U–Pb isotopic age of apatite-bearing carbonatites in the Kursk block, Voronezh crystalline massif (central Russia)

Abstract

In the central part of the European part of Russia in the southeastern part of the Kursk tectonic block, some deposits and occurrences of apatite genetically related to the alkaline–carbonatite complex have been revealed. The results of U–Pb analysis of titanite provided the first confident age estimate of silicate–carbonate (phoscorite) rocks in the Dubravin alkaline–ultramafic–carbonatite massif: they formed no later than 2080 ±13 Ma, which indicates their crystallization in the pre-Oskol time during the final stage of the Early Paleoproterozoic (post-Kursk time) stabilization phase of the Kursk block of Sarmatia (about 2.3–2.1 Ga).