HT/HP Metamorphism and Crustal Anatexis

The Menderes Massif is a major polymetamorphic complex in Western Turkey. The late Neoproterozoic basement consists of partially migmatized paragneisses and metapelites in association with orthogneiss intrusions. Pelitic granulite, paragneiss and orthopyroxene-bearing orthogneiss (charnockite) of the basement series form the main granulite-facies lithologies. Charnockitic metagranodiorite and metatonalite are magnesian in composition and show calc-alkalic to alkali-calcic affinities. Nd and Sr isotope systematics indicate homogeneous crustal contamination. The zircons in charnockites contain featureless overgrowth and rim textures representing metamorphic growth on magmatic cores and inherited grains. Charnockites yield crytallization age of ~590 Ma for protoliths and they record granulite-facies overprint at ~ 580 Ma. These data indicate that the Menderes Massif records late Neoproterozoic magmatic and granulite-facies metamorphic events. Furthermore, the basement rocks have been overprinted by Eocene Barrovian-type Alpine metamor-phism at ~42 Ma. The geochronological data and inferred latest Neoproterozoic–early Cambrian palaeogeographic setting for the Menderes Massif to the north of present-day Arabia indicate that the granulite-facies metamorphism in the Menderes Massif can be attributed to the Kuunga Orogen (600–500 Ma) causing the final amalgamation processes for northern part of the Gondwana.

Garnet-cordierite-sillimanite bearing rocks from the contact aureole of the Precambrian Loon Lake pluton in Chandos Township, southeastern Ontario were analyzed for the major and rare-earth elements. In comparison with the associated Apsley biotite gneisses, they are rich in A1, Mg, and Fe, low in Si, Na, and K and their REE distribution patterns show a depletion of light REE with a negative Eu anomaly. These rocks are probably residuum left after partial melting of biotite gneiss. Leucogranite associated with the GCS rocks may represent the extracted anateetic material. It is suggested that some of the garnet cordierite-sillimanite gneisses which frequently occur in high-grade regionally metamorphosed areas of the Grenville Province of the Canadian Shield may also be of a similar residual origin as proposed by Lal and Nioorhouse (1969).

The metapelitic schists of Jandagh or simply Jandagh metapelites can be divided into four groups
based on mineral assemblages: (1) quartz–muscovite schists, (2) quartz–muscovite–biotite schists, (3) gar
net–muscovite–chlorite schists, and (4) garnet–muscovite–staurolite schists. The Jandagh garnet–musco
vite–chlorite schists show the first appearance of garnets. These garnets contain 58–76% almandine, 1–18%
spessartine, and 8–20% grossular. Microprobe analysing across the garnets demonstrates an increase in Mg#
from core to rim. This is a feature of the prograde metamorphism of metapelites. Wellpreserved garnet
growth zoning is a sign that metapelites were rapidly cooled and later metamorphic phases had no effect here.
The appearance of staurolite in garnetmuscovitechlorite schists signifies a beginning of the amphibolite fa
cies. The absence of zoning in staurolite suggests that its formation and growth during prograde metamor
phism occurred at a widely spaced isograde. Thermobarometric investigations show that the Jandagh
metapelites were formed within a temperature range of 400–670°C and pressures of 2.0–6.5 kbar. These re
sults are in agreement with the mineral paragenetic evidence and show the development of greenschist and
amphibolite facies in the area studied.

In hot orogens, gneiss domes are a response to upper crustal stretching and lower crustal flow. Two-dimensional thermal-mechanical modeling shows that localization of extension in the upper crust triggers, in the deep crust, oppositely verging horizontal flows that converge beneath the extended region. Upon viscous collision, both flowing regions rotate upward to form two upright domes of foliation (double domes) separated by a steep median high-strain zone. In such systems, horizontal shortening in the infrastructure develops in an overall extensional setting. Dome material follows a complex depth-dependent strain history, from shearing in the deep crustal channel, to contraction upon viscous collision in the median high-strain zone, to extension upon advection into the shallow crust. This depth-dependent strain history is likely a general feature of dome evolution, and is arguably well preserved in double domes such as the Montagne Noire (France) and Naxos (Greece) gneiss domes.

