Garnet-biotite Thermometry Research Articles

Phase Equilibria Evidence for Intermediate P/T Metamorphism in the Nashoba Terrane and Implications for Acadian Tectonics in Ganderia

Abstract The bedrock exposed in the Nashoba terrane of east-central Massachusetts records a complex history of deformation and metamorphism associated with the collision of Avalonia with the Laurentian margin during the Devonian Acadian orogeny. Although the structural history of the terrane has been well studied, its pressure-temperature (P–T) history is less well constrained, and the mechanisms by which the upper amphibolite facies Nashoba terrane was juxtaposed between greenschist facies rocks to the southeast and northwest have not been established. Here, we apply phase equilibria modeling, geothermobarometry, and petrographic analysis to three garnet-bearing migmatitic rocks from the Nashoba terrane to determine their P–T histories and provide key metamorphic constraints relevant to Acadian orogenic processes. All three samples are from the Nashoba Formation, a unit within the Nashoba terrane consisting of volcaniclastic rocks likely deposited in an arc/back-arc setting near the trailing edge of the Ganderia terrane. Peak subsolidus conditions are determined via the integration of petrographic analysis and thermodynamic modeling. Peak anatectic conditions are constrained with garnet-biotite thermometry + GASP barometry, garnet intersecting rim isopleths, and thermodynamic modeling. Phase equilibria constraints suggest peak subsolidus conditions ranging from ~550°C to 700°C and ~6–12 kbar. Geothermobarometry, phase equilibria modeling, and garnet rim isopleths constrain biotite-out anatexis to ~700°C–715°C and ~5–8.5 kbar, up to ~2–4 kbar deeper than previously suggested. This synthesis of phase equilibria modeling and petrographic analysis suggests that all three samples record a clockwise P–T path with peak pressures achieved before anatexis associated with the Acadian orogeny at ~394 Ma. These results are inconsistent with a previously interpreted pre-Acadian period of low P/T metamorphism (<5 kbar peak pressures). Instead, this implies a previously unrecognized phase of intermediate P/T crustal thickening preceding anatexis, which we interpret as a result of Acadian orogenesis. We suggest that the Nashoba terrane exposes mid-crustal levels of the Acadian hinterland.

P–T–t Path of Unusual Garnet–Kyanite–Staurolite– Amphibole Schists, Ellesmere Island, Canada—Quartz Inclusion in Garnet Barometry and Monazite Petrochronology

Abstract Garnet–kyanite–staurolite assemblages with large, late porphyroblasts of amphibole form garbenschists in Ordovician volcaniclastic rocks lying immediately south of the Pearya terrane on northernmost Ellesmere Island, Canada. The schist, which together with carbonate olistoliths makes up the Petersen Bay Assemblage (PBA), displays a series of parallel isograds that mark an increase in metamorphic grade over a distance of 10 km towards the contact with Pearya; however, a steep, brittle Cenozoic strike-slip fault with an unknown amount displacement disturbs the earlier accretionary relationship. The late amphibole growth, probably due to fluid ingress, is clear evidence of disequilibrium conditions in the garbenschist. In order to recover the P–T history of the schists, we construct isochemical phase equilibrium models for a nearby garnet–mica schist that escaped the fluid event and compare the results to quartz inclusion in garnet (QuiG) barometry for a garbenschist and the metapelitic garnet schist. Quartz inclusions are confined to garnet cores and the QuiG results, combined with Ti-in-biotite and garnet–biotite thermometry, delineate a prograde path from 480 to 600°C and 0.7 to 0.9 GPa. This path agrees with growth zoning in garnet deduced from X-ray maps of the spessartine component in garnet. The peak conditions obtained from pseudosection modelling using effective bulk composition and the intersection of garnet rim with matrix biotite and white mica isopleths in the metapelite are 665°C at ≤0.85 GPa. Three generations of monazite (I, II and III) were identified by textural characterization, geochemical composition (REE and Y concentrations) and U–Pb ages measured by ion microprobe. Monazite I occurs in the matrix and as inclusions in garnet rims and grew at peak P–T conditions at 397 ± 2 Ma (2σ) from the breakdown of allanite. Monazite II forms overgrowths on matrix Monazite I grains that are oriented parallel to the main schistosity and yield ages of 385 ± 2 Ma. Monazite III, found only in the garbenschist, is 374 ± 6 Ma, which is interpreted as the time of amphibole growth during fluid infiltration at lower temperature and pressure on a clockwise P–T path that remained in the kyanite stability field. These results point to a relatively short (≈12 Myr) Barrovian metamorphic event that affected the schists of the PBA. An obvious heat source is lacking in the adjacent Pearya terrane, but we speculate it was large Devonian plutons—similar to the 390 ± 10 Ma Cape Woods granite located 40 km across strike from the fault—that have been excised by strike-slip. Arc fragments that are correlative to the PBA are low grade; they never saw the heat and were not directly involved in Pearya accretion.

