The Khan Bogd alkali granite pluton, one of the world’s largest, is situated in the southern Gobi Desert, being localized
in the core of the Late Paleozoic Syncline, where island-arc calc-alkaline differentiated volcanics (of variable alkalinity)
give way to the rift-related bimodal basalt-comendite-alkali granite association. The tectonic setting of the Khan Bogd pluton
is controlled by intersection of the near-latitudinal Gobi-Tien Shan Rift Zone with an oblique transverse fault, which, as
the rift zone, controls bimodal magmatism. The pluton consists of the eastern and the western ring bodies and comes into sharp
intrusive contact with rocks of the island-arc complex and tectonic contact with rocks of the bimodal complex. The inner ring
structure is particularly typical of the western body and accentuated by ring dikes and roof pendants of the country island-arc
complex. According to preliminary gravity measurements, the pluton is a flattened intrusive body (laccolith) with its base
subsiding in stepwise manner northwestward. Reliable geochronologic data have been obtained for both plutonic and country
rocks: the U-Pb zircon age of alkali granite belonging to the main intrusive phase is 290 ± 1 Ma, the
40Ar/
39Ar ages of amphibole and polylithionite are 283 ± 4 and 285 ± 7 Ma, and the Rb-Sr isochron yields 287 ± 3 Ma; i.e., all these
estimates are close to 290 Ma. Furthermore, the U-Pb zircon age of red normal biotite granite (290 ± 1 Ma) and the Rb-Sr age
of the bimodal complex in the southern framework of the pluton are the same. The older igneous rocks of the island-arc complex
in the framework and roof pendants of the pluton are dated at 330 Ma. The geodynamic model of the Khan Bogd pluton formation
suggests collision of the Hercynian continent with a hot spot in the paleoocean; two variants of this model are proposed.
According to the first variant, the mantle plume, after collision with the margin of the North Asian paleocontinent, reworked
the subducted lithosphere and formed a structure similar to an asthenospheric window, which served as a source of rift-related
magmatism and the Khan Bogd pluton proper. In compliance with the second variant, the emergence of hot mantle plume resulted
in flattening of the subducted plate; cessation of the island-arc magmatism; and probably in origin of a local convective
system in the asthenosphere of the mantle wedge, which gave rise to the formation of a magma source. The huge body of the
Khan Bogd alkali granite pluton and related volcanic rocks, as well as its ring structure, resulted from the caldera mechanism
of the emplacement and evolution of magmatic melts.
Original Russian Text © V.I. Kovalenko, V.V. Yarmoluyk, E.B. Sal’nikova, A.M. Kozlovsky, A.B. Kotov, V.P. Kovach, V.M. Savatenkov,
N.V. Vladykin, V.A. Ponomarchuk, 2006, published in Geotektonika, 2006, No. 6, pp. 52–72.