The Okanogan gneiss dome, Washington, is located in the hinterland of the North American Cordillera and is part of a chain of metamorphic core complexes containing gneiss and migmatite domes exhumed during Eocene extension of thickened crust. U-Pb sensitive high-resolution ion micro-probe (SHRIMP) analyses of zircon, monazite, and titanite, and 40Ar-39Ar analyses of biotite from migmatites exposed in the footwall of the Okanogan detachment, coupled with a detailed structural analysis, document the timing and duration of migmatite crystallization and indicate coeval crystallization, extensional deformation, and exhumation of the dome. Okanogan migmatites are folded and deformed, and preserve successive generations of leucosomes generated by synkinematic anatexis.

Analyses of migmatite samples from a high-melt fraction subdome near Stowe Mountain suggest that the Okanogan dome records a history of migmatite crystallization spanning at least 12 m.y., as indicated by 206Pb/238U ages ranging from ca. 61 to 49 Ma for new zircon growth and rim overgrowths attributed to migmatite crystallization. Zircons from a granodiorite in a domain of diatexite near Stowe Mountain preserve rims that have a mean 206Pb/238U age of 51.1 ± 1.0 Ma for the youngest population attributed to migmatite crystallization. Zircon from folded and discordant granitic leucosome in the diatexite domain yields a calculated 206Pb/238U age of 53.5 ± 0.5 Ma for migmatite crystallization. Zircon from discordant leucosome of the metatexite domain has a mean 206Pb/238U age of 59.8 ± 0.5 Ma, with ages as young as ca. 53 Ma attributed to final crystallization of the leucosome. Core domains of zircon samples have 206Pb/238U ages that range from ca. 85 to 70 Ma and are interpreted to be related to an earlier phase of the orogeny. Monazite from two samples gives 206Pb/238U crystallization ages of 52.9 ± 0.6 Ma for the granodiorite diatexite and 52.0 ± 0.6 Ma for nearby boudinaged and foliated layers of biotite granodiorite. One sample of folded granitic leucosome in metatexite contains titanite with a mean 206Pb/238U age of 47.1 ± 0.5 Ma. The ca. 47 Ma age for titanite is similar to biotite 40Ar-39Ar ages of 48.0 ± 0.1 Ma, 47.9 ± 0.2 Ma, and 47.1 ± 0.2 Ma for samples collected from the upper detachment surface downward over 1.5 km of structural thickness into the migmatite domain.

Crystallization of the Okanogan migmatites was therefore coeval in part with upper crustal extension and ductile flow of the mid-crust. Leucosome crystallization largely ceased by ca. 49 Ma, followed by rapid cooling of footwall rocks through ~325 °C by ca. 47 Ma. These data are similar to crystallization ages in migmatites from other domes in the northern Cordillera hinterland, suggesting that crustal anatexis was widespread over much of the mid-crust during Paleocene to Eocene time, coeval with extension and exhumation of orogenic middle crust.

