MELTING OF ACCRETIONARY WEDGE AND BUILDING MATURE CONTINENTAL CRUST: INSIGHTS FROM THE MAGMATIC EVOLUTION OF THE CHINESE ALTAI OROGEN, CENTRAL ASIA

Abstract

Tectonic-magmatic reworking of accretionary wedges is a key process responsible for differentiation and stabilization of continental crustal in accretionary orogens. This generic problem can be exemplified by magmatic evolution of the Chinese Altai which represents a high-grade core of the world's largest accretionary system, namely the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). In the Chinese Altai, voluminous SilurianDevonian granitoids intruding a greywacke-dominated Ordovician flysch sequence. These intrusions are classically interpreted to originate from predominant (70‒90 %) juvenile (depleted mantle-derived) magma. However, their close temporal and spatial relationship with the regional anatexis of flysch rocks, allows us to examine the possibility that they were mainly derived from flysch rocks.