Metamorphic Conditions and Raman Spectroscopic Carbonaceous Material Thermometry of Host Schists of Olympiada and Eldorado Gold Deposits (Yenisey Ridge, Russia)

Metamorphic processes play a key role in forming orogenic gold deposits. In this paper, we present new evidence that host schists of the two largest gold deposits of the Yenisey ridge (Russia) Olympiada and Eldorado underwent a single stage of metamorphism in contrast to surrounding blocks. This metamorphism is of moderate thermal gradient and belongs to the Barrovian type, which is typical for the collisional event in the time range 800–850 Ma. The new Ar/Ar age data presented in this paper and the review of magmatic and metamorphic events and ore-forming processes indicate that the most productive stage (gold-sulfide-quartz) correlates well in time with the regional metamorphism of the Barrovian type. This indicates that metamorphic processes can have a crucial role in forming gold deposits of the Yenisey ridge. Carbonaceous material thermometry indicates a wide range of obtained temperatures around 90–150 °C around the mean temperature for each sample. The highest temperatures are close to the peak metamorphic temperatures estimated by garnet-biotite thermometry.

Residence time of igneous garnet in Si-rich magmatic systems: Insights from diffusion modeling of major and trace elements

Although garnet is an important accessory phase in many granitic rocks, the petrogenetic history of such garnets is often debated. Explanations range from crystallization from (mostly) peraluminous melts to entrainment of peritectic or xenocrystic garnets originating from country rocks. Here we present a detailed microchemical study of a mid-crustal granodiorite from the Ivrea-Zone (N-Italy), which contains metapelitic enclaves and composite metamorphic-magmatic xeno-phenocryst garnet. Garnets from this locality exhibit high-phosphorus (∼800 ppm) metamorphic cores and multiple igneous overgrowth rims. The high-phosphorus cores appear to originate from granulite facies country-rock, while low-phosphorus rims indicate magmatic overgrowth in two main episodes. Zircon-bearing nanogranitoid inclusions are trapped along embayments between garnet cores and the first magmatic growth zones. Zirconium saturation thermometry indicates a temperature of 820 ± 5°C during the first magmatic overgrowth, and a temperature of 778 ± 10°C for the second overgrowth. The latter temperature agrees with garnet-biotite thermometry using the garnet rim composition, which yields a temperature of 773 ± 29 °C. In order to quantify the duration of the overgrowth episodes, we have numerically modeled Cr, Y, REEs and Hf trace element diffusion, as well as multicomponent major divalent cation diffusion within garnet using available experimental diffusion data and Cr diffusion data retrieved from natural garnets. All modeled diffusants conform to a single temperature-time path, in which the temperatures associated with the first and second magmatic overgrowths persisted for 5.4 and 6.3 kyr, respectively. Composite garnets in Si-rich magmatic systems have the potential to constrain magma transit rates in the continental crust.

Contact metamorphism of the Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence, Upper Mustang region, west-central Nepal

AbstractThe Upper Mustang region of west-central Nepal contains exposures of metamorphosed Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence rocks that have been interpreted to reflect either contact metamorphism related to the nearby Mugu pluton or regional metamorphism associated with the North Himalayan domes. New monazite geochronology results show that the Mugu leucogranite crystallized at c. 21.3 Ma, while the dominant monazite age peaks from the surrounding garnet ± staurolite ± sillimanite schists range between c. 21.7 and 19.4 Ma, generally decreasing in age away from the pluton. Metamorphic temperature estimates based on Ti-in-biotite and garnet–biotite thermometry are highest in the specimens closest to the pluton (648 ± 24°C and 615 ± 25°C, respectively) and lowest in those furthest away (578 ± 24°C and 563 ± 25°C, respectively), while pressure estimates are all within uncertainty of one another, averaging 5.0 ± 0.5 kbar. These results are interpreted to be consistent with contact metamorphism of the rocks in proximity to the Mugu pluton, which was emplaced at c. 18 ± 2 km depth after local movement across the South Tibetan detachment system had ceased. While this new dataset helps to characterize the metamorphic rocks of the Tethyan Sedimentary Sequence and provides new constraints on the thickness of the upper crust, it also emphasizes the importance of careful integration of metamorphic conditions and inferred processes that may affect interpretation of currently proposed Himalayan models.

