Large P–T gap between Ballantrae blueschist/garnet pyroxenite and surrounding ophiolite, southern Scotland, UK: Diapiric exhumation of a Caledonian serpentinite mélange

Abstract

The Ballantrae ophiolite in southern Scotland includes a NEE–SWW-trending serpentinite mélange that contains blocks of mafic blueschist and high-pressure, granulite facies, metapyroxenite (Sm–Nd metamorphic age: 576 ± 32 and 505 ± 11 Ma). Tectonic blocks of mafic schist are less than 3 × 3 m in size, and have greenschist, blueschist or epidote amphibolite facies assemblages corresponding to the high-pressure intermediate-type metamorphic facies series. Adjacent rocks of the serpentinite mélange are hydrothermally-altered MORB-like ophiolitic basalt (prehnite–pumpellyite facies), dolerite (actinolite–oligoclase sub-facies) and gabbro (amphibolite facies), all with assemblages that are diagnostic of the low-pressure metamorphic facies series. The difference in metamorphic facies series and parageneses of minerals between the high-pressure mafic blocks and the adjacent, low-pressure ophiolitic meta-basic rocks suggests that the former were exhumed from > 25 km depth within a cold subducted slab, and were juxtaposed with the latter, the bottom of a MORB-like ophiolite in the hanging wall of a trench. An ENE–WSW-trending, 501 ± 12 Ma volcanic arc belt extends for 3 km south of the serpentinite mélange. We suggest that ridge subduction associated with a slab window created arc-related gabbro (483 ± 4 Ma) at Byne Hill and within-plate gabbro (487 ± 8 Ma) at Millenderdale. Final continental collision created the duplex structure of the Ballantrae complex that includes the HP blocks and serpentinite mélange. These relations define diapiric exhumation in the Caledonian orogen of SW Scotland.