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Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
19
https://doi.org/10.5564/mgs.v29i58.3234
BACKGROUND
It is generally accepted that the Earth’s liquid
outer core has a density decit of 10-15%; that
is, it probably consists of alloys of iron and light
elements such as hydrogen, silicon, carbon,
oxygen, and sulphur (Poirier, 1994 for a review).
For example, Allègre et al. (1995) proposed an
admixture of 7.3% Silicon, 2.3% Sulphur, and
4% Oxygen (in wt. %), while authors like Wood
(1993) and Fischer et al. (2020) regarded carbon
as the most signicant contributor. The latter
authors claimed that the core probably contains
most of the Earth’s carbon content, while Okuchi
(1997), based on high pressure laboratory
experiments, inferred that hydrogen might be
the core’s major “additive”. The core-mantle
boundary (CMB) is thought to be extremely
heterogeneous (Weber et al., 1990; Kendall and
Original Article
Sedimentary basins, hydrocarbons, graphite, coal, and Cu-Au deposits -from Mongolia
to the Pacic margin: Interplay between the ubiquitous orthogonal fracture network
and Global Wrench Tectonics
Karsten M. Storetvedt¹ and Per Michaelsen²
¹University of Bergen, Geophysical Institute, Post-box 7803, 5020 Bergen, Norway
²Geoscience Center, School of Geology and Mining Engineering, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Ulaanbaatar, 14191, Mongolia
*Corresponding author: Karsten.Storetvedt@uib.no
Article history:
Received: 15 March, 2024
Revised: 08 May, 2024
Accepted: 23 May, 2024
© The Author(s). 2024 Open access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you
give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Mongolian Geoscientist
ABSTRACT
Mongolia is exceptionally rich in coal and copper-gold resources-with world-
class deposits like Tavan Tolgoi, Oyu Tolgoi and Erdenet. Thus, the mining
industry has a crucial importance for the national economy, yet most of the
country remain very underexplored. Within today’s global tectonics, an
acceptable understanding of metal enrichments -including leaching, the internal
hydrostatic-hydraulic pumping system, and surface emplacement mechanisms -
has remained unresolved. However, a broader view of the structural situation in
the Mongolia-China region shows a close link between orientation of elongate
sedimentary basins, important mineral belts, and the fundamental orthogonal
fracture/fault system. In the east the tectonic trend is dominantly northeast, while
it is nortwest in western areas. The main east Mongolian graphite deposits have
northeast structural trends like numerous regional Cu and Au belts. A new theory
of the earth, Global Wrench Tectonics, oers an exciting approach to better
understanding the various facets of Earth’s geological history and its surface
resources. Earth’s degassing, dynamo-tectonic consequences, inertia-driven
crustal wrench tectonics, as well as surface products such as water, hydrocarbons
and ore deposits are given a coherent system explanation. Many hydrocarbons
are products from the interior of our slowly degassing Earth, with massive
hydrocarbon elds such as Songliao and the Yamal megaproject producing from
the basement. Crustal thinning in the Songliao region is about the same as in
southeast Mongolia, suggesting that they may have had similar degassing and
crustal evolution histories. As such, it is not unlikely that the underexplored
Mesozoic basins of southeast Mongolia -particularly at the deepest levels and/or
in the adjacent crystalline basement -may have important hydrocarbon potential.
Keywords: Mongolia, NE China, wrench tectonics, elongate sedimentary basins,
and ore resources
ARTICLE INFO
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
20
Shearer, 1995; Williams and Garnero, 1996)
-a physico-chemical complex likely to be the
product of outgassing of lighter constituents
from the core. If so, the core probably contains
a mix of gravitationally unstable hydrides,
carbides (Hunt et al., 1992) and hydrocarbon
compounds (Gold, 1987), but the apparent
slow development of the present iron-rich core,
the non-uniform silica-rich mantle, the Moho
transition, and the disparate crustal history-with
its seawater, deep-sea and continental basins,
hydrocarbon reservoirs and ore deposits, have
remained matters of speculation. Thus, Turekian
(1977) argued that, if the average carbonaceous
chondrites resemble the original material of the
mantle-as is commonly believed, most of the
Earth’s water content must still be present in the
interior. Therefore, degassing of the mantle’s
large water content would have produced a
signicantly larger volume than is now present
on the Earth’s surface. Furthermore, the
bewildered state having emerged from seismic
mantle tomography, has led to a series of shifting
ad hoc hypotheses (Kellogg et al. 1999; Van der
Hilst and Karason, 1999; Albarede and Van der
Hilst, 1999). Therefore, the rooted notion of
an initially molten planetary mass, which then
underwent cooling and chemical dierentiation,
seems ready for replacement.
Instead of the ingrained planetesimal growth
from a nebular disk eddy, Cameron (1962,
1978, 1985) put forward that isolated source
clouds may have been expelled as relatively
concentrated, but compositionally diverse proto
planets, inserted into orbit close to the Sun’s
plane of rotation. He proposed that the Earth
began as an isolated sphere of fast rotating gas
(predominantly hydrogen) and an assortment
of rock dust-at temperatures close to that of
outer space (ie. c. 2.725K/-270⁰C). Alfvén and
Arrhenius (1976) suggested that the Earth’s
primordial daily spin rate may have been as fast
as 5-6 hours. Thus, centrifugal radial segregation,
with respect to density, size, shape, and other
particle properties (Cooke et al., 1976; Donald
and Roseman, 1962; Fan et al., 1990; Hill et
al., 1997) is likely to have occurred in such a
fast-rotating gas-particle cloud. In this process,
elements like potassium, uranium and thorium
would be concentrated at the outer region
which would have experienced signicant rise
in temperature caused by radioactive decay,
while the deep interior remained in the initially
cold state. Several authors (Ramberg, 1951;
Glickson and Lambert, 1973; Richter, 1985;
Fowler, 1990; Thompson et al., 1995) have
demonstrated that heat production in the crust,
from break-down of long-lived radioactive
isotopes, must have been greater in the Archaean
than today. However, due to the originally low
temperatures of the deep interior, degassing has
been a very slow process and apparently still
in progress. Thus, redistribution of inner mass
has led to the documented changes in planetary
dynamics (spin rate and spatial reorientation
of the Earth’s body/true polar wander), which
in turn have given rise to inertia-driven
surface tectonic events. Therefore, Earth’s
geological history, the extraordinarily late
(post-Precambrian) expulsions of surface
water (the rst instalment was concurrent
with the explosion of higher marine life in the
Lower Palaeozoic), and injection of crustal ore
deposits have all been episodic, with Shen et al.
(2018) documenting six pulses in central Asia
during the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic eras with
~32-68 Ma intervals between the metallogenic
pulses (Table 1). The CMB seems to be bumpy,
and Morelli and Dziewonski (1987) found that
its “topographic” heights may be thousands
of kilometres, while the boundary is at in
other regions. When the elevated features are
projected onto the Earth’s surface, CMB regions
correspond to the present world’s oceanic
depressions. This hint to the possibility that
processes in the core release energy as well as
buoyant masses that on the surface of the Earth
lead to formation of the thin deep-sea crust. The
apparent relationship between the gross surface
topography and the CMB ‘morphology’ gives a
‘rst order’ indication of an overall continental
stationarity. In this connection, seismic studies
of the upper mantle are consistent with the, by
now, well-accepted concept of continental roots
(Dziewonski and Woodhouse, 1987; Forte et
al. 1995; Ekstrom and Dziewonski, 1998); they
show relatively fast seismic velocities for the
upper continental mantle, and correspondingly
reduced velocities for oceanic mantle. That is,
the continental-oceanic surface conguration is
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
21
anchored to corresponding deep upper mantle
relationships, a connection that seemingly also
can be extended inward to the undulating core-
mantle boundary layer.
As the, by now, well-established continental root
aspect is a serious impediment to plate tectonics,
it is ignored. Therefore, paleomagnetic data in
terms of crustal mobility must be related to an
alternative mobilistic theory. Such an alternative
dynamic system is readily at hand, brought about
by crustal inertia eects triggered by Earth’s
unrelenting variable rotation-the geophysical
prerequisite of Global Wrench Tectonics
(Storetvedt, 1990, 1997, 2003/2023, 2011).
According to the new tectonic fundamentals,
the granitized upper continental crust has
an old Precambrian substrate-petrologically
altered and structurally modied by a long
history of penetrating degassing uids. This
in situ geological progression has for example
gradually built up the fault-bounded tectono-
magmatic “terrane” complexity in Mongolia
(Michaelsen and Storetvedt, 2023).
In evolving oceanic regions, the presence
of reactive hydrous uids has given rise to
subcrustal eclogitization; the large density
increase resulting from these metamorphic
transformations has destabilized the lower
granulitic crust and caused it to detach from the
crust above (Leech, 2001). This metasomatic-
gravitative process has gradually given rise to
the variably thin oceanic crust and associated
isostatic surface subsidence. The model
proposed by Leech requires hydrous uids
rather than temperature to drive eclogitization
and subcrustal delamination. Elongated
continental sedimentary basins, such as
those in Mongolia and eastern China, have
a similar origin -the basic requirement is the
availability of water. The only dierence is
that subcrustal eclogitization, gravity-driven
upper crustal thinning and basin subsidence,
has occurred along prominent crust-cutting
fault zones. Resulting crust-mantle undulations
are unlikely to be observed in conventional
seismic Moho mapping. Global dynamic
changes (reorientation of the body of the Earth
and its speed of rotation) have also acted as a
kind of hydraulic pumping mechanism which
has driven water, hydrocarbons and metal-
containing liquids to the surface. Therefore,
it is important to assess the importance of the
fundamental fracture systems in upper mantle
and crust-in that they represent pathways for
ejection of uids and ores to the surface.
At the end of the Archaean, with the origin of
Table 1. Schematic overview of the six main mineralization pulses of major Cu-bearing porphyry and Au deposits in
central Asia. Modied from Shen et al. (2018). Note the signicant intervals between the major metallogenic pulses
of 32-68 Ma as well as the lack of mineralization pulses during the Permian.
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
22
the rst greenstone belts around 2.5 billion
years ago, it is likely that the Earth still had
an inverse temperature prole-warm in the
exterior (crust and part of the upper mantle)
and relatively cold in the deep interior. But
the often elongate (probably fault-bounded)
shape of the greenstone belts suggests that
the crust had become more brittle. Further
cooling led to shrinkage, which caused deep
contraction dislocations -so-called Benio
zones (Benio, 1949, 1954). Although the
Circum-Pacic Benio Zone appeared highly
distorted, and a large section of it was hidden
beneath western North America, Wilson (1954)
believed that these deep contraction structures
had fundamental global tectonic signicance.
He attributed the tectonic structures around
the Pacic Ocean as fragments of an originally
great-circle contraction belt formed during the
cooling of Archaean crust and upper mantle.
