A Fossil Paleozoic Subduction-Dominated Trench-Arc-Basin System Revealed by Airborne Magnetic-Gravity Imaging in West Junggar, NW China

Abstract

A Carboniferous trench-arc-basin system related to oceanic slab subduction has been thoroughly imaged by various geophysical probing approaches and proposed for the formation of West Junggar, Northwest China, located in the southwest of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. However, debate on the origin of West Junggar still continues. Here, we present an integrated aeronautic magnetic–gravity observation to further identify the trench-arc-basin system and constrain the subduction mode. By deploying an integrated aerial magnetic–gravity survey consisting of 66,000 survey-line kilometers from August 3, 2015 to April 22, 2016, we determine the magnetic and gravitational anomaly across the study region by using geophysical potential-field processing. Our results reveal curial crust-scale variations in magnetic and gravitational structures beneath West Junggar and that a prominent Bouguer gravity high is located between the Darbut and Karamay–Urho faults, likely corresponding to a trapped oceanic slab. Notably, the Tacheng Basin is characterized by high-frequency magnetic signal and gravity highs, as well as the Carboniferous rifting–related sedimentary cover, which could be reasonably interpreted to be a back-arc basin. Integrated with these comprehensive geological and geophysical observations across West Junggar, the previous model of West Junggar trench-arc-basin system related to a fossil intra-oceanic subduction during the Late Paleozoic is further renewed.