Composition, Age, and Sedimentation Environment of the Ore-Hosting Eravna Series of the Uda–Vitim Zone (Western Transbaikalia, Russia)

Abstract

The paper considers data on the composition, age, and formation conditions of the Ulzutui and Kydzhimit sequences, which are ascribed to the Eravna Series of the Eravna Subzone of the Uda–Vitim Zone. The Eravna Series, at least 2400 m thick, is composed of tephroturbidites with a significant amount of lavas and tuffs of felsic and intermediate compositions, with which tectonic-gravitational mixtites are spatially and genetically related. The features of the structure and composition of the Eravna Series indicate the formation of sediments in an open deepening marine basin adjacent to the zone of active volcanism. Based on miospores, the time of formation of the Ulzutui Sequence was constrained, for the first time, to the Late Devonian–Early Carboniferous (late Famennian–early Tournaisian), the Kydzhimit Sequence is limited to the Early Carboniferous (Visean) age. At this time, the Kydzhimit volcanic zone was formed. The suprasubduction nature of the zone is evidenced by the following features of volcanic rocks: predominance of felsic varieties, affiliation of basalts to the tholeiitic series, and dacites and rhyodacites to the calc-alkaline series, the presence of high-K rock varieties corresponding to the K-Na alkalinity, very low MgO contents, low and moderate TiO₂ contents, high Al₂O₃ and K₂O, enrichment of the volcanogenic rocks in large-ion lithophilic elements relatively to high-field strength elements, Nb minimum, and negative εNd, their spatial association with monzonites (with suprasubduction signatures) and tephroturbidites, as well as metallogenic specialization (Cu and Zn) of the Eravna Series. We believe that the ore-bearing sequence for the pyrite–base metal Ulzutui and Ozernoe deposits is the Upper Devonian–Lower Carboniferous Eravna Series.