The arcuate Indonesian Benio Zone was
thought to be part of another deep great-circle
fault zone (subsequently deformed), allegedly
continuing along the narrow epicontinental
Tethys on the southern ank of Eurasia, and
which during the Phanerozoic had undergone
slow subsidence and sedimentation. In the
Jurassic, the continental crust along the narrow
Tethys had broken up into a horst-and-graben
topography, resulting in varying water depths
(Trümpy, 1965, 1971; Falcon, 1967; Stöcklin,
1968). At that time, the epicontinental Tethys
seems to have continued across the present
Central Atlantic to the Caribbean (Aubouin et
al., 1977; Hallam, 1977).
As plate tectonics became the dominant model
in global tectonics, the traditional view of the
Tethys as an elongate and narrow epicontinental
sea (Sonnenfeld, 1981 and references therein)
was replaced by a large-scale fan-shaped
indentation of the Pacic. This was Wegener’s
idea that geoscientists for decades almost
unanimously rejected. But with the embrace
of plate tectonics some 50 years ago, both
Wegener, the fan-shaped oceanic Tethys, and
his Gondwana assembly have been almost
unanimously accepted-albeit on doubtful
scientic grounds. In addition, re-evaluation
of paleomagnetic data (Storetvedt, 1990, 1997)
has unveiled those interpretations in favour of
wandering continents, as well as questionable
paleomagnetic attempts to conrm Wegener’s
Gondwana, have led global tectonics astray.
However, by correcting the present continents
and continental blocks for their individual
Alpine-age wrench rotations in situ, the two
Benio belts take on great-circle shapes-in
support of the Wilson proposal. As we shall
see below, the two Benio zones proposed
by Wilson (1954) have utmost importance
for understanding the global distribution of
porphyry metal deposits.
Accepting the combined Benio/Wilson
proposals, the deep upper mantle fracture zones
would have served as eective conduits for
leaching and upward transport of metal-bearing
uids, after which narrow surface belts of
metal concentrations, deposited in transtensive
segments of fracture zones, would have occurred.
When the proposed Benio zones are corrected
for Alpine age wrench tectonic deformation, the
exposed surface sectors are indeed characterized
by narrow and relatively concentrated copper
and gold deposits-for which tectonic details and
ore aspects will be addressed in a later paper.
On the other hand, the broad metalliferous belts
of Central Asia-included in the present paper,
lacks a deep Benio zone. The degassed ore
deposits must therefore have found alternative
routes to the surface. This leads to another
fundamental aspect: the ubiquitous steeply
inclined and near-perpendicular sets of rock
discontinuities (Scheidegger, 1963). Small-
scale concordant and conjugate fault systems
form a worldwide orthogonal joint-fault
system, often genetically linked to major fault
zones and cratonic dyke swarms (Lyatsky et
al., 1999). The orthogonal fracture network not
only characterizes the Earth’s surface, but is
also recognized on the Moon, Mars, and Venus
(Hast, 1973; Fielder et al., 1974; Phillips and
Hansen, 1994; Cattermole and Moore, 1997).
This suggests that the orthogonal tectonic system
is a general phenomenon dating back to surface
consolidation of terrestrial planets. On Earth,
the original fracture pattern, probably of late
Archaean age, has obviously been transferred to
increasingly younger surface rocks, in concert
with degassing-related dynamic pulses. Fig. 1
shows representative examples from the North
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
23
Fig. 1. Examples of the steeply inclined orthogonal fracture/fault network. a) and b) are satellite images from
the metamorphic basement of coastal southwest Norway and the Tertiary lava complex in Iceland (Langavatn)
respectively. c) and d) are photos (by KMS) from road cuts in the Appalachians of Newfoundland.
Atlantic region. Note that the fracture network
in Precambrian-Caledonian gneisses of Western
Norway is the same as in late Tertiary lavas in
Iceland -both satellite images having the same
geographic orientation.
With the deep oceans having formed during
the Upper Cretaceous (as conrmed by Deep
Sea Drilling), the resulting continents were by
then surrounded by thin and mechanically weak
oceanic crust -and Eurasia and Africa were split
by the faulted Tethyan Benio belt. Hence,
the stage was set for palaeolatitude-dependant
inertial wrench rotations of individual continents,
along with tectonic deformation of the thin deep-
sea crust. The upper Eurasian crust (Michaelsen
and Storetvedt, 2023 and references therein),
being located north of the Upper Cretaceous-
Lower Tertiary palaeoequator, has since then
been subjected to a clockwise rotation of c. 25°
(Storetvedt, 1990). However, tectonic torsion
of large extensively fractured landmasses
would be expected to have undergone internal
deformations especially in the upper crust, which
we (Michaelsen and Storetvedt, 2023) conclude
has occurred in Mongolia. This is probably the
reason for the overall moderate eastward torsion
of the Eurasian orthogonal fracture network.
Along the North Atlantic margins, the tectonic
sets have NNE and WNW orientations, while in
Central Asia they are dominantly oriented NE
and NW respectively. Moreover, GPS velocity
vectors (Fig. 2) show that there is an ongoing
clockwise rotation of Eurasia (Zemtsov, 2007) -
demonstrating the tectonic system of the inertia-
driven Global Wrench Tectonics.
According to the biogeographic evaluation
of Spjeldnæs (1961), the late Ordovician
(Caledonian) equator ran along eastern North
America, continuing via the Arctic, further
across Central Asia in a NW-SE direction.
Within this palaeoequatorial belt, Mongol Altai
-traditionally referred to as Caledonian, and
following along one of the primordial orthogonal
fracture sets, became an overall transpressive
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
24
belt. The passage of the Caledonian equator
along the southwestern tip of Mongolia led
to strong reactivation of the orthogonal fault
network of Central Asia -which again laid the
foundation of the complex wrench tectonic
development of regions such as Mongolia
and eastern China. Many transtensive sectors
developed narrow and deep channels that
paved the way for outgassing products, such
as hydrocarbons and ore deposits. In eastern
China, the NE -directed transtensive zones gave
rise to eastward crustal thinning- a development
that, in combination with the impact of the
marked oceanization process in the Pacic, laid
the foundation of the elongated coastal basins
along East Asia
Sedimentary basins, coal, and hydrocarbon
prospectivity
The process by which thick continental crust
transforms into an increasingly oceanic structure,
has many similarities to the evolutionary crustal
model of Belousov (1962, 1984, 1990) who
introduced the concept of endogenous regimes.
This term includes the important role of
progressive physical and chemical interaction
between the crust and mantle, a process that
accelerated in the Upper Cretaceous and gave
rise to the uneven thinning of the deep-sea
crust. This means that there are no fundamental
dierences in the formation of continental and
oceanic basins, only in the degree and extent of
their development. Many studies have shown
that there is a clear correlation between deep
surface basins and pinching out (delamination)
of the lower crust (Pinet et al. 1987; Pavlenkova,
1996, 1998).
Pavlenkova (1996) who gave a comprehensive
seismic evaluation of crust and upper mantle of
Northern Eurasia, including also results from
a cross-section of the circular Vilyui Basin
in East Siberia (Pavlenkova, 1996). This is a
crustal depression that has resulted in a sedate
accumulation of unconsolidated Mesozoic
sediments characterized by a pronounced
negative gravity anomaly (Pavlenkova and
Romanyuk, 1991). The circular shape of the
basin suggests a sub-crustal fractured zone
in which crustal loss to the upper mantle has
proceeded at about an equal rate along the
two orthogonal directions. The characteristic
crustal thickness of the Vilyui region is 40-45
km (Egorkin et al., 1987), but beneath the basin
the Moho depth is less than 35 km. Considering
(4)
Fig. 2. Simplied version of GPS compilation map for Asia (Zemtsov, 2007)
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
25
the additional thickness of overlying sediments,
it follows that the thickness of the crystalline
crust has been reduced by 40-50%. If only
one of the conjugate sets of orthogonal crustal
fractures had enabled eective crustal thinning
and uid penetration-in apparent contrast to the
“chimney-like” crustal structure beneath the
Vilyui Basin, crustal subsidence and formation
of sedimentary basins would have taken on an
elongate shape.
After the rst major outow of water in the early
Palaeozoic, the pan-global continental crust
was largely covered by relatively shallow seas.
However, throughout the rest of the Palaeozoic,
the marine ooding was punctuated by several
marked regressive and related global dynamo-
tectonic events (Hallam, 1992) -corresponding
to sub-crustal delamination and subsidence in
regions that would later become world oceans
(Storetvedt, 2003/2023). The longstanding but
episodic withdrawal of the widespread shallow
continental seas culminated in a marked sea-
level low-stand at around the Permian-Triassic
(PT) boundary; by then continental masses
had become drier overall than they had ever
been during the earlier Palaeozoic. In Central
Asia the once widespread epicontinental
seas (Boucot and Johnson, 1973) had been
replaced by a combination of narrow seaways,
lakes, rivers and low land topography with
growing vegetation. In Mongolia, inertia-
driven transtensive reactivation of primordial
fracture zones gave rise to the development of
a sequence of related but disconnected fault-
bounded sub-basins; some of which developed
signicant peat accumulation that subsequently
led to economically important coal deposits
(Michaelsen and Storetvedt, 2023). While
the coal-bearing sub-basins in Mongolia are
related in time, they formed as isolated entities
often sandwiched in-between fault-bounded
basement blocks and as such very dierent from
the laterally continues Permian coal basins in
Australia - like the Bowen Basin with over 40
active coal mines (Michaelsen and Henderson,
2000a, 2000b, Michaelsen et al., 2000,
Michaelsen et al., 2001, Michaelsen, 2002).
A starting point for better understanding of the
tectonic circumstances in the Mongolia-China
region is the Caledonian (late Ordovician)
palaeoequator, which in NW-SE direction passed
along southwestern Mongolia (Michaelsen
and Storetvedt, 2023 and references herein).
Triggered by the palaeolatitude-dependent and
westward-rotating inertia eect, the primordial
orthogonal fracture system -with NW and NE
orientations respectively, were reactivated
(Michaelsen and Storetvedt, 2023). In this
process, coal-bearing break-o basins in the
Mongolia-China region developed-regionally
characterized by “many in the east-fewer in the
west”. The eastern structurally strained basins
are predominantly oriented NE whereas western
ones are generally trending NW. Similarity
in trends suggest they were deposited under
somewhat uniform tectonic conditions -which
in our case means transtensive reactivation of
the basic orthogonal fracture/fault network. Due
to extensive post-Permian cover sequences,
however, most late Permian coal-bearing
deposits are poorly dened and understood. The
South Gobi Basin -a concentration of related
but disconnected fault-bounded sub-basins
(Michaelsen and Storetvedt, 2023, 2024),
is by far the most important given its vast
economically important metallic and thermal
coal resources, including the world class
deposit at Tavan Tolgoi with potential total coal
resources of c. 10 Gt (ie. to a depth of 1,000 m).
Contrary to the regionally relatively restricted
late Palaeozoic coal-bearing sub-basins,
Mongolian Mesozoic-Tertiary sedimentary
depressions are widely distributed-notably in
southern parts of the country (Fig. 3) where the
tectonic wrench interplay, between the basic
NE and NW conjugate fracture/fault systems,
has generated a broader southward bending and
disrupted links chain system. The Mesozoic-
Tertiary sedimentary series are generally
thicker than the late Palaeozoic basins, and in
eastern Mongolia the post-Palaeozoic sequence
can reach a thickness of 5 km, in an accelerating
Mesozoic development. In a crustal structure
study across central-south Mongolia, He et al.