Mesozoic evolution of the eastern Pamir

AbstractWe present field and analytical results from the Tashkurgan and Waqia valleys in the southeastern Pamir that shed new light on the tectonic evolution and terrane architecture of the region. Field mapping of metasedimentary and igneous units along the Tashkurgan and Waqia valleys in the Southeast Pamir, integrated with metamorphic petrology, garnet-biotite thermometry, and zircon U/Pb isotopic analysis, help identify major structures and terrane boundaries in the region, as well as compare structural units across the Miocene Muztaghata gneiss dome. South of the Muztaghata dome, the gently northwest-plunging synformal Torbashi thrust klippe juxtaposes amphibolite facies Triassic Karakul-Mazar terrane schist and gneiss structurally above (1) greenschist facies Triassic Karakul-Mazar terrane metasedimentary rock in the north, and (2) lower-amphibolite facies schist in the south that are interpreted to be Gondwanan-derived crust (Central or South Pamir terrane). Farther south, the Rouluke thrust fault imbricates the Gondwanan crust, placing early Paleozoic schists over Permian marble and slate. Exposure of the Torbashi thrust sheet terminates in the southeast, and with it the surface exposure of the Triassic Karakul-Mazar terrane, leaving the Paleozoic Kunlun terrane juxtaposed directly against Gondwanan terrane crust. Based on lithologic and isotopic similarities of units north and south of the Muztaghata gneiss dome, we document the existence of a regionally extensive thrust nappe that stretched across the northern and eastern Pamir, prior to being cut by Miocene exhumation of the Muztaghata dome. The thrust nappe links the Torbashi thrust in the southeast Pamir with the Tanymas thrust in the northern Pamir, and documents regionally extensive exposure of lithologically continuous units across the northeast Pamir. While timing of emplacement of the Torbashi thrust klippe and displacement on the Rouluke fault to the south is not well constrained, we interpret shortening to be Cretaceous in age based on previously published cooling ages. However, a component of Cenozoic shortening cannot be ruled out.A key observation from our mapping results is that the surface exposures of the Karakul–Mazar–Songpan Ganzi terrane are not continuous between western Tibet and the Pamir, which indicates tectonic and/or erosional removal, likely sometime in the Mesozoic. Furthermore, our documentation of the Jinsha suture in the southeast Pamir on the eastern side of the Karakoram fault shows deflections of terranes across the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen were not primarily accommodated along discrete, large displacement faults (>400 km) faults. Instead, oroclinal bending of the northern Pamir, and dextral shear along the Pamir margins, may be largely responsible for the northward deflection of terranes.

Tectonometamorphic Evolution of Jutulsessen, Gjelsvikfjella, cDML, East Antarctica

The Jutulsessen area, can provide a vital clue to the supercontinent assembly of Gondwana Land as it is situated within the Circum East Antarctic Mobile Belt just east of the Penksockett rift marking the divide between the central Dronning Maud Land from the Western Dronning Maud Land. This landmass is dominated by migmatitic quartzo-feldspathic rocks intruded by syn to post-tectonic granites. The work highlights the data from western part cDML area with a view to arrive at a more comprehensive model for the cDML and subsequently to the super continent assembly. Granitic and migmatitic gneisses comprising of amphibolitic and biotite rich enclaves. The gneisses show variations from quartzo-felspathic gneiss to amphibolitic gneiss. The area has witnessed complex geological history involving at different deformational episodes with concomitant metamorphism. The pervasive dominant foliation trends NW-SE with shallow to medium dips towards SW. In the Stabben area, a nonfoliated intrusive syenite-gabbro pluton limits the gneissic exposures. Compositionally, the orthogneisses plot in the monzogranitegranodiorite field where as the mafic dykes/enclaves plot in the basalt-andesite-rhyodacite field. The bulk geochemical characteristics suggest significant crustal contamination. Garnet-biotite Fe-Mg exchange thermometry gives peak metamorphic temperature of 483° C for the gneisses and 628° C for the dioritic enclave within gneisses. A peak metamorphic grade of upper amphibolite to granulite facies is deduced from the mineral assemblages. Widespread anatexis has led to extensive occurrence of migmatites in the area. Recent geochronological studies assign an age of 1170 Ma to 970 Ma for the migmatites/gneisses and an emplacement age of 501 Ma for the Stabben gabbro and syenite. The discriminant plots of the Jutulsessen rocks indicate diverse origin ranging from pre-plate collision to post-collision orogenic tectonic setting. The mafic enclaves/dykes show ocean island arc to MORB affinities. Voluminous addition of juvenile crust during the Pan-African orogeny strongly overprints earlier structures.

Mineral equilibria and zircon, garnet and titanite U-Pb ages constraining the PTt path of granite-related hydrothermal systems at the Big Bell gold deposit, Western Australia