Gneiss domes are commonly cored by quartzofeldspathic rocks that provide little information about the pressure–temperature–fluid history of the domes. Three northern Cordilleran migmatite domes (Thor-Odin and Valhalla/Passmore, British Columbia, Canada; Okanogan, Washington, USA), however, contain Mg–Al-rich orthoamphibole-cordierite gneiss as layers and lenses that record metamorphic conditions and pressure–temperature (P–T) path information not preserved in the host migmatite. These Mg–Al-rich rocks are therefore a valuable archive of metamorphic conditions during dome evolution, although refractory rocks such as these commonly contain reaction textures that may complicate the calculation of metamorphic conditions. In the Okanogan dome, Mg–Al-rich layers are part of the Tunk Creek unit, which occurs at the periphery of an underlying migmatite domain. Bulk compositional layers (mm- to m-scale) consist of gedrite-dominated, hornblende-dominated and biotite-bearing layers that contain variable amounts of gedrite, hornblende, anorthite, cordierite, spinel, sapphirine, corundum, kyanite, biotite and/or staurolite. The presence of different compositional layers (some with reaction textures, some without) allows systematic analysis of metamorphic history by a combined petrographic and phase equilibrium analysis. Gedrite-dominated layers containing relict kyanite preserve evidence of the highest-P conditions; symplectitic and coronal reaction textures around kyanite indicate decompression at high temperature. Gedrite-dominated layers lacking these reaction textures contain layers of sapphirine and spinel in apparent textural equilibrium and record a later high-T–low-P part of the path. Phase equilibria (pseudosection) analysis for layers that lack reaction textures indicates metamorphic conditions of 720–750 °C at a range of pressures (>8 to <4 kbar) following decompression. Elevated crustal temperatures and concordant structural fabrics in the Tunk Creek unit and underlying migmatite domain suggest that the calculated P–T conditions recorded in Tunk Creek rocks were coeval with anatexis, extension, and dome formation in Palaeocene–Eocene time. In contrast to orthoamphibole-cordierite gneiss in the other Cordilleran domes, the Tunk Creek unit occurs as a discontinuous km-scale layer rather than as smaller (m-scale) pods, is more calcic, and lacks garnet. In addition, kyanite did not transform to sillimanite, and spinel commonly occurs as a blocky matrix phase in addition to vermicules in symplectite. These differences, along with the compositional layering, allow an analysis of bulk composition v. tectonic (P–T path) controls on mineral assemblages and textures. Pseudosection modelling of different layers in the Tunk Creek unit provides a basis for understanding the metamorphic history of these texturally complex, refractory rocks and their host gneiss domes, and other such rocks in similar tectonic settings.

Titanite U–Pb isotopic and major and trace element compositions of one mafic garnet granulite from a rare suite of lower crustal xenoliths (e.g., eclogite, garnet pyroxenite, and mafic garnet granulite) hosted in Early Cretaceous dioritic porphyries in the Xu–Huai area along the southeastern margin of the North China Craton (NCC) were analyzed by laser ablation ICP-MS. Titanite occurs as granular grains or coronary rims on rutile. The coronary titanite is clearly a secondary product of rutile decomposition. The granular titanite exhibits zonation in U–Pb age and chemical composition. Petrographic and geochemical evidence suggests that the zonation was formed by thermal diffusion and later fluid-assisted recrystallization. Occurrences of granular titanite between garnet grains point to a pressure of > 10 kbar, while inclusions of rutile inside granular titanite rims imply that the pressure might have reached 15 kbar. Granular titanite cores give U–Pb ages of 237–241 Ma and Zr-temperatures of 794–831 °C at 10 kbar and 850–892 °C at 15 kbar, indicating high-pressure granulite-facies metamorphism. Together with previous P–T estimates of coeval eclogite-facies xenoliths, a geotherm of above 60 mW m− 2 is implied. The geotherm plots below the temperature field of amphibole dehydration melting, consistent with presence of abundant amphibole. This geotherm is similar to that of the Kohistan arc, which has preserved a 12-km-thick dense lower crust, but significantly cooler than the geotherm of the Talkeetna arc, where most of the dense lower crust has been foundered. Our results provide new evidence for Triassic thickened dense lower crust along the southeastern margin of the NCC. By comparison with the Kohistan and Talkeetna arc crusts, we suggest that this dense lower crust was not hot enough to be foundered in the Triassic. Foundering must have occurred in the Jurassic–Cretaceous in order to explain the present-day seismic velocity structure characterized by a sharp Moho, overall slow velocities in the lower crust, and a thin crustal thickness in the Xu–Huai area and other parts of the eastern NCC. We suggest that the Jurassic–Cretaceous foundering was related to the Pacific subduction. On one hand, the Jurassic subduction may have further thickened the southeastern margin of the NCC prior to Cretaceous extension, leading to greater instability of the lower crust. On the other hand, the subduction-related magma provided heat and water that weakened the lower crust, resulting in the final foundering. The large contrast in mineralogy between the Xu–Huai eclogite-facies xenoliths and nearby Nüshan garnet-free granulite xenoliths entrained by Quaternary basalts indicates > 20 km removal of the lower crust along the southeastern margin of the NCC.

