Mid-Cretaceous granitic magmatism during the transition from subduction to extension in southern New Zealand: a chemical and tectonic synthesis

Abstract

Regional geochronological studies indicate that mid-Cretaceous plutonism (the Hohonu Suite at ∼110 Ma) in the Hohonu Batholith, Western Province of New Zealand, occurred during a period of rapid tectonic change in the SW Pacific portion of Gondwana. The 30–40 m.y. preceding Hohonu Suite magmatism were dominated by the subduction-related plutonism of the Median Tectonic Zone volcanic arc. Between 125–118 Ma there was a major collisional event, inferred to be the result of collision between the Median Tectonic Zone and the Western Province. This collision resulted in melting of the Median Tectonic Zone arc underplate and generation of a distinctive suite of alkali-calcic granitoids, termed the Separation Point Suite. At ∼110 Ma there was another pulse of magmatism, restricted to the Buller terrane of the Western Province, and including the Hohonu Suite granitoids. This was followed almost immediately by extension, culminating in the opening of the Tasman Sea some 30 m.y. later. The Hohonu Suite granitoids overlap temporally with the last vestiges of collisional Separation Point magmas and the onset of crustal extension in the Western Province, and thus represent magmatism in a post-collisional setting. Hohonu Suite magmas are typically calc-alkaline, but retain a chemical signature which suggests that the earlier Separation Point Suite magmas and/or sources were involved in Hohonu Suite petrogenesis. A model is proposed in which rapid isothermal uplift, resulting from the post-collisional collapse of continental crust previously thickened during the Median Tectonic Zone collision, caused melting of lower continental crust to generate the Hohonu Suite granitoids. In this example, granitoid composition is a consequence of the composition of the source rocks and the conditions present during melting, and no geochemical signature indicative of the tectonic setting during magmatism is present.