The Big Bell deposit (75 t gold) is located in a narrow spur of the Meekatharra greenstone belt, Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia. Two ore bodies are located in a calcic-potassic contact alteration zone overprinting lineated granodiorite dykes and amphibolite: almandine-cummingtonite-hornblende skarn (1–3 g/t Au, 1700 g/t As, 330 g/t W) and the muscovite-microcline gneiss (3–5 g/t Au, 580 g/t Sb, 620 g/t W) of the Main Lode. Genetic models vary from pre- to post-metamorphic replacement. Hornblende-plagioclase pairs in amphibolite constrain peak metamorphic temperature to 670 ± 50 °C. In contrast, garnet-biotite thermometry provides estimates of 578 ± 50 and 608 ± 50 °C for garnet-cordierite-biotite schist bordering the skarn and enveloping the Main Lode. Garnet-cordierite and garnet-hornblende pairs extend the range of fluid temperature to 540 ± 65 °C, well below peak metamorphic temperature. At 540–600 °C, the alteration assemblage andalusite + sillimanite constrains pressure to 300–400 MPa corresponding to 11–14 km crustal depth. Published U-Pb ages indicate that metamorphism took place in the aureole of the southeast granodiorite-tonalite batholith (2740–2700 Ma), followed by gold mineralization at 2662 ± 5 Ma and by the emplacement of biotite granite and Sn–Ta–Nb granite-pegmatite dykes at 2625–2610 Ma. Amphibolite xenoliths in granite northwest of the deposit record the lowest temperature (628 ± 50 °C), suggesting it lacks a metamorphic aureole. The rare metal dykes are spatially associated with epidote-albite and andradite-diopside skarns (≤1.5 g/t Au), mined where enriched in the weathered zone. We analysed hydrothermal zircon intergrown with andradite. Concordant U-Pb ages of 2612 ± 7 and 2609 ± 10 Ma confirm the presence of a second granite-related system. The zircons display oscillatory zoning and have low Th/U ratios (0.05–0.08). Low-Th titanite from an albite granite dyke has a concordant but reset U-Pb age of 2577 ± 7 Ma.

Temperature and strain gradients through Lesser Himalayan rocks and across the Main Central thrust, south central Bhutan: Implications for transport‐parallel stretching and inverted metamorphism

In order to understand mass and heat transfer processes that operated during Himalayan orogenesis, we collected temperature, finite and incremental strain, and kinematic vorticity data through a 5 km thickness of Lesser and Greater Himalayan rocks in southern Bhutan. This transect crosses two major shear zones, the Main Central thrust (MCT) and Shumar thrust (ST). Raman spectroscopy on carbonaceous material and garnet-biotite thermometry are integrated with deformation temperatures from quartz petrofabrics. These data define inverted field gradients that correspond in structural position with the MCT and ST, which are separated by sections in which temperatures remain essentially constant. Temperatures increase from ~400-500 °C to ~700-750 °C between 675 m below and 200 m above the MCT. This defines a 269 ± 44 °C/km inverted gradient, interpreted to have formed via high-magnitude (~100-250 km) shearing on a discrete MCT zone delineated by the limits of inverted metamorphism. Temperatures increase from ~300-400 °C to ~400-530 °C across the ST, which is attributed to differences in maximum burial depth of hanging wall and footwall rocks. Strain and vorticity data indicate that Lesser and Greater Himalayan rocks were deformed by layer-normal flattening. Transport-parallel lengthening and foliation-normal shortening increase from 38-71% and 36-49%, respectively, between 2.3-1.0 km below the MCT. The MCT acted as a ‘stretching fault’, with translation on the order of 100's of km accompanied by transport-parallel stretching of footwall and hanging wall rocks on the order of 10's of km. This demonstrates that stretching accommodated between major shear zones can make a significant contribution to cumulative mass transfer.

Bulk Composition of Mt. Mica Pegmatite, Maine, USA: Implications For the Origin of An Lct Type Pegmatite By Anatexis

Abstract The Mt. Mica pegmatite is famous for producing gem tourmaline for nearly 200 years. The dike, ranging in thickness from 1 to 8 m and dipping 20° SE, has a simple zonal structure consisting of a wall zone and core zone. The wall zone is essentially devoid of K-feldspar. The outer portion of the pegmatite consists of quartz, muscovite, albite (An 1.8), and schorl. Muscovite is the dominant K-bearing species in the outer portion of the pegmatite. Potassium feldspar only appears in the core zone adjacent to pockets. The pegmatite is subparallel to the foliation of the enclosing migmatite, and leucosomes show a gradational contact with the pegmatite where juxtaposed. Texturally, the pegmatite and leucosomes appear to be in equilibrium with no change in grain size or composition where the two are in contact. Garnet-biotite thermometry of the migmatite at the contact yields an average temperature of 630 °C, which is consistent with the pressure-temperature conditions inferred for a Sebago Migmatite Domain (SMD) assemblage of sillimanite, quartz, muscovite, biotite, and alkali feldspar formed at 650 °C and 3 kb. Gradational contact between the leucosomes and pegmatite suggests that the pegmatitic melt was at the same temperature. Coromoto Minerals LLC began mining in 2003 and the mine now extends down-dip for over 100 m to a depth of 33 m. A very detailed and accurately surveyed geologic map produced by owner/operator Gary Freeman during mining shows the total area of pegmatite removed, the spatial distribution and aerial extent of pockets, massive lepidolite (compositions near trilithionite) pods, microcline, and xenoliths. The map was analyzed using image analysis and thickness values of the units to calculate the total volumes of pegmatite mined, lepidolite pods, and all pockets found. Forty-five drill cores were taken across the pegmatite from the hanging wall to foot wall contacts, along a transect intentionally avoiding lepidolite pods and miaroles. Cores were pulverized, thoroughly mixed and homogenized, and the percent Li content calculated from the mapped volume was added to produce a sample that was representative of the bulk composition of Mt. Mica. The sample was then analyzed by fusion ICP spectroscopy for major and trace elements and DCP spectroscopy for B and Li. Structural water was determined by LOI. Water content was calculated using the calculated volume of open space (pocket volumes), assuming that the pockets were filled with water-rich fluid. This fluid content was added to LOI water (above 500 °C) to estimate a maximum H 2 O content of 1.16 wt.% of the pegmatite melt. REE plots of bulk pegmatite versus leucosomes from the migmatite are strikingly similar. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns of leucosomes and pegmatite are very flat with no Eu anomaly, whereas the Sebago granite is more strongly LREE-enriched and displays a pronounced negative Eu anomaly. Spider diagrams of leucosomes and pegmatite versus average crust show very similar patterns. These results suggest that the Mt. Mica pegmatitic melt did not form by fractional crystallization of the older Sebago pluton, but instead was derived directly from partial melting of the metapelitic rocks of the SMD. Batches of anatectic melt accumulated and coalesced into a larger volume that subsequently formed the pegmatite. This is the first chemical evidence presented for the formation of an LCT type pegmatite by direct anatexis.

