Vol. 29 No.3 September 2006

Journal of International Geoscience

Published by the International Union of Geological Sciences

by Dmitry Gladkochub¹, Sergei Pisarevsky², Tatiana Donskaya1, Lev Natapov³, Anatoliy
Mazukabzov¹, Arkadiy Stanevich¹, and Eugene Sklyarov¹

The Siberian Craton and its evolution in terms of
the Rodinia hypothesis

1 Institute of the Earth’s Crust, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Science, Lermontov Ave. 128, 664033 Irkutsk, Russia.
E-mail: dima@crust.irk.ru
2 Tectonics Special Research Centre, School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
3 GEMOS ARC Key Centre, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia

Abstract

Recent geochronological studies in southern Siberia support a Siberian assembly between 2.1 and 1.8 Ga. This broadly coincides with major orogenic events in most other Precambrian continents including Laurentia. In the Mesoproterozoic, Siberia was mainly an area of stable platform sedimentation whereas Laurentia underwent a continental growth from southeast. Lack of traces of the Grenville orogeny in Siberia suggests its peripheral position in Rodinia. The eastern (Uchur– Maya area) and western (Yenisei area) Siberian margins probably faced oceans during the Meso- and Neoproterozoic. Recent geological, geochronological, geochemical, and paleomagnetic data suggest integrity of Siberia and Laurentia in the Meso- and early Neoproterozoic with the Siberian southern margin close to the northern margin of Laurentia. However, some ‘intervening’ continental blocks were probably located between these two cratons. The 750–720 Ma igneous event was probably related to the rifting between Siberia and Laurentia and the opening of the Paleo-Asian Ocean, causing the development of a passive margin sedimentary succession in southern Siberia.

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