(2016) found that the crust thins southward
-from 46 km in the Khentii region to 38 km
in the southern area of the Zuunbayan Basin.
Considering a maximum subsidence of 5 km,
it means that the crystalline crust in southern
Mongolia has been thinned by up to 10-12
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
26
km. Furthermore, by using a new approach -
integrating the Bouguer anomaly gradient and
the receiver function-derived crustal thickness,
He et al. arrived at a relatively dense lower
crust beneath the Middle Gobi region. These
results are consistent with an important premise
of the wrench tectonic theory: outgassing of
hydrous uids has triggered upward migrating
eclogitization (ie., density increase) of the
lower crust-with subsequent sub-crustal loss to
the upper mantle, crustal subsidence, and basin
formation. The main dierence between the
development of deep ocean and intracontinental
basins can be attributed to the much lower
content of water in the gas and liquid ows that
aect and seep through the continental crust.
The geology of the South Gobi Basin is
characterized by deep-seated Permian strata
in places, generated by transtensive processes
caused by late Jurassic to early Cretaceous
wrench tectonic reactivation. Therefore,
extensive tracts of Permian coal-bearing
strata are overlain by signicant thicknesses
of Mesozoic-Cenozoic ll (>2 km in places).
Norvick and Handke (2005) pointed out that
between the ranges in southern Mongolia,
the sedimentary basins have thick upper
Middle Jurassic to late Cretaceous mega-
sequences. These observations are consistent
with the fact that crustal thinning and related
Fig. 3. Mesozoic sedimentary basins of Mongolia. The wider sedimentary belt in the south corresponds to Palaeozoic
tectonic interaction between the fundamental NW and NE fault systems. The Mesozoic-Tertiary sedimentary series are
generally thicker than the late Palaeozoic basins in an accelerating Mesozoic development. Map showing hydrocarbon
blocks and exploration wells (a: oil, b: oil show, c: dry), seismic lines, isopaches and extensive Devonian reef zone
(coiled outlines). Modied from Tatnefti (2001).
isostatic subsidence accelerate towards the late
Cretaceous- in harmony with the progressive sea-
level rise and prediction of the wrench tectonic
theory (Storetvedt, 2003/2023). Hence, much of
the covered areas have apparently been formed
as Cretaceous transtensive basins. To this end,
Norvick and Handke (2005) concluded that, in
places, they eectively push the Permian coal-
prospective section beneath minable depths.
According to the wrench tectonic theory
Storetvedt (2003/2023), the deep regression
at around the Permian-Triassic boundary
was directly linked to a marked subcrustal
delamination-triggered by, and associated with,
exhaustion of a major hydrostatic pressure
build-up in the upper mantle. The marked sea-
level regression must have been replaced by
transgression -a sequence of relatively rapid
eustatic uctuations that gave rise to the episodic
exhalation of carbon dioxide, methane, and
other toxic gases that led to the largest marine
mass extinction in Earth history. Thus, Hallam
and Wignall (1999) concluded that “Rapid high-
amplitude regressive-transgressive couplets are
the most frequently observed eustatic changes
during times of mass extinction”.
Following the major gas exhalation around
the Permian-Triassic boundary, accumulation
of hydrostatic gas pressure in the upper
mantle continued through the Mesozoic-
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
27
reaching its maximum during the Cenomanian
transgression. The new build-up of interior
gas/uid pressure lifted the developing, and
progressively thinner, oceanic crust whereby a
major water pulse ooded signicant tracts of
low standing surfaces of the continents. After
this substantial transgression, a major phase
of delaminated lower crust led to sinking of
the present deep-sea basins. Consequently, the
late Cretaceous transgression was followed by
a distinct regression at the Cretaceous-Tertiary
boundary, giving rise to another major biotic
crisis. However, the increasing hydrostatic
pressure in the upper mantle was not only
critical for formation of the relatively thin
oceanic crust and its deep-sea basins. Also in
the continental crust, prominent representatives
of the orthogonal fracture system were intruded
by high-pressure gases and uids. The gas
and liquid penetration into the continental
crust expectedly led to a variety of chemical
reactions, heat production, magma production
and magmatic processes (Hunt et al., 1992).
At surface level, transtensive segments of the
primordial fracture network became pathways
for rising hydrocarbons and ore-bearing uids.
According to Hunt et al. (1992), pressure
reduction will cause degassed carbides and
hydrides to undergo a series of chemical
reactions where H2O and SiO2, plus heat, may
be important end products. This results in the
formation of granite melts, and probably also
silicon oil (a silicon-hydrocarbon structure,
Gold, 1999), which causes granitization
of the (upper) continental crust including
injection of veins and sometimes thick veins
of pure quartz (see below). Furthermore,
the presence of supercritical hydrous uids
in the middle crust, which due to their low
viscosity, high diusivities, high degree of
solubility, and eective metasomatizing eect
(Liebscher, 2010; Schienbein and Marx, 2020),
apparently can break down solid rock into
rock mud, is expectedly the primary cause of
the Meso-Cenozoic rift basins in Mongolia
and eastern China, including the Erlian and
Songliao depressions (Fig. 4). The action of
supercritical uids has most likely given rise to
many silty horizons observed in hydrocarbon
provinces, forming cap rocks. Once physical
pathways between the upper mantle and the
Earth’s surface have been established, we
have also ready transport routes for abiotic
hydrocarbons and ore-carrying uids. All in all,
degassing eventually ends up with a diversity
of surface products-water (fresh or salty),
crude oil, natural gas, ore deposits, magma
from chemical reactions, and gases under high
Fig. 4. Map of Mesozoic sedimentary basins of Mongolia and adjacent China, with schematized Chinese hydrocarbon
elds and the Zuunbayan and Tsagaan Els oil eld, South Mongolia. Simplied after Manas Petroleum (www.
manaspetroleum.com).
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
28
pressure are likely to be the dominant cause
of both earthquakes and craters As depicted in
Fig. 4, the structural patterns of the regional
Chinese oil elds are consistent with the basic
orthogonal NW- and NE-oriented fracture/fault
systems. The late Ordovician structural pattern
has therefore formed the basis of the geological
development in Central Asia (Michaelsen and
Storetvedt, 2023).
Despite the overwhelming support for the biotic
view of hydrocarbons, the scientic literature
appears to be completely devoid of experiments
in which biological material is converted into
crude oil, and putative oil-producing source
rocks have also remained an open question
(Mahfoud and Beck 1995; Mahfoud, 2000).
Major oil elds in fractured basement rocks are
frequently discovered (see chapter on “Major
salt basins and hydrocarbon provinces …” in
Storetvedt and Longhinos, 2012), Sephton and
Hazen (2013). Today there is no shortage of
petroleum; several producing elds might not
cease producing in the foreseeable future as they
are probably being recharged from reservoirs in
basement rocks (Glasby, 2006; Guo et al., 1997).
Many large oil elds probably have hydrostatic
connection to hydrocarbon accumulations in
crystalline crust or deeper, so with increasing
production and reduced liquid/gas pressure in
sedimentary reservoirs, an upward replenishing
stream comes in action.
In Mongolia, there are so far 33 petroleum
blocks, but only four of them have advanced
to production with oil discoveries or oil shows
reported in a further seven other blocks;
exploration is being conducted in 10 blocks and
c. 1,500 oil wells have been drilled. The (proved)
ultimate recovery for the four producing blocks
has been estimated at 320 million barrels of
oil, but between 1996 and 2021 only a mere
73 million barrels has been produced. As per
today, the Mongolian oil production is therefore
immaterial. Until recently, London listed
Petromatad had two large petroleum blocks
along the prospective Valey of the Lakes basins
which had never previously been seriously
explored for oil and gas. However, drilling in
2018 terminated in granitic basement at 1,490
m, and later drilling campaigns have shown
only uneconomic oil and gas shows. Therefore,
oil drilling within Valley of the Lakes basins has
so far not been promising. On the other hand,
the elongate NE-trending Toson Tolgoi sub-
basin in southeastern Mongolia is the country’s
largest sub-basin with an area of over 3,500
km2 and a sedimentary ll up to 5,000 m. In
2014, Wolf Petroleum carried out a 450-line
km seismic survey, and from a total of 723 test
hole samples, 150 of them were characterized
by light oil seeps.
If hydrocarbons are degassing products from
the Earth’s interior, it requires that vertical
migration paths are available, and that reservoir
rocks and lithofacies-tectonic cap structures are
present. An important question is under which
conditions degassing-related wrench tectonics
satises these conditions and thus becomes a
favourable production basis in oil exploration.
In a recent paper (Michaelsen and Storetvedt,
2023) we interpreted the prominent convexity
of the Mongolian tectono-topographic grain
as a stepwise structural transition between
the two basic fault sets-with NW and NE
orientation respectively. Thus, the Mongolian
South Gobi region plays a decisive position
for understanding the country’s south-directed
structural convexity -a gradual transition
that must have occurred as detached tectonic
elements. The crustal distortion (a link chain
structure) has consequently resulted in gradual
localized openings-expansion of gas and liquid
pathways, thus laying the foundation for up
owing hydrocarbons and mineral combinations
probably in the form of organometallics.
Some 380 km east of the Mongolian border
zone and Mesozoic basins, the Songliao Basin
(Fig. 4) is the largest, and high-producing, oil
basin in China. It is an interesting observation
that the Songliao Basin has the same inertia-
based southwest curvature (Lee, 1986) and
therefore presumably the same inertia-based
crustal splitting up as the southeast Mongolian
border basin. Moreover, crustal thinning is
about the same in the two regions, suggesting
that they may have had similar degassing and
crustal development histories. It is not unlikely
therefore that also the Mesozoic basins of SE
Mongolia-notably in the deepest basins, may
have substantial hydrocarbon potential. Lee
(1986) wrote: “The Daqing oil eld of the
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
29
Central Depression supergiant eld, oil and
gas in the (Songliao) reservoirs are trapped by
anticlinal and nose-shaped folds, fault barriers,
and lithofacies changes, which are then sealed
by overlying shale and mudstone”. Some cap
rocks of shale and mudstone might represent
the physical disintegration eect of rising
supercritical uids (Hovland et al., 2006).
The Daqing oil eld has produced over 10
billion barrels of oil since production started in
1960. Oil in place was estimated at 16 billion
barrels and current daily production is 800,000
barrels. Because of the apparent abundance of
hydrogen and carbon in Earth’s interior, there
are good reasons for believing that the Daqing
eld, like many Middle East elds probably
will continue to produce into an unforeseeable
future. Moreover, there is every reason to
seriously consider the oil and gas potential of
the southeast Gobi basins. In case a promising
sedimentary entrapment are not encountered,
protable reservoirs may be found in fractured
basement rocks.
In Mongolia, inertia-based wrench deformation
was in action in the late Ordovician (Michaelsen
and Storetvedt, 2023), and subsequent
disturbances have repeatedly swept the region-
including folding phases in the Meso-Cenozoic
sedimentary basins of southeast Mongolia
(Graham et al., 2001). Hydrous uids seem to
play a crucial role in global tectonics, which,
in their supercritical state, has apparently the
ability to break down solid rocks into mud
(see above). After being deposited on the
surface, the mud fraction upon burial becomes
shale and mudstone layers. In hydrocarbon
exploration work, such sedimentary layers may
be mistakenly referred to as source rocks.