Thermal interaction of middle and upper crust during gneiss dome formation: example from the Montagne Noire (French Massif Central)

AbstractThis paper aims to decipher the thermal evolution of the Montagne Noire Axial Zone (MNAZ, southern French Massif Central) gneiss core and its metasedimentary cover through determination of P–T paths and temperature gradients. Migmatitic gneiss from the core of the dome record a clockwise evolution culminating at 725 ± 25 °C and 0.8 ± 0.1 GPa with partial melting, followed by a decompression path with only minor cooling to 690 ± 25° C and 0.4 ± 0.1 GPa. Field structural analyses as well as detailed petrological observations indicate that the cover sequence experienced LP‐HT metamorphism. Apparent thermal gradients within the cover were determined with garnet–biotite thermometry and Raman Spectroscopy on Carbonaceous Matter. High‐temperature apparent gradients (e.g. ∼530 °C km−1 along one transect) are explained by late brittle–ductile extensional shearing evidenced by phyllonites that post‐date peak metamorphism. In areas where normal faults are less abundant and closely spaced, gradients of ∼20 to 50 °C km−1 are calculated. These gradients can be accounted for by a combination of dome emplacement and ductile shearing (collapse of isotherms), without additional heat input. Finally, the thermal evolution of the MNAZ is typical for many gneiss domes worldwide as well as with other LP‐HT terranes in the Variscides.

Peak metamorphic temperature and thermal history of the Southern Alps (New Zealand)

The Southern Alps orogen of New Zealand results from late Cenozoic convergence between the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates and is one of the most active mountain belts in the world. Metamorphic rocks carrying a polymetamorphic legacy, ranging from low-greenschist to high-grade amphibolites, are exhumed in the hanging wall of the Alpine Fault. On a regional scale, the metamorphic grade has previously been described in terms of metamorphic zones and mineral isograds; application of quantitative petrology being severely limited owing to unfavorable quartzofeldspathic lithologies. This study quantifies peak metamorphic temperatures (T) in a 300×20km area, based on samples forming 13 transects along-strike from Haast in the south to Hokitika in the north, using thermometry based on Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material (RSCM). Peak metamorphic T decreases across each transect from ≥640°C locally in the direct vicinity of the Alpine Fault to less than 330°C at the drainage divide 15–20km southeast of the fault. Thermal field gradients exhibit a degree of similarity from the southernmost to the northernmost transects, are greater in low-grade semischist than high-grade schist, are affected by folding or discontinuous juxtaposition of metamorphic zones, and contain limited information on crustal-scale geothermal gradients. Temperatures derived by RSCM thermometry are slightly (≤50°C) higher than those derived by traditional quantitative petrology using garnet–biotite thermometry and THERMOCALC modeling. The age of RSCM T appears to be mostly pre-Cenozoic over most of the area except in central Southern Alps (Franz Josef–Fox area), where the amphibolite facies schists have T of likely Cenozoic age. The RSCM T data place some constraints on the mode of exhumation along the Alpine Fault and have implications for models of Southern Alps tectonics.

Timing and conditions of peak metamorphism and cooling across the Zimithang Thrust, Arunachal Pradesh, India

