Upper Cretaceous rhyolitic ashes in the Utes Derevyannykh Gor area (Novaya Sibir Island, the New Siberian Islands)

The article is concerned with the first finds of rhyolite ashes in Upper Cretaceous sediments of Novaya Sibir Island. In the course of the field work in the area of cape Utes Derevyannykh Gor in 2016, four layers of unlithified fine-grained ashes were found in the Turonian-Coniacian coal-bearing Derevyannye Gory Formation. The article presents the results of petrographic, X-ray diffractometric and microprobe analysis of pyroclastics from ash layers. A typification of volcanogenic-terrigenous deposits is proposed. Thin section of the samples were investigated on a polarizing microscope. X-ray phase analysis of the clay fraction was carried out using a DRON-3 diffractometer. X-ray microanalysis of vitroclasts were carried out on a scanning electron microscope “Jeol JSM-6480LV” with the microprobe analyzer “Oxford Instruments INCA-Energy 350”. It was established that Derevyannye Gory Formation is composed of rhyolitic tuffites, among which fine-grained crystal-vitroclastic and vitroclastic ashes of low and normal alkaline high-potassium rhyolites with thickness up to 2.5 m. Low pyroclastics sediments are not widespread. New data on the structure and composition of the Derevyannye Gory Formation confirm the hypothesis of previous researchers, that sedimentation in the Late Cretaceous in the area of Novaya Sibir Island was accompanied by explosive acidic volcanism. The main purpose of the article is to discuss the sources of pyroclastic material for the territory of the New Siberian Islands in the Turonian-Coniacian age. The conclusion is made about the territorial proximity of the paleovolcanic eruption center to the area of sedimentation. It is assumed that the paleovolcanic centers were located within the present territory of Kotelny, Zemlya Bunge, Faddeevsky islands and, probably, were inherited from the Early Albian stage.