Insights into orogenesis: getting to the root of a continent-ocean-continent collision, Southern Urals, Russia

The Ural mountains preserve a late Palaeozoic collision that forms a 2500 km suture in the world's largest landmass, Eurasia. Several features of the mountain belt, in particular a well-preserved crustal root, are uncharacteristic of other Palaeozoic orogens such as the Appalachians and Caledonides. Previous interpretations of the Southern Uralian root suggested that it is composed of East European Craton crust derived from the west. A new potential field data model, considered in conjunction with published seismic, heat-flow and geological data, indicates that the root is composed mainly of mafic granulite, which we interpret as oceanic arc crust originally accreted from the east, subducted eastward, and metamorphosed. A load caused by crustal lateral density variations, combined with topography, isostatically compensates root buoyancy and is thus the main cause of its preservation.