The Zimithang Thrust juxtaposes two lithotectonic units of the Greater Himalayan Sequence in Arunachal Pradesh, NE India. Monazite U–Pb, muscovite 40Ar/39Ar and thermobarometric data from rocks in the hanging and footwall constrain the timing and conditions of their juxtaposition across the structure, and their subsequent cooling. Monazite grains in biotite–sillimanite gneiss in the hanging wall yield LA-ICP-MS U–Pb ages of 16 ± 0.2 to 12.7 ± 0.4 Ma. A schistose gneiss within the high strain zone yields overlapping-to-younger monazite ages of 14.9 ± 0.3 to 11.5 ± 0.3 Ma. Garnet–staurolite–mica schists in the immediate footwall yield older monazite ages of 27.3 ± 0.6 to 17.1 ± 0.2 Ma. Temperature estimates from Ti-in-biotite and garnet–biotite thermometry suggest similar peak temperatures were achieved in the hanging and footwalls (~ 525–650 °C). Elevated temperatures of ~ 700 °C appear to have been reached in the high strain zone itself and in the footwall further from the thrust. Single grain fusion 40Ar/39Ar muscovite data from samples either side of the thrust yield ages of ~ 7 Ma, suggesting that movement along the thrust juxtaposed the two units by the time the closure temperature of Ar diffusion in muscovite had been reached. These data confirm previous suggestions that major orogen-parallel out-of-sequence structures disrupt the Greater Himalayan Sequence at different times during Himalayan evolution, and highlight an eastwards-younging trend in 40Ar/39Ar muscovite cooling ages at equivalent structural levels along Himalayan strike.

Thermodynamic mixing properties and behavior of almandine–spessartine solid solutions

The heat capacity, Cp, of five solid-solution members of the almandine(Alm)–spessartine(Sps) binary, consisting of three synthetic polycrystalline and two natural single-crystal samples, was measured in the temperature range between 2 and 300K using relaxation calorimetry and between 282 and 764K using DSC methods. All garnets exhibit a λ-type heat-capacity anomaly at low temperatures resulting from a paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic phase transition. The temperature of the magnetic transition in Fe-rich garnets occurs between those of the two end-members (i.e. 9.2K for almandine and 6.2K for spessartine), but lies at lower values between 3.5 and 4.5K for more Sps-rich compositions with XMngrt>0.5.The calorimetric entropy at 298K shows mechanical-mixture behavior for Sps-rich garnets and a slight possible negative deviation from such behavior for Alm-rich compositions. At the 2σ level all data are, however, consistent with ideal mixing behavior and the Margules entropy interaction parameter, WS,FeMngrt, is zero for the Alm–Sps binary. Thermodynamic analysis of published high P and T phase-equilibrium Fe–Mn exchange experiments between garnet and ilmenite shows that the excess Gibbs free energy of mixing, ΔGex, for Fe–Mn in garnet is positive and asymmetric towards spessartine. Margules enthalpy interaction parameters of WH,FeMngrt=4170±518J/cation⋅mol and WH,MnFe=1221±588J/cation⋅mol are derived giving a maximum of ΔGex≈0.7kJ/cation⋅mol at XMngrt≈0.6. ΔHex obtained using autocorrelation analysis of published IR spectra of Alm–Sps solid solutions is in reasonable agreement with that derived from phase-equilibrium and calorimetry data. Previous diffraction and spectroscopic results on Alm–Sps garnets and quantum mechanical calculations made on almandine are used to interpret the macroscopic thermodynamic behavior from a microscopic basis.The relevance of the new garnet Fe–Mn mixing model for petrological calculations is demonstrated by incorporating it into the quaternary garnet mixing model of Berman (1990). Thus, better agreement for temperatures calculated using Fe–Mn garnet-ilmenite and Fe–Mg garnet-biotite geothermometry could be achieved. Temperatures calculated for Mn-poor and Mn-rich garnet-bearing assemblages, applying garnet-biotite thermometry, are in better agreement taking Fe–Mn mixing into account.

Footwall dip of a core complex detachment fault: thermobarometric constraints from the northern Snake Range (Basin and Range, USA)

AbstractLow‐angle detachment faults are common features in areas of large‐scale continental extension and are typically associated with metamorphic core complexes, where they separate upper plate brittle extension from lower plate ductile stretching and metamorphism. In many core complexes, the footwall rocks have been exhumed from middle to lower crustal depths, leading to considerable debate about the relationship between hangingwall and footwall rocks, and the role that detachment faults play in footwall exhumation. Here, garnet–biotite thermometry and garnet–muscovite–biotite–plagioclase barometry results are presented, together with garnet and zircon geochronology data, from seven locations within metapelitic rocks in the footwall of the northern Snake Range décollement (NSRD). These locations lie both parallel and normal to the direction of footwall transport to constrain the pre‐exhumation geometry of the footwall. To determine P–T gradients precisely within the footwall, the ΔPT method of Worley & Powell (2000) has been employed, which minimizes the contribution of systematic uncertainties to thermobarometric calculations. The results show that footwall rocks reached pressures of 6–8 kbar and temperatures of 500–650 °C, equivalent to burial depths of 23–30 km. Burial depth remains constant in the WNW–ESE direction of footwall transport, but increases from south to north. The lack of a burial gradient in the direction of footwall transport implies that the footwall rocks, which today define a sub‐horizontal datum in the direction of fault transport, also defined a sub‐horizontal datum at depth in Late Cretaceous time. This suggests that the footwall was not tilted about the normal to the fault transport direction during exhumation, and hence that the NSRD did not form as a low‐angle normal fault cutting down through the lower crust. Instead, the following evolution for the northern Snake Range footwall is proposed. (i) Mesozoic contraction caused substantial crustal thickening by duplication and folding of the miogeoclinal sequence, accompanied by upper greenschist to amphibolite facies metamorphism. (ii) About half of the total exhumation was accomplished by roughly coaxial stretching and thinning in Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary time, accompanied by retrogression and mylonitic deformation. (iii) The footwall rocks were then ‘captured’ from the middle crust along a moderately dipping NSRD that soled into the middle crust with a rolling‐hinge geometry at both upper and lower terminations.