From Mongolia eastwards, the typical Moho
depth becomes progressively shallower- from 45
km beneath the craton to 38-33 km of crystalline
crust below the Meso-Cenozoic basins (Guo et
al., 2014; Sebastian et al., 2023) -before a more
marked crustal thinning occurs near and below
the Sea of Japan (Zheng et al., 2011) where the
crustal thickness is anti-correlated with water
depth, and the NE-oriented bathymetry conform
to the ridge-basin structure in Meso-Cenozoic
rift basins in the Mongolia-NE China. Karig
(1971) made the rst attempt to incorporate the
marginal basins of NW Pacic into the plate
tectonic model-suggesting that they had been
formed by some form of seaoor spreading.
However, plate tectonic explanations have
not reached sensible conclusions, and ad-hoc
suggestions have continued to this day.
On the other hand, Choi (1984) inferred that
the tectono-topographic trends of Japan and
adjacent continental tracts were traceable in
the bottom topography of the Sea of Japan
-suggesting that the Sea originated as a fault-
controlled continental collapse structure during
which the present-day NE-oriented basin-
and-ridge topography developed. Moreover,
Meissner (1986) proposed that all marginal
basins along the northwest Pacic margin are
thinned and modied continental crust formed
under transtensive conditions. The proposals
of Choi and Meissner t well with the inertia-
driven wrench tectonic theory. After late
Cretaceous to early Tertiary oceanization of
the northern North Atlantic crust, Eurasia has
undergone slow clockwise wrench rotation
(Storetvedt, 1990). According to GPS velocity
data (Zemtsov, 2007), the torsional rotation is
still in action (Fig. 2). Along the steeply inclined
Benio zone of the northwest Pacic margin,
Eurasia’s inertial rotation has led to moderate
clockwise deformations -demonstrated by the
seaward convexity of the outer boundary of
marginal basins -eg., Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of
Japan and East China Sea. Furthermore, there
is no accretion of marine sediments along the
NW Pacic trenches-simply because seaoor
spreading, and subduction do not exist (see
Fig. 5). On the other hand, wrench rotation of
Eurasia has produced left-lateral shear along
the bordering trench/Benio Zone. Fig. 5
exemplies the left-lateral shearing and shear
partitioning in the Nankai Trough o southern
Japan (Le Pichon et al., 1994).
Graphite deposits
Graphite is a soft, low-density mineral of pure
carbon that is stable under surface conditions
-consisting of stacked layers in a hexagonal
nanostructure lattice. It is commonly assumed
that graphite has somehow converted from
the cubic diamond structure-the hardest of
all natural materials and formed under high
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
30
Fig. 5. a) Fault plane solutions (Scheidegger, 1982) indicating strike-slip along NW Pacic Benio Zone. b) and c) are
from marine geological studies along the sheared scarp o Japan (Le Pichon et al., 1994).
pressures at mantle depths of a few hundred
kilometres. Natural diamonds, partially
replaced by graphite, have frequently been
reported from occurrences in ultra-high
pressure metamorphics and from peridotites
emplaced into continental crust. For example,
Pearson et al. (1998) described graphitized
diamonds from a peridotite massif in Morocco,
in which the graphite had octahedral and other
cubic forms interpreted as pseudomorphs after
diamond. Thus, the graphite inclusions must
have originated as diamond, but during slow
ascent, gradual cooling and other aecting
factors, the carbon atoms had reassembled
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
31
into the low-pressure graphite form. Although
there is a diversity of opinions about how the
various types of graphite have formed-varying
from precipitation from mantle liquids to
metamorphic reactions in coal seams (Simandl
et al., 2015), the uncertainty of formation is
no less for diamonds (Smit and Shirey, 2018).
Regrettably, in experimental work on mantle
processes (Hayes and Waldbauer, 2006; Tumiati
et al., 2020), it is usually taken for granted
that the high pressures necessary for diamond
formation are achieved by deep subduction, and
Tappert et al. (2005) concluded that diamond
was formed by direct transformation of graphite
with increasing pressure through subduction.
No one seems to care that none of the basic
plate tectonic mechanisms and principles have
been veried.
Regardless the multitude of uncertainties, one
thing is indisputable: diamonds usually contain
a variety of uid inclusions-including water,
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen, and silicates
(Schrauder and Navon, 1994). Moreover, in
a recent study by Matjuschkin et al. (2020)
demonstrated spontaneous crystallization
of diamond from methane-rich uids, at
pressure, temperature and redox conditions
approximating those of deeper continental
lithosphere. From deep continental drilling
(Kola and KTB, Germany) it has been observed
that the fracture spaces increase with depth
and that the expanding fractures have a ow
of hydrous uids with dissolved natural gases
(hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, ³helium
etc). Furthermore, ore uids leached from the
mantle are typically associated with signicant
concentrations of methane, nitrogen, salts etc.
(Goldfarb and Groves, 2015). These lighter
components must originate from the deep
interior, and they often occur as inclusions in
magmatic rocks (Harris, 1986; Webster, 2006).
Melton and Giardini (1974) and many others
have found that natural diamonds frequently
contain inclusions of carbon-bearing uids,
mostly methane and carbon dioxide-regarded
by Hunt et al. (1992) to be reaction products of
silicon carbides from the deep mantle or outer
core.
Simandl et al. (2015) grouped economic
deposits of natural graphite into three main
categories: microcrystalline graphite, vein
graphite and ake graphite. The rst group is
believed to have developed from sedimentary
coal seams and followed by sub-greenschist
to greenschist metamorphism. The second
variant was deposited in open fracture systems
where the host rocks show granulite facies
metamorphism, and aky graphite were
again regarded as formed by precipitation of
carbon particles from (hydrocarbon) uids-in
amphibolite to granulite facies environment.
There is every reason to believe that the Earth’s
present constitution is the product of internal
reorganization of its original disorganized mass
distribution. The slow process towards internal
physico-chemical equilibrium has resulted in
an episodic dynamo-tectonic development.
Thence, the related hydrostatic-hydraulic
system has given rise to several geological
processes-including granitization and general
compositional and structural reworking of
the original continental crust. The degassing
process produces an outward hydrostatic force
that counteracts the inward gravitational eect
-resulting in an internal pressure bath situation
consistent with the exponential opening of
fractures with depth, as demonstrated in
deep continental drillings. Furthermore, with
temperature and pressure conditions in the lower
crust and mantle, uids will be in their reactive
supercritical state. Therefore, aqueous uids
apparently can break down crystalline rocks
-as demonstrated by the wide distribution of
mud volcanoes (Milkov, 2000). In this process,
reactive (hydrocarbon) uids are likely to have
released graphite from graphitized diamonds
-dragging graphite particles with them in the
upward ow.
It is reasonable to believe that the rarity of gem-
quality diamonds at the Earth’s surface is not due
to their shortage at depth of origin (150 km and
more). It is more likely that the necessary high
gas pressure, required for the explosive delivery
system, has been a rarity. The bulk of diamonds
have thus had a much slower rise to the surface,
where several factors may have played a role
in the solid-to-solid transition from diamond
to graphite (Kononenko et al., 2016; Tavella et
al., 2017; O’Bannon et al., 2020). Considering
that graphite seemingly formed under high-
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
32
grade metamorphic conditions, the combination
of high hydrostatic pressure and the physical
decomposition eect of supercritical uids may
have had crucial importance in the diamond-
to-graphite structural transition. It seems likely
therefore, that the great majority of graphite
deposits have their origin from converted
diamonds, and that graphite fragments
precipitated from hydrocarbon streams under
variable tectonophysical circumstances.
Deposits of vein and ake graphite t
particularly well with the assumption that they
were deposited from uids along primordial
fractures under transtensive conditions.
Regarding microcrystalline graphite deposits,
Simandl et al. (2015) believe they have
formed “by maturation of organic material in
sedimentary rocks (coal seams) followed by
regional or contact metamorphism attaining
sub-greenschist to greenschist facies.” However,
unless one assumes that coal formation is partly
abiotic-which is not supported by evidence,
the Proterozoic surface conditions were
fundamentally dierent from those of main coal
producing times. Thus, tree vegetation-regarded
to be the main material for coal formation, did
not appear until late Devonian -associated
with a sea-level regression. Furthermore,
the Proterozoic was characterized by limited
amounts of shallow water, the cause of smaller-
scale limestone formation, but life was only in
form of bacteria, microscopic plankton etc. The
rst major outow of surface water took place
at the onset of the Palaeozoic, associated with
the Cambrian explosion of higher marine life.
In addition, during the Proterozoic hydrous gas
pressures in the outer mantle had apparently not
yet reached a level to instigate eective sub-
crustal delamination and basin formation.
As the predicted volatile hydrides and carbides
rise buoyantly through the mantle, reactions with
hydrogen/oxygen can produce other volatiles,
such as monosilane (SiH4) and methane (CH4)
-both being combustible and endowed with
latent heat. During further ascent, Hunt et al.
(1992) conjectured that water, monosilane,
quartz, molecular hydrogen and heat would be
produced. In Upper Archaean and Proterozoic
times, the original anorthosite kindred crustal
rocks-including gabbroic varieties (Storetvedt
2003/2023), led to generation of silicon melts
and extensive granitization. However, in the
uppermost Archean the crust was apparently
suciently brittle to enable implantation of
the pan-global, steeply dipping and near-
perpendicular fracture system (Scheidegger
1963 and our Fig. 1). The increasing granitization
vs. depth in the cratonic crust, has been strongly
demonstrated in the Kola superdeep borehole
(Russ. Acad. Sci., 1998). Another striking
example is the Paleoproterozoic-deformed
Bundelkand Craton of north-central India
showing extreme quartz enrichment (Absar et
al., 2009) -the region has tens of metres thick
orthogonal quartz dykes (Das et al., 2019; Singh
et al., 2021) most likely injected in the form of
silicon oil (Gold, 1999, p. 136-137) and under
strong transtensive conditions.
In the same way as for today’s irregular
distribution of continents and deep-sea basins,
there is every reason to assume that crustal
granitization was also unevenly distributed, by
mineral transformation and replacement in situ,
including heat (Hunt et al., 1992). Thus, variably
granitized cratonic crust with associated melt
production must have led to a variably thick
upper crust being moderately detached from
its lower part (Michaelsen and Storetvedt,
2023, and references therein). The degree of
crustal wrench deformation will depend both on
planetary spin rate and palaeolatitude, factors
that are largely unknown for the Precambrian
Earth, but Alfvén and Arrhenius (1976) argued
that the early Earth may have rotated 4 times
faster than at present. Furthermore, for regions
having undergone extreme granitization and
associated magma production-such as the
Bundelkhand Craton, the resulting tectonic
ductility and deformability would make the
palaeolatitude factor less critical. Thus, the
extremely granitized and thereby relatively
ductile Bundelkhand cratonic crust was
tectonically sheared and strained during the
Proterozoic, for which Sikdar et al. (2023)
provide an appropriate description. In their study
of the mid-upper greenschist facies rocks, they
write that “The weak CPOs [crystallographic
preferred orientation] and ... a high shear strain
suggests a signicant contribution of grain
boundary sliding in strain locations inside the
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
33
ductile shear bands”, and in the same vein they
also reported superplastic deformation inside
shear bands in granites.
