Lateral structural variability in zone of eocene island-arc-continent collision, Kamchatka

• Published in: Geotectonics Vol. 42; no. 6; pp. 469 - 487
• Main Authors: Shapiro, M. N., Solov’ev, A. V., Hourigan, J. K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht SP MAIK Nauka/Interperiodica 01.11.2008; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Continental margins; Cretaceous; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Eocene; Geophysics; Island arcs; Metamorphism; Paleocene; Plate tectonics; Rocks; Seismology; Structural Geology; Slab Breakoff; Thrust Fault; Eocene; Paleocene; Terrigenous Rock
• ISSN: 0016-8521; 1556-1976
• DOI: 10.1134/S0016852108060046

The lateral variability of structural elements in the collision zone of the Cretaceous-Paleocene Achaivayam-Valagin island arc with the northeastern Asian margin is considered. The similarity and difference of Eocene collision structural elements in the north and the south of Kamchatka are shown. In northern Kamchatka, the continent-arc boundary is traced along the Lesnaya-Vatyn Thrust Fault, which completed its evolution about 45 Ma ago. The thin, near-horizontal allochthon of this thrust, composed of island-arc rocks, overlies the deformed but unmetamorphosed terrigeneous sequences of the Asian margin. The general structure of this suture in the Kamchatka Isthmus and southern Koryakia is comparable with the uppermost subduction zone, where a thin lithospheric wedge overlaps intensely deformed sediments detached from the plunging plate. In southern Kamchatka (Malka Uplift of the Sredinny Range), the arc-continent collision started 55–53 Ma ago with thrusting of island-arc complexes over terrigenous rocks of continental margin. However, the thickness of the allochthon was much greater than in the north. Immediately after this event, both the autochthon and lower part of allochthon were deformed and subsided to a significant depth. This subsidence gave rise to metamorphism of both the autochthon (Kolpakov and Kamchatka groups, Kheivan Formation) and lower allochthon (Andrianovka and Khimka formations). The anomalously fast heating of the crust was most likely related to the ascent of asthenospheric masses due to slab breakoff, when the Eurasian Plate was plunging beneath the Achaivayam-Valagin arc.