ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Structural Geology and Tectonics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1573046
This article is part of the Research TopicStructural Processes, Petrogenesis, Mineralization, and Geochronology in the Earth’s CrustView all 5 articles
Exhumation of Koktokay rare metal pegmatite group in the China Altai: Insights from lowtemperature thermochronology of the No. 3 pegmatite and Aler S-type granitic batholith
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chengdu Geological Survey Center, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 2Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guiyang, China
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The China Koktokay Pegmatite Group is an important metallogenic region where major rare metals ores are mined. Here we present new low-temperature thermochronological data to contribute to the understanding of Koktokay Pegmatite group exhumation and preservation history. Apatite U-Pb age of ~176 Ma, zircon fission track ages of ~150 Ma, zircon (U-Th)/He ages of ~82–52 Ma, apatite fission track ages of ~69–49 Ma, and apatite (U-Th)/He ages of ~90–52 Ma were obtained from three samples of the No. 3 pegmatite and the contemporaneous Aler granitic batholith in Koktokay area. Our thermochronological data and inverse thermal history modeling reveal a moderate to rapid basement cooling phase during the Cretaceous (~150–65 Ma) with an average cooling rate of ~1.53–1.06 ℃/Ma. It is envisaged that this phase eventually uplifted and exhumed the pegmatite group, with Cenozoic erosion being limited. Combined with previously published geochronological and thermochronological data, a multi-stage cooling history for the pegmatite group can be established. Following its late Triassic (~220–200 Ma) magmatic-hydrothermal formation, two phases of accelerated regional cooling (i.e., in the late Triassic to Early Jurassic, ~200–180 Ma; and the mid-Jurassic to Late Jurassic, ~176–150 Ma) can be recognized. The intense Cretaceous cooling is associated with the final exhumation of the pegmatite group to the surface, and some Li-Ru-Cs-mineralized pegmatites formed at the distal end of the Koktokay Pegmatite group may have been exhumed and denuded. Furthermore, we propose that the denudation of the Koktokay Pegmatite group is relatively intense, which is unfavorable for the preservation of rare metal pegmatite bodies.
Keywords: China Altay, low-temperature thermochronology, pegmatite, (U-Th)/He age dating, Fission track of apatite and zircon
Received: 08 Feb 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Haoyu, Tang, Hui, Guangming, Zhenghang and Zhilong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yong Tang, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guiyang, China
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