According to Simandl et al. (2015), India is
the second largest graphite producer in the
world. As graphite occurrences are regionally
associated with concentrated metamorphic
gold and other Proterozoic metal deposits, it
is reasonable to assume a close physical link
between the emplacement of ore deposits in
India and Proterozoic crustal deformation
and metamorphism. This means that changes
in Earth’s rotation accelerated ore leaching
processes, after which accumulated metals
and graphite particles were transported with
pressurized hydrous and hydrocarbon uids. The
ore cargo was unloaded step by step-in concert
with Earth’s dynamic pulsation and within the
simultaneously deforming and metamorphosing
crust when temperature and pressure conditions
made it possible.
Graphite occurrences and deposits are widely
distributed in Mongolia and eastern China, with
host rocks restricted to Neoproterozoic and
Proterozoic metasediments. Two of the graphite-
bearing areas in Mongolia were inspected and
are being briey described below.
Area 1 is in central Mongolia c. 110 km S-SE
of Ulaanbaatar. The elongate fault-bounded
graphite-bearing sub-basin extends for c. 600
m in length and c. 200 m in width. The 25-
30 m thick ore body occurs within a lower
Proterozoic (c. 1.2-1.6 Ga) schist and limestone
unit, it is preserved in a NE-SW trending
syncline which might extend beneath Jurassic
basalt cover to the southwest. The graphite
exposures are sporadically exposed in 10 open
trenches and in two shallow historical test pits.
For the present survey, one of us (PM) visited
and sampled ve trenches and a minor test pit
along the western limb of the syncline and ve
trenches and a small test pit along the eastern
ank. In the surrounding landscape, no graphite
exposures were observed. The trench exposures
show that the graphite units are characterized by
abundant fractures and a structural complexity.
A few faults were observed within the trenches
as well as tight parasitic folding along the anks
of the syncline. The NE trend of the ore body
corresponds to one of the primordial orthogonal
fracture/fault sets which Scheidegger
(1963) assigned to the Upper Archean. The
sedimentary host rocks probably formed in a
relatively shallow marine depositional setting
characterized by base-level changes and
subsequently subjected the wrench reactivation.
Within the steeply dipping wrench faults, acting
as conduits for graphite-carrying uids from
the interior, the deposited graphite ores were
subsequently compressed and deformed. Given
the lack of graphite deposits in Phanerozoic
host rocks, timing of the graphite mineralization
and its deformation is considered here to be
Precambrian. It is noted that the relatively minor
orebody (Area 1) is hosted in a c. 2 km wide
and c. 10 km long NW-SE trending low relief
in a lower Proterozoic metamorphic unit which
might contain further graphite-bearing deposits
along strike. However, the tectonic situation
means that area 1 graphite occurs at a junction
between orthogonal faults which sometimes,
in a wrench tectonic setting, forms an eective
outgassing pipe.
Area 2 is situated in far southern Mongolia
proximal to the Chinese border. The ore appears
in Neoproterozoic schist outcropping over a c.
7 km long NE-SW trending zone. Subsurface
data indicate a maximum thickness of 84 m
of graphite-bearing ore. This is a relatively
advanced project with a 36 Mt open space
graphite resource base containing c. 5% TGC
for 1.8 Mt contained graphite carbon. The
Neoproterozoic host rock is schist. The basement
rock is often exposed as slabs (up to c. 50 cm in
length) in c. 20 largely covered trenches. The
structural complexity is uncertain; however, a
few faults were observed, with bedding dips
changing rapidly over short distances, almost
vertical in places -suggestive of strong shear
deformation. The northeast trending orebody
is in concordance with that of Area 1 (as well
as for numerous other economical deposits in
Mongolia). It is envisaged that steep orthogonal
fault lines acted as conduits for upward rising
carbon-rich uids which unloaded the graphite
ore within relatively thin conned packages.
The TGC% of both deposits compares well
with global graphite deposits developed by
other graphite explorers such as Volt Resources
(Bunyu, Tanzania), Lomiko Metals (La Loutre,
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
34
Canada), International Graphite (Springdale,
Australia) and Tirupati Graphite (Sahamamy,
Madagascar).
The renowned Botogol vein graphite is located
c. 90 km north of the Mongolian border around
52°20’43”N /100°14’56”E. The Botogol
graphite deposit used to be the largest graphite
mine in the world with the cleanest and highest
quality. This deposit was used by the French
since the XIX century. Within the 10 km² large
complex, about 30 graphite bodies have been
discovered with mining only conned to the
northern area. The graphite occurs as irregular
lenses, stocks, and veins (Lobzova, 1975).
Mineral ages from associated intrusive rocks
have given Devonian-Carboniferous K-Ar ages
(Lobzova, 1975), but undated graphite xenoliths
are probably Precambrian.
In China, the graphite occurrences appear
Fig. 6. Distribution of main graphite deposits in China and Mongolia, simplied after Sun et al. (2018). The
northwestern Chinese deposits dene the same southward curvature as the tectono-topographic southern border of
Mongolia. See text for explanations.
predominantly in crystalline ake format with
subordinate aphanitic deposits with “many in
east and few in west” (Sun et al., 2018). As
depicted in Fig. 6, the bulk of the East China
ore deposits is distributed in a broad NE-SW
oriented belt -just like the individual deposits in
Mongolia. In addition, the dominating structural
trends, metallogenic belts, and graphite
deposits in China (Sun et al., 2018) comply
with the fundamental orthogonal rupture/fault
pattern for Asia-directed NW-SE and NE-SW
respectively. The host rocks unveil high grade
late Archean-late Proterozoic metamorphic
ages, but the graphite ores may have been
deposited during transtensive conditions at later
wrench tectonic events-Proterozoic or younger.
For example, a closer look at the northwestern
segment of the NW China graphite distribution
has the same south-facing shape as the inertia-
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
35
based tectono-physiographic shape as South
Mongolia (Michaelsen and Storetvedt, 2023).
This may imply that the Chinese graphite
deposits located proximal to southern Mongolia
were emplaced in the Lower Palaeozoic. The
reason is that the late Ordovician palaeoequator
passed the southwestern tip of Mongolia along
which Caledonian wrench tectonics was at its
maximum. The triggering dynamic mechanism
for this and all other global-tectonic upheavals
has been degassing-related changes of the globe’s
moments of inertia. This dynamic transition led
to changes in rotation, which in turn gave rise
to inertia-driven crustal tectonic wrenching
as well as accelerating the interior upward
carbon-rich uid ows. On this background,
it is inferred that the metamorphic-magmatic
history of host rocks is unlikely to have direct
connection with origin and emplacement of ore
deposits. Therefore, with the assumption that
the curved linear spread of graphite deposits in
northern China is of Caledonian age, it seems
likely that also Area 2 graphite in southernmost
Mongolia (discussed above) was emplaced
during Caledonian events.
During the Proterozoic eon, spanning the
time from 2500 to c. 540 Ma, both the Pre-
Archean basement and the fault-oriented
graphite deposits must have been subjected
to Proterozoic and younger wrench tectonic
events. Flaky graphite may t into this sequence.
Furthermore, as inertia-based crustal wrenching
is latitude-dependent, the question arises
whether the palaeolatitude eect is the primary
cause of the concentration of graphite deposits
in eastern China. Thus, a common tectonic and
palaeomagnetic consideration of the Upper
Proterozoic suggest that the actual palaeoequator
passed along the Atlantic, across Arctic Canada,
continuing along north-western Pacic etc.
(chapter 7 in Storetvedt, 2003/2023). This
palaeogeographic setting gives eastern China
low intermediate latitudes, and as expected, at a
time of signicant crustal granitization, it would
give rise to prolic tectonic inertia eects.
Thus, being in the northern palaeo-hemisphere,
the clockwise torsion of the upper crust would
readily provide transtensive conditions of the
NE-SW oriented fracture set, thereby providing
opening space for progressive unloading of
graphite particles from carbon-rich uids.
Both granitization and graphitization of the
crust are apparently mainly of Proterozoic age.
In contrast, the main supply of surface water is
dominantly a post-Precambrian phenomenon
-an assumption which is supported by the
explosion of higher marine life in the Lower
Palaeozoic. This suggests that outgassing of
lighter elements and their chemical combinations
-such as uid carbides and hydrides, has not had
a homogeneous temporal escape rate. Thus, it
is proposed here that, at an early stage, carbon
compounds led the outgassing from the core. In
this process, phases like silicon carbide (SiC),
in reaction with hydrogen/oxygen en route, may
have given rise to free carbon with formation
of diamonds, heat production and silicon melts
(Hunt et al., 1992; Gold, 1999). As rising uids
will have been in their reactive and disintegrating
supercritical state, carbon-rich streams have
transported graphite particles (detached from
graphitized diamonds) -depositing them in
transtensive fault zones.
Concentrated Cu-Au deposits
How thinly distributed metal particles in the
mantle ended up as concentrated deposits in near
surface locations have remained an unsettled
problem. Firstly, there must be a uid that can
ow through the fracture spacing, leaching the
metal particles from the rock and carry them
along with the stream. Water has generally
been considered the responsible agent, although
conventional theory has predicted that even
at relatively moderate crustal depth, gravity
pressure would close all fractures making
uid ow an impossibility. However, deep
continental drilling (Kola and TKB, Germany)
has refuted this assumption-demonstrating that
fractures open with depth and thereby paving
the way for rising uids. Hoyle (1955) and later
Gold (1999) pointed out that if a buoyant uid,
occupying an existing fracture network, exerts
an outward pressure as great as the opposing
gravity pressure of the surrounding rocks, uid
ows will be maintained. Hence, it is the pressure
dierential, not the absolute pressure level, that
decides the fate of fractures at depth. It follows
those fractures within a rock can be sustained
under very high pressures, but, at least in the
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
36
outer layers of the Earth, rocks (being without
noteworthy tensile strength) cannot withstand a
uid that comes up with a pressure greater than
that exerted by the weight of the overburden.
The result is a wide range of outgassing rates
-varying from very slow ascent to explosive
outbursts. The rst category includes the bulk
of surface water, natural gas, and ore deposits,
while the second (high-pressure) group accounts
for the great majority of earthquakes, cratering,
and the required rapid upward transfer of high-
quality diamonds from their origin in the mantle
to the surface.
After developing from a relatively rapidly
rotating cloud of cold gas and mineral dust,
the proto-Earth must have acquired an inverse
temperature distribution (Storetvedt, 2003/2023
and references therein). It is the unstable
temperature-chemical starting point that is the
basis for the Earth’s perpetual degassing and
its slow and staccato dynamic history. Thus,
the vertical reorganization of the Earth’s mass
has led to changes in its moment of inertia and
thus of its rotation properties -ie. relatively
distinct spatial reorientations and changes in
velocity of rotation. These pulse-like dynamic
changes, which correspond to geological time
boundaries, are the principal drivers of Earth’s
modus operandi; they represent the main
pumping system for ascending uids, trigger
crustal inertia-driven wrench tectonics, and are
the causation of all pulse-like geological events
-including injection/precipitation of ores from
hydrocarbon uids (see below).
