Petrogenesis and Tectonic Significance of Late Paleozoic Coarse-Crystalline Blueschist and Amphibolite Boulders in the Coastal Range of Chile

Abstract

Anomalous coarse-crystalline garnet amphibolites and possible retrograded eclogites in varying stages of replacement by sodic amphibole + epidote assemblages compose exotic boulders (tectonic blocks) resting unconformably on serpentinite and finergrained, lower-greenschist-grade metabasites and metapelites in the Coastal Range of Chile (41° S Lat.). Major-and trace-elemental compositions of the tectonic blocks are similar to metapillow basalts and metavolcaniclastics within the underlying, in situ, metamorphic complex. Phase compatibilities and mineral compositions within the coarse blueschist/amphibolite suggest both a higher maximum pressure (greater burial depth) and higher P-T retrograde path for the tectonic blocks than for the in situ greenschists, suggesting an inversion of their relative structural position after metamorphism. Coarse amphibolite-grade metabasites forming the lower portion of a primitive arc system may have been detached from the upper plate and subducted to deeper levels within a zone of distributed shear, resulting in the formation of high-P/T blueschist minerals. A K-Ar age of 304 + 9 Ma on white mica from one of the blueschist blocks is similar to previous ages from the regional metamorphic complex, and suggests that ascent of the tectonic blocks marginal to or within serpentinite diapirs occurred during an early stage of late Paleozoic orogenesis along the Gondwanide margin. Post-orogenic static uplift, sedimentation, and differential erosion then resulted in the present surficial distribution of the blueschist boulders.