The junction zone of the Gorny Altai and Rudny Altai terrains: Structure and evolution

A composite collage of terrains is located between East Kazakhstan and Corn y Altai, which formed at the Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous and Late Car boniferous Permian collision stages. These terrains resulted from the obliq ue collision of the Altai-Mongolian terrain (Gondwana group) with the Siber ian continent and from collision of the Kazakhstan and Siberian continents, respectively. The paleomagnetic and structural data indicate the Eifel-Giv etian drift of the Altai-Mongolian terrain as part of the Paleoasian oceani c lithosphere. The rate of displacement is more than 2000 km by the paleome ridian. The Emsian rocks of the Altai-Mongolian terrain formed at 1-4 degre es N, and the Emsian rocks of the active margin of the Siberian continent - at 27-30 degrees N. In the late Givetian, the Altai-Mongolian terrain coll ided with the Siberian continent and started to move along its southern mar gin. The "oblique" terrain-continent collision resulted in Late Devonian de xtral strike-slip faults and the Charysh-Terekta imbricated suture zone. So me tectonic sheets which were detached from the Siberian continent and Alta i-Mongolian terrains are fragments of the Late Cambrian-Early Ordovician oc eanic crust which formed from 6 degrees S to 14 degrees N. The Middle Carboniferous-Early Permian collision of the Kazakhstan and Sibe rian continents resulted in sinistral strike-slip faults with the rate of d isplacement of up to several hundred kilometers in Rudny Altai and Corny Al tai. The high-rate strike-slip faults of different ages and orientations formed the present-day mosaic-block structure of the western Altai-Sayan folded ar ea and East Kazakhstan, which is a collage of terrains having disturbed pal eogeographic, paleotectonic, and metallogenic zonation.