In the longstanding process of gaining internal
physical equilibrium, major parts of the interior
would gradually have been subject to a kind
of pressure bath situation characterized by an
open fracture system. Deep continental drilling
has shown that fractures open exponentially
with depth which must mean that the inward
gravity pressure is increasingly counteracted by
outward hydrostatic pressure. That is, at mantle
depths fractures are being kept open, they don’t
feel being subjected pressure. In addition to
the episodic supply of surface metal deposits,
outgassing uids must not only be able to gather
up thinly disseminated metals from mantle rocks
but must also provide the source of physical
energy that can push the uid through the rock.
Thus, at mantle depths uids will apparently be
in their reactive supercritical state (Liebscher,
2010; Hirschman and Kohlstedt, 2012; Galli and
Pan, 2013) -characterized by strong buoyancy
and high diusivity, thereby overcoming most
critical mass transfer limitations. Therefore,
the traditional inadequacy of the hydrothermal
hypothesis-regarding leaching, transport, and
unloading of metal deposits-may perhaps take
a completely new direction if the supercritical
state of uids is considered. Nonetheless, Gold
(1999) considered the matter dierently.
Gold
At mantle depths hydrocarbons may enter
molecular arrangements with metals to
form carbon-metal bounds -so-called
organometallics. Gold (1999) believed that a
whole range of organometallics are produced
by hydrocarbons leaching through mantle
rocks, arguing that several of the metals in
these chemical compounds could not have a
biological origin. In support of his hypothesis,
he noted that “Most organometallics are soluble
in [abiotic] hydrocarbon oils and thus will be
carried along with the ow. When temperature,
pressure, or other solubility conditions reach
a threshold at which a particular kind of
organometallics can no longer be carried by the
stream, a concentrated metal deposit would be
generated in that spot” (Gold, 1999, p. 135).
Consistent with this assumption, methane is a
commonly occurring gas in many metal mines.
For example, in the Witwatersrand Basin in
South Africa, which hosts some of the largest
and deepest gold mines in the world, faults act
as conduits for the upward migration of methane
gas-often accompanied by explosions, and
seismic detection of potential methane pathways
is therefore of signicant safety and economic
importance (Manzi et al, 2012, Mkhabela
and Manzi, 2017). An abrupt physical change
leading to the unloading of uid-transported
metals can occur when the rock overburden
weight suddenly gives way to a supercritical
uid front causing abrupt pressure release (Weis
et al., 2012). The uid penetration gives rise to
reactivation of the local fracture/fault system
with structural collapse, often resulting in a
series of low to moderate intensity earthquakes
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
37
referred to as earthquake spots (Sibson, 1987).
However, another important factor behind
the tectono-hydrostatic breakthrough of high
pressurized liquids may well be Earth’s dynamic
pulsation.
Throughout the long history of ore mining
there are many accounts of the apparently close
connection between concentrated metal deposits
and hydrocarbon liquids and gases (Gold, 1999),
but in modern times the possibility that these
volatile substances can be relevant transport
media has gained little attention (Henley et
al., 2022, Henley and Berger, 2013). The
reason for this lack of understanding probably
lies in the ingrained belief that hydrocarbons
are predominantly fossil-based products and
hence have a sedimentary (surface) origin.
Since the leaching of metals must have mainly
taken place in the mantle, hydrocarbons as a
means of transport were therefore seen as an
impossibility. However, the presence of major
oil and gas reservoirs in fractured basement
rocks (metamorphic and igneous) on a global
scale have become a commonly recognized
fact (Gutmanis et al., 2012; Koning, 2019;
Morariu, D. 2012) for which the biotic theory
has no acceptable explanation. Another
pressing problem is this: Why are there so much
water and salts (in the form of salt stocks) in
major hydrocarbon elds? This question was
asked to the principal author (KS) during a
seminar at Equinor (formerly Statoil) in 2004.
The degassing theory has a ready account:
Hydrocarbon uids and gasses, water, and
salts can be understood as reaction products
from outgassing of hydrides and carbides from
the deep Earth. Unfortunately, the extreme
subject specialization in our time, the economic
geological research community has obviously
not realized that hydrocarbons-both as gasses,
liquids and solids (ice) -are dominant chemical
compounds in the planetary system (Kaufmann,
1988).
Nevertheless, evidence for the spatial
coexistence between hydrocarbons and diverse
mineral deposits is growing, and so has the
interest of hydrocarbon uids as a means of metal
carrier (Hulen and Collister, 1999; Williams-
Jones et al. 2009; Ge et al. 2022; Saintilan et
al. 2019). Thus, Hulen and Hollister, studying
the oil-bearing Carlin-type gold deposits of
Yankee Basin, Nevada, concluded that timing
of the uid-inclusion oils was clearly involved
in the gold-mineralizing system, and associated
free oil could have arrived at any time prior to,
during, or after mineralization. Furthermore,
based on solubility experiments, Ge et al. (2022)
suggested that liquid oil could have acted as a
transport system for gold particles before they
were deposited.
In view of the degassing model, it is likely
that mantle hydrocarbons with varying
chemical composition have inltrated the
orthogonal fracture network of the Earth’s
crust and precipitated the metal content when
physical conditions required it (Gold, 1999).
Furthermore, Hunt et al. (1992) argued that
degassing of the core’s stock of hydrides and
carbides has, during their upward ow, led to
a series of chemical reactions en route. In this
process, the crust was subjected to progressive
granitization - through production of siliceous
melts and/or silicon oil, the latter giving rise
to dykes or veins of pure quartz. So, when
metal-bearing hydrocarbon uids and silicic
magma were competing for space in the same
transtensive segments of the orthogonal fracture
network, the solidied rock would acquire a
porphyry character. Furthermore, due to the
Earth’s dynamo-tectonic pulsation, it follows
that also the deposition of concentrated metal
deposits will be time-related to principal
tectono-magmatic events (Table 1).
Gold in quartz veins-where small gold particles
either occur scattered between the quartz grains
or compose more concentrated deposits along
fractures in the veins, is a common combination.
Illuminating results have recently been reported
from the strongly granitized crust of the Kola
Superdeep Borehole (Prokoev et al., 2020). In
veins at depths between 9.500 and 11.000 m, all
quartz grains contained inclusions of chloride
brines and CO2 -rich uids with exceptional
concentrations of gold nanoparticles. The
study indicates that in the deeper upper crust
uid inclusions may be abnormally rich in
gold, but the question remains under what
conditions the gold nanoparticles were formed.
It is conceivable that the reactive, but poorly
understood supercritical state of uids has
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
38
played a decisive role; during the leaching
process they presumably have broken down
larger particles to nano-size. Prokoev et al.
suggest that the uids could be a precursor of
“orogenic gold uids” -reducing the “large
volume of metamorphic uids [required] to form
orogenic ore deposits”. However, the concept of
orogenic gold, which within the framework of
plate tectonics is associated with metamorphic
and magmatic processes, is a very speculative
notion. So, when Goldfarb and Pitcairn (2023)
discussed the origin of gold deposits, along
with the incorporated concept of orogenic
gold, they may have hit the nail on the head
when including the following passage in the
article headline: “is a genetic association with
magmatism realistic?” Perhaps time has come
to replace the plate tectonic paradigm with an
entirely new thought construction-based on a
slowly degassing Earth?
Fig. 7 gives a generalized global distribution
of gold and copper porphyry deposits. The
dominant linear ore belts correspond to surface
exposures of established or predicted deep and
relatively steeply inclined fault zones. These
several hundred km deep crustal discontinuities
were originally discovered by seismology in
peri-Pacic regions (Wadati, 1929; Benio,
1949, 1954), but Wilson (1954) extended
the Wadati-Benio concept with another
corresponding fault zone, nearly orthogonal
to the original one - including the Indonesian
island arc and its predicted continuation along
the classical narrow epicontinental Tethys basin
(Sonnenfeld, 1981) for which the associated
eastern tectonic belt is now being referred to as
the Tethysides. During India’s major tectonic
Fig. 7. Generalized overview of the global distribution
of porphyry copper (modied after Dicken et al., 2016).
The linear bands can be associated with unloading from
deep fault zones, but the broad ore belt across the thick
crust of Central Asia requires a dierent approach.
rotation (in situ) at around c. 60 Ma. ago, during
which also the Deccan lava complex was formed
(Storetvedt, 2003/2023, p. 69-73), the Himalaya
Tethysides was strongly deformed.
However, what we are concerned with here
is the broad rst-rate porphyry belt across
Central Asia -the only one of its kind in the
world. These trans-Asian metallogenic belts
have apparently no direct link to deep upper
mantle tectonic discontinuities or larger-scale
Moho variations. For example, the regional
Mongolian crust has an estimated thickness of
c. 45 km (Mordvinova et al., 2007; Feng, 2021;
Guy et al., 2024) -and Eshagh et al. (2016),
employing satellite gravity gradients, a similar
Moho depth for all Central Asia is estimated. On
the other hand, He et al. (2016) found a slightly
thinner crust (38 km) beneath the South Gobi
Basin. However, the overall at and normally
thick Central Asian crust would imply that the
sub-crustal metamorphic granulite-to-eclogite
transition, with attendant gravity-driven crustal
delamination to the upper mantle, have largely
been hindered. In this context, several authors
(Austrheim, 1987; Walther, 1994; Leech,
2001) have stressed the importance of hydrous
uids for the metamorphism-regulated density
transition to take place. Without sucient
H2O-rich uids in the mantle beneath the thick
Central Asian crust, this may explain why large-
scale sub-crustal thinning has not occurred.
This may also weaken the traditional hypothesis
of hydrothermal mineralization, as well as
strengthening the possibility that carbonaceous
solutions are the important uids as carriers of
ore particles extracted from mantle rocks.
According to Hunt et al. (1992) and Gold
(1999), silicon-rich and hydrocarbon uids have
probably intruded the crust and given rise to
heat producing chemical reactions with quartz
melts, methane gas, water and siliceous/granitic
magmas as likely products. The apparent lack
of earthquake focal depths less than c. 20 km
in Central Asia (Chu et al., 2009) indicate that
the lower crust is relatively uid-inltrated and
ductile. This supports the possibility that quartz
melts and hydrocarbon uids may have played
a prominent role in the transport of metals to
the Central Asian metalliferous belt; unloading
of concentrated ore deposits have occurred
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
39
along wrench tectonic produced transtensive
segments of the ubiquitous orthogonal fracture/
fault system. Mongolia is rich in gold with
widespread occurrences and number of
important deposits. However, the fact that
Mongolia is hugely under-explored means that
the reserves can increase signicantly with a
more systematic targeted search.