The trace and Rare Earth Element (REE) characteristics of igneous rocks provide significant evidence of the origin and evolution of magmas and are useful to investigate the tectono-magmatic origin of Precambrian terranes. A simple assumption is that magmas that are generated by similar geological processes possess the same geochemical attributes. These attributes facilitate a comparison through tectonic discriminatory diagrams (e.g. Floyd and Winchester, 1975; Pearce and Cann, 1973; Pearce et al., 1984; Winchester et al., 1995). Although the interpretation of geochemical data for magmatic processes and the interaction of magmas with crustal materials are sometimes complex (e.g. Castro et al., 1991; Chappell, 1996; Frost and Mahood, 1987; Neves and Vauchez, 1995), geochemical data in combination with other geological evidence have proved essential for the interpretation of the petrogenesis and tectonic setting of crustal igneous provinces.

The Fosdick Mountains form an E-W trending migmatite dome in the northern Ford Ranges of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Pervasively folded migmatites derived from lower Paleozoic greywacke and middle Paleozoic plutonic rocks constitute the dome. New field research documents a transition from melt-present to solid-state deformation across the south flank of the dome, and a mylonitic shear zone mapped for 30 km between Mt. Iphigene and Mt Richardson. Kinematic shear sense is dextral normal oblique, with top-to-the-SW and -WSW transport. A U-Pb age of 107 Ma, from a leucosome-filled extensional shear band, provides a melt present deformation age, and a U-Pb age of 96 Ma, from a crosscutting granitic dike, gives a lower age limit for deformation. The shear zone, here named the South Fosdick detachment zone, forms the south flank of the migmatite dome and was in part responsible for the exhumation of mid-crustal rocks.

The composite intrusions of Drumadoon and An Cumhann crop out on the SE coast of the Isle of Arran, Scotland and form part of the larger British and Irish Palaeogene Igneous Province, a subset of the North Atlantic Igneous Province. The intrusions (shallow-level dykes and sills) comprise a central quartz–feldspar-phyric rhyolite flanked by xenocryst-bearing basaltic andesite, with an intermediate zone of dark quartz–feldspar-phyric dacite. New geochemical data provide information on the evolution of the component magmas and their relationships with each other, as well as their interaction with the crust through which they travelled. During shallow-crustal emplacement, the end-member magmas mixed. Isotopic evidence shows that both magmas were contaminated by the crust prior to mixing; the basaltic andesite magma preserves some evidence of contamination within the lower crust, whereas the rhyolite mainly records upper-crustal contamination. The Highland Boundary Fault divides Arran into two distinct terranes, the Neoproterozoic to Early Palaeozoic Grampian Terrane to the north and the Palaeozoic Midland Valley Terrane to the south. The Drumadoon Complex lies within the Midland Valley Terrane but its isotopic signatures indicate almost exclusive involvement of Grampian Terrane crust. Therefore, although the magmas originated at depth on the northern side of the Highland Boundary Fault, they have crossed this boundary during their evolution, probably just prior to emplacement.

The origin and life cycle of ocean islands have been debated since the early days of Geology. In the case of the Canary archipelago, its proximity to the Atlas orogen led to initial fracture-controlled models for island genesis, while later workers cited a Miocene-Quaternary east-west age-progression to support an underlying mantle-plume. The recent discovery of submarine Cretaceous volcanic rocks near the westernmost island of El Hierro now questions this systematic age-progression within the archipelago. If a mantle-plume is indeed responsible for the Canaries, the onshore volcanic age-progression should be complemented by progressively younger pre-island sedimentary strata towards the west, however, direct age constraints for the westernmost pre-island sediments are lacking. Here we report on new age data obtained from calcareous nannofossils in sedimentary xenoliths erupted during the 2011 El Hierro events, which date the sub-island sedimentary rocks to between late Cretaceous and Pliocene in age. This age-range includes substantially younger pre-volcanic sedimentary rocks than the Jurassic to
Kirsten Zaczek, Valentin R. Troll, Mario Cachao, Jorge Ferreira, Frances M. Deegan, Juan Carlos Carracedo, Vicente Soler, Fiona C. Meade & Steffi Burchardt

