Magma Chemistry and Tectonic Controls of Volcanic Activity in the Southern Ural Area during Early Carboniferous Time

Early Carboniferous (359.3–323.4 Ma) volcanic complexes are widespread in the Southern Ural tectonic province, a fragment of the western (in present-day coordinates) segment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. Here, the Lower Carboniferous sequences crop out within the following N–S-trending tectonic zones (from west to east): Magnitogorsk, Ui River, East Ural, Transural, and Valeryanovka. We describe and discuss the geology and geochemistry of the Early Carboniferous volcanic complexes on the basis of published and newly obtained data, with implications for paleo-tectonic models. The western zones are dominated by bimodal rhyolite-basalt series, with the basalts relatively enriched in Ti and Zr but depleted in Nb. The volcanics of the Valeryanovka zone belong to the typically evolved calc-alkaline series, with the derivatives depleted in Ti and Nb. Almost all of the selected groups of volcanics bear geochemical signatures transitional between those of subduction-related and intraplate igneous rocks. The relative enrichment of the volcanics of the East Ural and Transural Zones may be interpreted as a result of a contribution from asthenospheric mantle and/or from subcontinental lithospheric mantle. The volcanics of the Valeryanovka zone reveal features common to subduction-related series of the Andean type. The data obtained allow us to compare the Early Carboniferous geodynamic settings in the western zones with the modern setting of the Northeastern Pacific, whereas the geodynamic setting of the Valeryanovka zone resembles that at the western margin of South America

Stratigraphy and geological events at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary in the Southern Urals

Detailed biostratigraphic correlation of late Frasnian and Famennian sections in the Southern Urals shows that the key global scale events near the boundary of Frasnian and Famennian are clearly expressed in combination with important regional scale tectonic events. The maximum regression occured during triangularis zones time, being recorded as common hiatuses. The beginning of specific ultra- potassic mantle volcanism took place during the linguiformis Zone. Processes of olistostrome deposition, uplift of the Uraltau zone, the start of flysch deposition, and exhumation of the high pressure-low temperature Maksiutovo metamorphic complex also took place very close to the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, as the general regression coincided with active local tectonic movements as the Magnitogorsk island arc collised with the East European continent. The global scale events at the F-F boundary are connected with activity of the Late Devonian superplume, which encompassed a vast area of the Kazakhstanian, East European, Siberian, Gondwana and South Chinese plates