Garnetites of the Cardigan Pluton, New Hampshire: Evidence for Peritectic Garnet Entrainment and Implications for Source Rock Compositions

The Cardigan Pluton, located in southwestern New Hampshire, USA, is a strongly peraluminous granodiorite that contains distinctive, meter-sized pods consisting of 50–70 modal % garnet (+sillimanite + biotite + plagioclase + quartz). The presence of fibrolitic mats and flat, unzoned major and trace-element garnet profiles provide evidence for prograde metamorphism and single-stage garnet growth from biotite dehydration melting. Melt-depleted, bulk-rock compositions indicate that the garnetites are either fragments of restite or melt-depleted xenoliths. Comparison of the Nd and Sr isotopic compositions of the garnetites and the Cardigan granitic rocks indicates an equilibrium relationship as required in the restite model. Additionally, plagioclase and garnet compositions are the same in the garnetites and the most mafic host rocks, also permissive of a restite origin for the garnetites. Temperature and pressure calculated using garnet–biotite thermometry and garnet–aluminum silicate–quartz–plagioclase (GASP) barometry yield estimates of 800°C and 6–7 kbar. These temperatures are probably lower than the peak melting temperature because major element modeling subtracting a granodiorite composition from an average calc-pelite metasediment requires greater than 45% melting to generate garnetite sample CP-23G. Such high melting percentages require temperatures of ∼900°C, near the biotite-out curve. We infer that the heat required for such high amounts of melting was obtained from asthenospheric upwelling and basaltic underplating. Inherited zircons with 600 Ma U–Pb ages suggest that the Cardigan Pluton does not have a Laurentian source, consistent with thermobarometric calculations that place the depth of melting below the decollement between the basement and the Central Maine Trough metasediments. A peri-Gondwanan basement source is inferred. Calculated ascent rates of >1000 km/yr allowed preservation of restite in the Cardigan Pluton whereas slower rates in other peraluminous plutons could account for the paucity of restite in most peraluminous plutons.

Metasomatic replacement of inherited metamorphic monazite in a biotite-garnet granite from the Nizke Tatry Mountains, Western Carpathians, Slovakia: Chemical dating and evidence for disequilibrium melting

Granitoid monazite is a potential candidate for restitic origin because of its very low dissolution rates. A biotite-garnet granite (Nízke Tatry Mountains, Slovakia) contains monazite characterized by older, BSE-bright domains irregularly replaced by BSE-dark domains. They are interpreted as the result of late-magmatic replacement by a dissolution-reprecipitation mechanism. Garnet is mostly magmatic, with peritectic cores, and the granite is thought to have formed by biotite fluid-absent melting. Xenotime-monazite and garnet-biotite thermometry yield 600-650 °C at 400 MPa, for Yrich monazite, suggesting that equilibration took place in the presence of fluid. Chemical and textural relations enable the distinction of four types of monazite, which have been dated. Type I monazite, forming grain interiors, is Th-rich and overgrown by a lower-Th type II variety. Type III monazite has the lowest U and also overgrows the type I, whereas type IV monazite has the highest U (and Y) contents. U/Pb-Th/Pb isochrons reveal that, whereas monazite types I and III are older (355 ± 7 Ma), the age corresponding to the Variscan metamorphic peak, types II and IV are ca. 10 million years younger (346 ± 3 Ma, type IV). Monazite types I-III are considered to be inherited from a metamorphic protolith, whereas type IV is interpreted to be the age of the latest magmatism. Application of LREE and Zr diffusion coefficients to monazite and zircon indicates that the accessory restite assemblage observed is consistent with a short magma residence time (<500 years) during which monazite remained mostly intact, whereas zircon was partly dissolved.

Controls on hydrothermal Fe oxide–Cu–Au–Co mineralization at the Guelb Moghrein deposit, Akjoujt area, Mauritania