Miocene strata known from the older eastern islands and now reinstate the mantle-plume hypothesis as the most plausible explanation for Canary volcanism. The recently discovered Cretaceous submarine volcanic rocks in the region are, in turn, part of an older, fracture-related tectonic episode.

Migmatite domes are common in metamorphic core complexes. Dome migmatites deform in the partially molten or magmatic state and commonly record complex form surfaces, folds, and fabrics while units mantling the dome display a simpler geometry, typically formed by transposition during crustal extension. We use field observations and magnetic fabrics in the Naxos dome (Greece) to quantify the complex flow of anatectic crust beneath an extensional detachment system. The internal structure of the Naxos dome is characterized by second-order domes (subdomes), pinched synforms, and curved lineation trajectories, which suggest that buoyancy-driven flow participated in dome evolution. Subdomes broadly occur within two compartments that are separated by a steep, N-S oriented, high-strain zone. This pattern has been recognized in domes formed by polydiapirism and in models of isostasy-dominated flow. The preferred model involves a combination of buoyancy- and isostasy-driven processes: the Naxos dome may have been generated by regional N-S extension that triggered convergent flow of partially molten crust at depth and the upwelling of anatectic migmatites within the dome. This pattern is complicated by gravitational instabilities and/or overturning of the high melt fraction crust leading to the growth of subdomes. As the migmatites within the Naxos dome reached a higher structural level, they were affected by regional top-to-the-NNE kinematics of the detachment system. Dome formation therefore occurred by a combination of coeval and coupled processes: upper crustal extension, deep crust contraction during convergent flow of anatectic crust, diapirism and/or density-driven crustal convection forming subdomes, and north directed detachment kinematics.

The trace and Rare Earth Element (REE) characteristics of igneous rocks provide significant evidence of the origin and evolution of magmas and are useful to investigate the tectono-magmatic origin of Precambrian terranes. A simple assumption is that magmas that are generated by similar geological processes possess the same geochemical attributes. These attributes facilitate a comparison through tectonic discriminatory diagrams (e.g. Floyd and Winchester, 1975; Pearce and Cann, 1973; Pearce et al., 1984; Winchester et al., 1995). Although the interpretation of geochemical data for magmatic processes and the interaction of magmas with crustal materials are sometimes complex (e.g. Castro et al., 1991; Chappell, 1996; Frost and Mahood, 1987; Neves and Vauchez, 1995), geochemical data in combination with other geological evidence have proved essential for the interpretation of the petrogenesis and tectonic setting of crustal igneous provinces.

The Okanogan gneiss dome, Washington, is located in the hinterland of the North American Cordillera and is part of a chain of metamorphic core complexes containing gneiss and migmatite domes exhumed during Eocene extension of thickened crust. U-Pb sensitive high-resolution ion micro-probe (SHRIMP) analyses of zircon, monazite, and titanite, and 40Ar-39Ar analyses of biotite from migmatites exposed in the footwall of the Okanogan detachment, coupled with a detailed structural analysis, document the timing and duration of migmatite crystallization and indicate coeval crystallization, extensional deformation, and exhumation of the dome. Okanogan migmatites are folded and deformed, and preserve successive generations of leucosomes generated by synkinematic anatexis. Analyses of migmatite samples from a high-melt fraction subdome near Stowe Mountain suggest that the Okanogan dome records a history of migmatite crystallization spanning at least 12 m.y., as indicated by 206Pb/238U ages ran...

