deposited in the Altay. Marine sediments, which had accumulated in the Devonian to Carboniferous in the Paleo-Asian ocean are preserved in a remnant ocean in the Lake Zone. Locally in the Devonian, terrigenous – volcanogenic sequences were deposited in the Ulgey extensional superimposed basin, and later in Meso-Cenozoic time (?) some ophiolitic and OPS fragments (Tsagaan Nuur, Ulaankhus and Bodonch) were exposed along fault escarpments that were possibly re-activated during transpression related to the India-Eurasia collision. Our analysis of the Neoproterozoic–Middle Paleozoic tectonic development of western Mongolia leads to a new holistic model for the evolution of the western Altaids, according to which the ophiolites and OPS formed in the Mongolian Lake and Altay zones between two microcontinents within a new tectonic framework of the western Altaids.