The Guelb Moghrein Fe oxide–Cu–Au–Co deposit, with a total resource of 23.6 Mt at 1.88% Cu, 1.41 g/t Au, and 143 g/t Co, is hosted by an extensive metacarbonate body. However, it is restricted to up to 30-m wide tabular breccia zones developed parallel to discrete shear zones that transect the host metacarbonates. The Fe–Mg clinoamphibole–chlorite schists represent up to 1-m thick interlayer metasediments and localized viscous shearing in these shear zones. Siderite of the metacarbonate body was deformed into a breccia and was replaced by an ore and alteration assemblage comprised of Fe–Mg clinoamphibole, magnetite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, graphite, Fe–Co–Ni arsenides, arsenopyrite, cobaltite, uraninite, and Bi–Au–Ag–Te minerals. In contact with wall rock amphibolites, the metacarbonate body is enveloped by an alteration halo up to 40 m wide, consisting of biotite, actinolite, grunerite, chlorite, calcite, albite, and quartz. The Guelb Moghrein ore body is structurally controlled by shear zones that developed in the footwall of a regional thrust zone. This thrust separates greenschist facies quartz–sericite schists and biotite–garnet–quartz schists of the Sainte Barbe volcanic unit in the hanging wall from amphibolite facies metavolcanic rocks, metacarbonates, and the Guelb Moghrein ore body of the Akjoujt metabasalt unit in the footwall. Peak temperatures of the latter unit are estimated by hornblende–plagioclase thermometry at 580±40°C. Thrusting was retrograde for the Akjoujt metabasalt unit, but prograde for the Sainte Barbe volcanic unit at P–T conditions of about 410±30°C and 2–3 kbar (garnet–biotite thermometry). Structural and petrological evidences suggest that the ore fluids migrated along the shear zones and reacted with the siderite in the metacarbonate. This evolution and the setting of Guelb Moghrein in the fold-and-thrust belt of the Pan-African to Variscan Mauritanides (Mauritania, West Africa) resemble Proterozoic Fe oxide–Cu–Au–Co deposits such as examples from the Tennant Creek and Mount Isa Inliers, Australia.

High temperatures and inverted metamorphism in the schist of Sierra de Salinas, California

New field and thermobarometric work in the Californian Salinian block clarifies current and pre-Tertiary relationships between the schist of Sierra de Salinas and Cretaceous arc-related granitic rocks. The contact is variably preserved as a brittle fault and high-temperature mylonite zone, the Salinas shear zone, which represents the contact between North America and sediments accreted above the Farallon slab between ∼ 76 Ma and ∼ 70 Ma. Near granulite facies, prograde replacement of hornblende with clinopyroxene is associated with deformation of plutonic rocks at the base of the upper plate. In the lower plate, the schist of Sierra de Salinas, garnet–biotite thermometry indicates decreasing temperatures down-section from at least 714 °C to ∼ 575 °C over an exposed thickness of ∼ 2.5 km, consistent with petrologic evidence of an inverted metamorphic gradient. The measured temperatures are significantly higher than observed at shallow levels above subducting slabs or predicted by 2D computational models assuming low shear stresses. Previous workers have called upon shear heating to explain similar observations in the correlative Pelona schist, an unlikely scenario given the results of recent rock deformation experiments which predict that feldspar–quartz–mica aggregates are far too weak to withstand stresses of ∼ 70 MPa required by the shear heating hypothesis. As an alternative, we propose that high temperatures resulted from conductive heating while the leading edge of the schist traveled ∼ 150 km beneath the recently active Salinian continental arc during the initiation of shallow subduction. Weakening of the schist due to high temperatures helped facilitate the collapse of the Salinian arc as the schist was emplaced. Schist emplacement coincided with loss of lower, mafic portions of the arc, and therefore evolution of the Southern California crust towards a more felsic composition.

The Chako antiform: A folded segment of the Greater Himalayan sequence, Nar valley, Central Nepal Himalaya

Recent and previously published mapping in the Nar valley, north of the Annapurna massif in central Nepal, recognised an enigmatic metamorphic culmination of the Greater Himalayan sequence, surrounded by rocks correlated with the Tethyan sedimentary sequence. The map area is re-interpreted as two structural levels within the Greater Himalayan sequence. The Lower Level is correlated to the well-studied Greater Himalayan sequence of the Annapurna region, based on characteristic rock types, high-strain zones with south-verging shear-sense indicators, and high-grade metamorphism. The rocks of the Upper Level, previously mapped as the sub-greenschist or zeolite facies Tethyan sedimentary sequence, are garnet-bearing schists. Petrography and garnet-biotite thermometry suggest the Upper Level equilibrated at amphibolite facies (500–650 °C). These results support the recent contention that the Upper Level rocks are a component of the Greater Himalayan sequence, and thus indicate that components of the Himalayan metamorphic core vary considerably along strike. Structural, metamorphic and age constraints are integrated into a cohesive regional tectonometamorphic model. The Lower and Upper Levels both experienced D 1 deformation and peak metamorphism before ∼20 Ma. The Lower and Upper Levels were juxtaposed along the synmetamorphic Chame detachment after 20 Ma during retrograde metamorphism. After ∼19 Ma, the Phu detachment placed the unmetamorphosed Tethyan sedimentary sequence above the Lower and Upper Levels. The entire package was then subsequently folded, after 19 Ma, by a non-cylindrical antiform-synform pair with a ∼25 km wavelength creating an apparent dome. The proposed tectonometamorphic model reconciles previously contradictory interpretations of the transition between metamorphic core and overlying sediments in the Nar valley.