Fig. 8 shows the distribution of various types of
gold mineralization in Mongolia, with enclosures
outlining principal metallogenic sectors. As with
practically all regional geological conditions
in the country, the distribution of its gold
deposits is associated with the steeply dipping
fundamental orthogonal fracture network,
with NW and NE orientation respectively. In
a wrench tectonic setting, however, it is not
only the subvertical orthogonal faults that are
reactivated and in places make room for the
intrusion of metal-transporting uids. Upper
crustal wrenching processes may also produce
sub-horizontal detachment surfaces, notably at
lithological transitions, into which ore-loaded
uids may be intruded. The northern Mongolian
Boroo gold (10.7 Mt at 3.3 g/t) is an appropriate
example. This NE -oriented gold deposit (Fig.
9), which not unexpectedly also shows signs
of orthogonal (NW) osets, occurs within
Palaeozoic granitoids hosting platy quartz
veins. According to Cluer et al. (2005), almost
all economic gold in the Boroo deposit is found
in sub-horizontal tectonic detachment structures
generally occurring at lithological transitions.
Fig. 8. Gold is widespread in Mongolia but shows concentrations along certain segments of the orthogonal NE/NW
fault system.
Fig. 9. Grade and thickness map of the dominant NE
trending Boroo gold deposit, northern Mongolia. Grey
dots are drill holes. Modied from Cluer et al. (2005).
Two slightly osetting orthogonal structures are marked.
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
40
Such sub-horizontal detachments are predicted
wrench tectonic consequences.
Copper
The broad E-W oriented metallogenic belts in
Central Asia (Fig. 7) are characterized by many
world-class porphyry copper deposits, and for
the great majority of them the host rocks are
Palaeozoic (Shen et al., 2018). The most prolic
interval of ore uid precipitation, including the
largest deposits, was during the late Devonian
and early Carboniferous (Yakubchuk et al., 2002;
Porter, 2015). In Mongolia, copper deposits are
widely scattered -as porphyries, skarns and
massive sulphide deposits, and copper mining is
a major industry. On a global scale, Mongolia is
currently ranked nr. 12 in terms of Cu reserves
which are estimated to more than 1 billion tons.
However, the fact that Mongolia is hugely
under-explored means that Cu reserves can
increase signicantly with a more systematic
targeted approach Fig. 10 shows the distribution
of the most prolic copper mines in Mongolia:
Oyu Tolgoi and Erdenet with Tsagaan Suvarga
currently under development, and large lower
grade exploration projects such as Zuunmod
(218Mt measured and indicated resource at
0.069% Cu and 0.057% Mo) and Kharmagtai
( 1 . 3 B t a t 0 . 3 % C u a n d 0 . 2 g / t A u ) .
The Erdenet deposit (c. 1.7Bt at 0.58% Cu
and 0.018% Mo) occurs within a Permian-
Triassic volcanic-plutonic belt. The region is
characterized by well-developed orthogonal
drainage systems formed along NW and NE
trending fault zones, and though the copper site
has been known since prehistoric times (Singer
et al., 2008), with exploration in the early
1940s, late 1950s and the 1960s, production
nally began in 1978. Mineralization at depth
between the Erdenet Central and SE orebodies,
supported by drilling results, suggests a nearly
continuous mineralization extending more than
10 km in NW-SE direction (Singer et al., 2008).
On a larger scale, the Erdenet complex belongs
to an elongated NE -trending copper-inltrated
belt, implying that the Cu concentration was
deposited at a transtensive junction between
NE- and NW -trending fault zones. However,
the Erdenet transtensive junction constitutes
only an innitesimal part of the additive inertia
driven south-facing tectonic convexity of
Mongolia -including the large-scale Middle-
Upper Palaeozoic magmatic belts and the
southern arcuate tectono-topographic boundary
(Michaelsen and Storetvedt, 2023).
Kavalieris et al. (2017) conveyed that whole-
rock 40Ar/39Ar age analyses of granodiorite
porphyry and of the silica-rich wall rocks cannot
be discriminated. The results show early Triassic
ages of 239.7±1.6 and 240±2 Ma for muscovite
Fig. 10. Distribution of copper porphyry deposits and occurrences in Mongolia. Deposits discussed in the text are
specied.
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
41
that envelopes the authors’ Cu-bearing D
veins-age gures that are in accordance with
previous Re-Os ages for molybdenite in quartz
veins (Watanabe and Stein, 2000). Thus, the
Erdenet mineralization corridor and injection
of the host rocks followed in the wake of the
major environmental and biotic mass extinction
characterizing the Permian-Triassic boundary.
During this most revolutionary event in the
history of life, the upper mantle of the embryotic
ocean basins had gained a suciently high
hydrous uid pressure to instigate the rst major
crustal eclogitization/delamination event. Thus,
the remaining continental masses were drained,
and a rudimentary outline of the continental
blocks was beginning to take shape. But the
chemical composition of outgassing uids
from the Earth’s core may have varied spatially
(Storetvedt, 2003/2023). Ascending uids
which on the surface led to the development
of the eclogitization of the lower crust and
gravitational delamination must have been
particularly water rich. In contrast, outward
ows towards embryonic continental regions
probably had a predominance of silicon carbides
(SiC) which during their slow ascent, reacting
with hydrogen and oxygen en route, would tend
to produce methane gas (CH4) and silicon melts
(SiO2) -reactions that were both heat-producing
and explosive (Hunt et al., 1992).
According to Michaelsen and Storetvedt (2023,
and references therein), these chemical reactions
may have taken place even at mid-upper crustal
levels suggesting that the pressure-temperature
condition made uids to be in their supercritical
state. According to Agroli et al. (2020), these
physical situations apparently existed during the
multiple generations of veins within the Erdenet
Cu-Mo deposit (Fig. 11). With reference to the
latter authors, the host rock was emplaced at
temperatures of 700-750°C, and the rst quartz
vein was derived from supercritical uids at
650-700°C, and ore-carrying veins deposited
at c. 600°C. In these relatively high-pressure
conditions, rst [uid injection] stage is syn-
mineralization activity, followed by explosive
events and brecciation. Field observations by
Agroli et al. (2020) have documented two large
explosion pipes of up to 250 m in diameter that
are connected to the surface. The second stage
porphyries are represented by granodiorite and
granite porphyries.” Agroli et al. (2020).
The dynamo-tectono-magmatic and
metallogenic Erdenet event seemingly was an
integral part of the major environmental and
biological upheaval that aected the Earth
around the Permian-Triassic boundary. A
marked retreat of epicontinental seas culminated
Fig. 11. Structural and geological overview map of the Erdenet Cu-Mo deposit. Modied from Agroli et al. (2020).
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
42
in an exceptionally low level, after which low-
lying continental areas, in the beginning of the
Triassic, were intruded by a relatively rapid sea-
level rise. As shown by Holser and Magaritz
(1987) and Ross and Ross (1987), the rst-order
sea-level variation across the Permian-Triassic
boundary represent the smoothing eect
of a higher frequency sea-level oscillation.
Furthermore, Hallam and Wignall (1999)
concluded that rapid high-amplitude regressive-
transgressive pulsation is a characteristic
feature during times of mass extinction -which
in a wider perspective correspond to principal
geological time boundaries. To reiterate, this
eustatic eect is mainly related to changes
in Earth’s moment(s) of inertia caused by
outgassing and related reorganization of its
inner mass. The dynamic eect of these changes
is that the Earth works like a pump machine on
the upward uid ow (Storetvedt, 2003/2023) -
reviving the old phrase “the pulse of the Earth”
(Umbgrove, 1942; Rampino et al., 2021).
As has been conrmed by deep continental
drilling, the crustal fracture volume increases
with depth-even exponentially at depths greater
than 10 km, as shown in the Kola super-deep
borehole. This implies that even the thick
continental crust will be relatively permeable
to the accumulating pressure of gases and
reactive supercritical uids-surging into the
crustal fracture system in accordance with the
global dynamo-hydraulic pulsation. On their
journey upwards, both ore-carrying carbides
and hydrides will be prone to undergo explosive
chemical reactions with heat generation (Hunt et
al., 1992), and there are good reasons to believe
that these processes have been in operation even
in middle-upper crust -suggesting that magma
may have formed nearer the surface than hitherto
envisaged. An apparent lack of earthquake focal
depths below c. 20 km for Central Asia (Chu et
al., 2009) makes it likely that even in regions of
the upper crust there might be hot and ductile
detachment zones with magma pockets.
Michaelsen and Storetvedt (2023) suggested
that, in Central Asia, melt production and crustal
granitization are primarily middle-upper crustal
phenomena -a conclusion which is consistent
with rock data from the Kola superdeep borehole
(Russ. Acad. Sci., 1998). It follows that over-
pressured ore-bearing uids approaching the
surface will be in their supercritical state. This
interpretation is consistent with geological and
geophysical data from the Erdenet complex,
representing a multi-phase intrusion of granitic
and related rocks. The explosive origin of the
vent is demonstrated by the two large volcanic
pipes mentioned above, which are associated
with brecciation, having most likely also
resulted in surface cratering. The ore-bearing
uid stream was then “ltered” through the
blasted zones during which the metal content
was deposited (Agroli et al., 2020). In harmony
with this conclusion, Crieve (1982) -discussing
global dispersion, shock eects and other
features associated with cratering, found that
for events in recent geological time, with
ejected rock material being relatively intact,
was littered with metal particles. Thus, in a
degassing scenario also cratering is apparently
an integral part of the planet’s modus operandi,
with potential to use such geomorphological
features in the landscape for gold deposit as
well as hydrogen gas exploration (Malvoisin
and Brunet, 2023)
Tsagaan Suvarga and Oyu Tolgoi
In southern Mongolia, the Tsagaan Suvarga
Complex (TSC - c. 255 Mt at 0.55% Cu and
0.02% Mo) and Oyu Tolgoi (OT - c. 6.382 Bt
at 0.67% Cu and 0.29 g/t Au) porphyry deposits
occur within a NNE trending mineralized zone
(Fig. 10). Both ore bodies are elongate, and
fault bounded.
The quartz monzonitic TSC deposit trends ENE
and extends for c. 1.8 km with a width of c.
300 m; it is dipping at about 45° to the NNW,
with widespread Cu occurrences away from the
main NNE trending ore terrane (Tungalag et al.,
2018). Re-Os analysis of molybdenite has given
late Devonian ages, 370.6±1.2 Mа (Watanabe
and Stein, 2000). The TSC is followed by a
volcanic and sedimentary sequence which,
based on fossil evidence from its southwestern
and northwestern margins, indicate early
Carboniferous ages. In other words, the major
Tsagaan Suvarga deposit might date from the
Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. Like the
younger Erdenet metal discharge, the TSC
deposit also occurs relatively near a prominent
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
43
geologic time boundary -representing an
important dynamo-tectonic event in Earth
history.