Keywords: partial melting carbonatites nanogranites garnet melt inclusions nanocarbonatites
Carbonatites are peculiar magmatic rocks with mantle-related genesis, commonly interpreted as the products of melting of CO 2-bearing peridotites, or resulting from the chemical evolution of mantle-derived magmas, either through extreme differentiation or secondary immiscibility. Here we report the first finding of anatectic carbonatites of crustal origin, preserved as calcite-rich polycrystalline inclusions in garnet from low-to-medium pressure migmatites of the Oberpfalz area, SW Bohemian Massif (Central Europe). These inclusions originally trapped a melt of calciocarbonatitic composition with a characteristic enrichment in Ba, Sr and LREE. This interpretation is supported by the results of a detailed microstructural and microchemical investigation, as well as re-melting experiments using a piston cylinder apparatus. Carbonatitic inclusions coexist in the same cluster with crystallized silicate melt inclusions (nanogranites) and COH fluid inclusions, suggesting conditions of primary immiscibility between two melts and a fluid during anatexis. The production of both carbonatitic and granitic melts during the same anatectic event requires a suitable heterogeneous protolith. This may be represented by a sedimentary sequence containing marble lenses of limited extension, similar to the one still visible in the adjacent central Moldanubian Zone. The presence of CO 2-rich fluid inclusions suggests furthermore that high CO 2 activity during anatexis may be required to stabilize a carbonate-rich melt in a silica-dominated system. This natural occurrence displays a remarkable similarity with experiments on carbonate–silicate melt immiscibility, where CO 2 saturation is a condition commonly imposed. In conclusion, this study shows how the investigation of partial melting through melt inclusion studies may unveil unexpected processes whose evidence, while preserved in stiff minerals such as garnet, is completely obliterated in the rest of the rock due to metamorphic re-equilibration. Our results thus provide invaluable new insights into the processes which shape the geochemical evolution of our planet, such as the redistribution of carbon and strategic metals during orogenesis.

Rory McFadden 1 , Christine Smith Siddoway 2 , Christian Teyssier 1 , CM Fanning 3 , and Seth C. Kruckenberg 1 . (1) Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, 310Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, (2) Department of Geology, The Colorado ...

The Beni Bousera peridotite massif (Internal Rif , Morocco) is formed in a major part of Spinel-bearing lherzolite rimed by a layer 100m thick of garnet-bearing peridotite which is in direct contact with HP-HT granulite metamorphic rocks (16Kbar, 860°C). According to detailed recent study, this shearing contact between these two formations shows the presence of metamorphic ultramafic intercalations underneath the deformed granulites. Foliation is well distinct and allocate in both rocks with a succession of metamorphic micro-zones with very diverse mineral assemblages. Its originality comes from the spatial arrangement of 3 centimetric zones separating garnet-spinel bearing peridoties from garnet-kyanite bearing granulites: - Phlogopite, orthopyroxene, spinel zone. - Corundum, sapphirine, kornerupine zone. - Sillimanite, spinel zone. Geochemistry of the different phases shows peraluminous (corundum, kornerupine sapphirine, spinel) and magnesian (phlogopite, enstatite) assemblages, the P-T conditions estimated using thermocalc are 9 to 10Kbars and 700 to 900°C in the saphirine - sillimanite - corundum stability domain. These thermobarometric conditions reveal that these rocks -forming the top of the peridotite massif- have incurred a metamorphic evolution at high temperatures, which is related to an isothermal decompression after or during the setting up of these rocks at the base of the crust (60 km thick). However, the kornerupine could have formed sequentially under nearly constant P-T conditions (sillimanite stability field) during the infiltration of fluid in the rocks. These hydrothermal processes are also involved and drive the peridotites to a metasomatic contamination at the contact with fluid-rich crustal rocks that leads to crystallization of phlogopite and amphiboles. This contact is possibly a shear zone crossing the limit crust- mantle. The data show that in the Rif mountains the granulites and formerly diamond bearing ultrabasic mantle rocks are uplifted in the same geodynamic environment and give very strong constraints on the Alpine metamorphic evolution of the whole Alboran domain. Key words: Phlogopite, Kornerupine, Corundum, Sapphirine, Metasomatism, Peridotites, Rif