U-Pb age of detrital zircons from the Middle Permian Sabantuy chromite paleoplacer (Southern Pre-Urals)

The first U-Pb dating of detrital zircon from chromite sandstones of the Middle Permian Sabantuy paleoplacer, localized in the Southern Pre-Urals, has been obtained. The distribution of U-Pb dates is unimodal with a peak at 420–400 Ma. Two-thirds of all ages are Devonian, and more than half of them correspond to the Early Devonian, during which supra-subduction ophiolitic and accompanying high-pressure metamorphic complexes were formed in the Southern Urals, and ultramafic-mafic magmatism was occurred. These spatially combined geological bodies exposed in the melange zone of the Main Uralian Fault or tectonically moved to the west of it as a ophiolite allochthons, are the main sources of detrital chromite and zircon in the Sabantuy paleoplacer.