U–Pb Age of Detrital Zircons from the Middle Permian Sabantuy Chromite Paleoplacer (Southern Pre-Urals)

Abstract

The first U–Pb isotope data of detrital zircon from chromite sandstones of the Middle Permian Sabantuy paleoplacer, Southern Pre-Urals, has been obtained. The distribution of U–Pb dates is unimodal with a peak at 420–400 Ma. Two-thirds of all ages are Devonian, and more than half of them correspond to the Early Devonian, during which supra-subduction ophiolitic and accompanying high-pressure metamorphic complexes were formed in the Southern Urals and ultramafic-mafic magmatism occurred. These spatially combined geological bodies, exposed in the melange zone of the Main Uralian Fault or tectonically moved to the west as ophiolite allochthons, are the main sources of detrital chromite and zircon in the Sabantuy paleoplacer.