The Cluanie granodiorite, NW Highlands of Scotland: a late Caledonian pluton of trondhjemitic affinity

Abstract

Synopsis The Cluanie Pluton is a late Caledonian granitoid emplaced into the Glenfinnan Division of the Moine Supergroup in the NW Scottish Highlands. A field investigation of the pluton and its internal facies is presented along with new major- and trace-element whole-rock XRF analyses, and geobarometric and geothermometric studies. Cluanie is predominantly composed of hornblende granodiorite characterized by varying concentrations of distinctive alkali feldspar megacrysts, with minor amounts of biotite granodiorite and rare mingled porphyritic microgranodiorite. The alkali feldspar megacrysts appear to be magmatic in origin. Rare spectacular pegmatitic concentrations most likely represent physical accumulation of the megacrysts. The pluton is geochemically a high Na/K trondhjemite, the only such pluton known among the Newer Granites of Scotland. On the basis of geochemical evidence and a comparison with partial melting experiments, we propose that the magmas were derived by fluid-rich melting of an amphibolitic source leading to relatively low temperature magmas which were significantly contaminated by Moine metasediments. The pluton was emplaced in the mid crust at about 4.3 kbar during an episode of dextral shear on the Glen Glass Fault related to regional strike-slip faulting on the Great Glen Fault system at c . 425 Ma.