Proterozoic VanDieland in Central Victoria: ages, compositions and source depths for late devonian silicic magmas

Abstract

The Proterozoic to Cambrian VanDieland microcontinent was accreted to mainland Australia at ca 400 Ma, and its northern tip, the Selwyn Block, forms the basement in central Victoria. Here, mainly Late Devonian, silicic magmas were derived from the Selwyn Block and intruded into the shallow crust. We use the phase petrology of Late Devonian, S-type rhyolitic ignimbrites and a xenolith of pelitic migmatite, together with Nd-model ages for the silicic magmatic rocks to constrain the lithological characteristics of the metasedimentary component of the Selwyn Block, to infer minimum depths and temperature conditions here in the Late Devonian, and the likely ages of the source rocks for the S-type magmas. The most abundant source rocks are inferred to be volcaniclastic metagreywackes, with minor metadacites, meta-andesites and metapelites. The metapelitic xenolith cannot have been the source for any of the silicic magmas but constrains the upper amphibolite-facies part of the Selwyn Block to depths around 17 km, where temperatures reached ∼775 °C. The older ignimbrite magma was formed by partial melting at perhaps 770 °C and a depth of at least 33 km, while the younger ignimbrite magma formed at ∼23 km and 900 °C. These depths suggest source rocks in the Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic lower parts of the Selwyn Block. Nd-model ages of the silicic magmatic rocks confirm a dominance of Mesoproterozoic to Paleoproterozoic sources. If the inferred rock types in the Mesoproterozoic formations were as current correlations suggest, the sources for the Late Devonian silicic magmas would have to lie in the undocumented Paleoproterozoic basement of the Selwyn Block. Rock types here must include andesitic to dacitic volcanic components as well as volcaniclastic greywackes and minor pelites, which suggests a continental arc setting. The Late Devonian magmatism in the region may record the progression from amphibolite- to granulite-facies conditions during post-orogenic extension, with heat advected to the crust by mantle-derived mafic magmas. These processes would have resulted in mafitisation of the deep Selwyn Block.