According to Tungalag et al. (2018), the early
Carboniferous volcano-sedimentary succession
is strongly deformed, and on the SW margin it
“appears to wrap around the granitoid contact”-
indicating enhanced upper crustal deformability/
ductility caused by persistent regional magmatic
activity. The tectonic complexity is further
supported by a c. 25° of the delimited clockwise
tectonic shearing, turning of the fault controlled
orthogonal mineralization zones -from NE to
ENE and NW to NNW respectively. Based on
the descriptions of Tungalag et al., we conclude
that the tectonic deformation of TSC was
primarily the consequence of the accelerating
inertia-based clockwise rotation of the northern
palaeo-hemispherical crustal cap (Storetvedt,
2003/2023). This tectonic event reactivated
the orthogonal fracture system for which the
tectonic eect in the TSC region apparently
was a combination of transtension followed
by transpression. In this process, the deeper
segment of the mineralization zone and its late
Devonian host complex, were forced towards
the NW beneath early Carboniferous strata -at
an intermediately steep angle. In this process,
the current mine (ie. under development) was
apparently disconnected from its deeper tectonic
connection (Tungalag et al., 2018).
Based on palaeoclimatic evidence, Wegener
(1929/66) dened a stepwise spatial
reorganization of the Earth (true polar wander)
in approximately the Greenwich meridian
plane -a polar wander path later conrmed
by palaeomagnetic data (Storetvedt, 1990).
Within this palaeogeographical framework,
the Devonian of southern Mongolia had
sub-tropical latitudes, with relatively strong
inertia-based wrenching. Aided by the long-
term magmatic activity of this region, the
upper crust acquired a deformable wrench
tectonic state. The increasingly ductile and
laminated deeper crust probably acted like a
moderately twisted deck of cards. During the
Middle-Upper Palaeozoic, southern Mongolia
was a nodal region in the tectono-topographic
curvature of the country -representing a kind
of wrench tectonic link chain between the
prevailing NW-SE and NE-SW fracture sets
of Central Asia. In this bending process, the
east-west running structural split-ups in the
Gobi region form an expected constructional
transition (Michaelsen and Storetvedt, 2023).
It can therefore be expected that, in the late
Devonian to early Carboniferous, Oyu Tolgoi
deposit underwent even stronger deformation
than Tsagaan Suvarga. A separate 25° of
regional clockwise torsion was already noted
for the Tsagaan Suvarga Complex. So, with
the extensive Devonian to Permian magmatic
activity further south, the structural situation
in the Oyu Tolgoi region would be expected to
be even more complex and strong -including
both syn -and post-tectonic clockwise wrench
tectonic rotations. It appears that we also have
a reasonable explanation for the weak arc
shape of the Oyu Tolgoi corridor -an additive
displacement to the west along transverse faults
(see also below). The regional structural maps,
compiled by Porter (2015), supports these
predictions. Furthermore, the OT mineral belt
is apparently not developed between fault zones
but is interpreted here as consisting of additive
wrench tectonic mineralization fragments (see
below).
Fig. 12 shows the tectonic setting of the Oyu
Tolgoi mineralized corridor, representing one
of the largest high-grade group of Palaeozoic
Cu-Au porphyry deposits currently known in
the world. All ore deposits are connected to
phenocryst-crowded monzodiorite intrusions
and a deformed irregular network of quartz
veins (Porter, 2015 and references therein),
indicating that the veins are syn-tectonic.
Several NE-ENE trending faults cut across
and disrupt the slightly bended NNE oriented
and 12 km long porphyry corridor. According
to the structural maps of Mike Porter, the
major and gently curved regional faults form
an approximately orthogonal bundle binding
them together west of the Javkhlant porphyry
deposit -an orebody that is markedly oset to
the west relative to the moderate westward bend
of the main mineralized corridor (Fig. 12). To
the west of the NNE trending mineralization
zone, Mike Porter’s compilation map shows
another tectonic bundle (his Fig. 4) -with
fault zones varying from the north-trending
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
44
Southwest Shear Zone (to the west) to the
E-W oriented Central Fault (cutting across the
mineralization axis) which has a compressive-
transpressive character. This may indicate
that during the Oyu Tolgoi mineralization, the
northern sector underwent signicant additive
clockwise wrench rotation, in addition to
causing shear-tectonic stresses along the entire
ore corridor. That is, the mineralization trend
of the porphyry deposits represents separate
additive transtensive sectors within the regional
wrench tectonic system. This again means that
the mineralized belt probably had its tectonic
and mineralizing beginning in the NW-oriented
conjugate fault structure, before the region was
deformed during signicant clockwise torsion.
The south-directed compressive shear stress
noted along the Central Fault is most likely
the main reason why both the northern
(Hugo Dummett) and the southern (Heruga)
mineralization block underwent NNE-directed
post-mineral tectonic dip. Age dating of the
mineralization (Re-Os on molybdenite) have
given late Devonian ages c. 372 to 370 Ma
(Khashgerel et al., 2009; Crane and Kavalieris,
2012). The ores were deposited within syn-
mineral quartz-monzodiorites after which an
allochthonous sequence of older Devonian (or
pre-Devonian) rock sequence was overthrust
and a post-ore granodiorite intruded at c. 365
Ma (Porter, 2015, and references therein).
Hence, the age information for Tsagaan
Suvarga and Oyu Tolgoi deposits correspond
to the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction
(ie. the Kellwasser event) -a degassing related
forerunner to the tectonic upheaval that occurred
around the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary.
Fig. 13 shows that the Hugo Dummett sector is
currently the most protable mineral deposit.
The reason is apparently that the northern
province has undergone the strongest wrench-
tectonic rotation and thus has established the
readiest syn-tectonic supply channels for metal-
bearing silicic uids. It follows therefore that
also the Ulaan Khud prospects are likely to have
signicant mineral resources.
Pathway to new discoveries
“The error in geology has been neglect of mantle
plumes which rework the surface. In geophysics
the error has been neglect of the control of
faulting in the lithosphere. […] Two separate
revolutions to correct these errors seems likely
to lead to a common fresh paradigm uniting
structural geology, geophysics, and classical”
wrote John Tuzo Wilson -in the abstract for
a guest lecture at Memorial University of
Newfoundland in fall 1992.
To understand the content of Earth’s physical
manifestations and its pulsating geological
history, a stock of unorganized scientic facts
is of extremely limited value. True scientic
knowledge is always dependent on a functional
overarching theory that ties together dierent
types of observations and phenomena -and
repudiate the classical ow of ad hoc repairs.
Such a theory must have predictive capacity
which in turn must lead to conrmatory
observations and then to realistic conclusions.
Within the context of the new Earth degassing-
based theory -Global Wrench Tectonics
(Storetvedt, 1997, 2003/2023), the authors
recently reevaluated several geological and
geophysical facts from Mongolia (Michaelsen
and Storetvedt, 2023, and references therein). A
fundamentally new geological interconnection
Fig. 12. Structural setting in the Oyu Tolgoi Cu-Au
province, southern Mongolia - simplied from compiled
maps in Porter (2015). Due to additive clockwise
wrench rotation, the upper crust underwent signicant
deformation in the middle Palaeozoic. The orthogonal
NE/NW fault system was distorted into two tectonic
bundles - I and II.
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
45
has been established -within which the pulsating
tectono-magmatic history is driven by changes
in Earth’s moment(s) of inertia, in combination
with inertial eects of the mechanically
detached upper crust.
In the present paper, we have extended the new
theoretical platform to assess other surface
aspects in Central Asia -such as development
of elongate sedimentary basins, origin of
(abiotic) hydrocarbon elds, and graphite and
metal deposits, including leaching, transport
and unloading. The interpretations and surface
emplacement are closely linked to the Earth’s
dynamo-hydrostatic-hydraulic pumping system,
which also provides the internal machinery
for Earth’s pulsating geological history. The
new starting point is the more than a hundred-
year-old recognition that the core has a density
decit. Modern assessments have pointed out
that the core must still contain up to 15 wt.%
of light elements -including hydrogen, oxygen,
carbon, silicon and sulphur. This means that
the Earth has not yet reached thermochemical
equilibrium -indicating an extremely slow
degassing-related planetary evolution, and the
very reason why it still is a tectonically active
planet. Thus, it is presumed that liquid carbides
Fig. 13. Longitudinal cross section along Oyu Tolgoi mineral belt, Mongolia, based on Porter (2015). The northward
tilting of the ore zones is explained by cumulative transpressive clockwise rotation in the northern sector which in turn
has made the Hugo Dummett deposit(s) particularly rich in mineral resources.
and hydrides, in their supercritical states and
at pressure bath situations (ie. with a relatively
open fracture network), have slowly left the
core, moving through the mantle to the crust.
The associated mass transfer has progressively
reworked the crust both petrologically and
tectonically, beside supplying the surface with
water, hydrocarbons, and ore resources. The rate
of Earth’s geological and tectonic development
has apparently been exponential.
Owing to its high abundance ratio, silicon
may be one of the potentially more important
elements of the core’s metal hydrates -its low
density giving it a dierential buoyancy that
during chemical reactions may produce SiO2.
Eventually, the rise of silicon uids has been
responsible for the intense granitization of
the upper continental crust, as for example
demonstrated in the Kola Superdeep Borehole.
Also, the widespread granitic-silicic magmatism
in Mongolia can be explained the same way.
Furthermore, it is probable that the enigmatic
veins, and sometimes very thick dykes, of
pure quartz, especially characteristic in the
ancient metamorphic basement, have been
formed by the injection of silicon oil driven by
high hydrostatic pressure. As outlined in our
Storetvedt and Michaelsen, 2024. Mongolian Geoscientist 29 (58)
46
previous paper, the topography of the core-
mantle boundary (CMB) seems to be closely
associated with the gross crustal structure.
Thus, when projected to the surface, upstanding
CBM regions correspond to deep oceanic
depressions with their thin and metasomatized
crust. In addition, the vertical outer core-
crust correlation contradicts the idea of lateral
crustal movements, and provides a reasonable
answer to the fundamental, but presently
ignored, problem of the several hundreds of
kilometres deep continental roots. Regarding
the uid ow instigating the development of
thin oceanic crust, it has been suggested that
water may be the most critical factor for the
eclogitization process and its attendant gravity-
driven subcrustal delamination. It follows that
the potential water content of the uid ows
beneath the emerging oceans, have been much
greater than for those that percolated through the
fracture network of the thick continental crust
of Central Asia. However, the water content
was apparently sucient for eclogitization
and limited crustal thinning along transtensive
fault zones -thereby initiating the development
of elongate sedimentary basins. Furthermore,
ongoing degassing of metal hydrides through
the seabed is demonstrated by the widespread
occurrence of multi-metal nodules on the deep-
sea oor. We cannot emphasize strongly enough
the fundamental role the orthogonal fracture
system, in combination with inertia-driven
deformation of the upper crust, has for assessing
surface-geological structure and resources.
We began this short fragmentary discussion
with excerpts from an abstract by John Tuzo
Wilson, one of the leading proponents of
the plate tectonic revolution in the late 60s.
However, in his older (and presumably wiser)
days, he called for a necessary paradigm shift
in global tectonics, pointing to some critical
facts that had been ignored. First, he apparently
had become aware of the connection between
uid ows from the core (his plumes) and their
role in physical and geological restructuring
of crust and mantle. Second, he drew attention
to the ingrained neglect (or ignorance) of the
importance of faults in the lithosphere -where
the steeply dipping orthogonal fracture/fault
network is of paramount importance. Wilson
saw the need for a new paradigm to correct
these errors -one that could unite structural
geology, geophysics, and classical physics.
This is precisely what the new degassing-based
theory aims at.
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