scholarly journals Evidence of Carboniferous arc magmatism preserved in the Chicxulub impact structure

Author(s):  
Catherine H. Ross ◽  
Daniel F. Stockli ◽  
Cornelia Rasmussen ◽  
Sean P.S. Gulick ◽  
Sietze J. de Graaff ◽  
...  

Determining the nature and age of the 200-km-wide Chicxulub impact target rock is an essential step in advancing our understanding of the Maya Block basement. Few age constraints exist for the northern Maya Block crust, specifically the basement underlying the 66 Ma, 200 km-wide Chicxulub impact structure. The International Ocean Discovery Program-International Continental Scientific Drilling Program Expedition 364 core recovered a continuous section of basement rocks from the Chicxulub target rocks, which provides a unique opportunity to illuminate the pre-impact tectonic evolution of a terrane key to the development of the Gulf of Mexico. Sparse published ages for the Maya Block point to Mesoproterozoic, Ediacaran, Ordovician to Devonian crust are consistent with plate reconstruction models. In contrast, granitic basement recovered from the Chicxulub peak ring during Expedition 364 yielded new zircon U-Pb laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) concordant dates clustering around 334 ± 2.3 Ma. Zircon rare earth element (REE) chemistry is consistent with the granitoids having formed in a continental arc setting. Inherited zircon grains fall into three groups: 400−435 Ma, 500−635 Ma, and 940−1400 Ma, which are consistent with the incorporation of Peri-Gondwanan, Pan-African, and Grenvillian crust, respectively. Carboniferous U-Pb ages, trace element compositions, and inherited zircon grains indicate a pre-collisional continental volcanic arc located along the Maya Block’s northern margin before NW Gondwana collided with Laurentia. The existence of a continental arc along NW Gondwana suggests southward-directed subduction of Rheic oceanic crust beneath the Maya Block and is similar to evidence for a continental arc along the northern margin of Gondwana that is documented in the Suwannee terrane, Florida, USA, and Coahuila Block of NE México.

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Olatoye Adepoju ◽  
Yinusa Ayodele Asiwaju-Bello

Chemical whole-rock major oxides and some trace element analyses were done on granitic gneiss rocks located on the southeastern margin of western Nigeria Basement Complex, exposed in parts of Dagbala-Atte District, southwestern Nigeria. This was meant to classify the rocks and to understand the tectonic setting in order to evaluate their crustal evolution. The chemical analyses were done using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometer. From the results obtained, these rocks classified into calc-alkaline to shoshonite series with metaluminous to peraluminous varieties, they are I-type granitoids of feroan composition. The granitic gneisses formed from metamorphism of granite and granodiorite. Tectonically, most of the rock samples plotted in the field of island arc, continental arc and continental-collisional granitoids, which indicated that the protolith granite and granodiorite are orogenic and are arc related inferring arc tectonic setting.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongkang Yin ◽  
Pujun Wang ◽  
Youfeng Gao ◽  
Haibo Liu

<p>In the Songliao Basin, the existence of lower Mesozoic strata remains a debatable issue. Previous studies indicated the absence of Triassic to Lower and Middle Jurassic strata in northeastern China because of uplift and erosion events associated with the return of geo-synclinal folds and orogenic movement during the Late Permian–Early Jurassic. To date, geochronological studies of intrusive and metamorphic rocks in the basement of the Songliao Basin have also confirmed Carboniferous, Permian, and Late Jurassic ages for the basement formations in general. In the International Continental Scientific Drilling Project (ICDP) in the Songliao Basin, radiometric dating has been carried out for the entire drilling core of the SK-2 east borehole. As a result, we have discovered Triassic volcanic-sedimentary strata in the basement of the Songliao Basin. Laser-ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U–Pb geochronology was used in this research. Errors in individual analyses by LA-ICP-MS are given at the 1σ level, whereas errors in pooled ages are given at the 95% (2σ) confidence level. Triassic volcanic-sedimentary strata revealed by the SK-2 east borehole consist of andesitic volcanic breccias at the bottom; andesites, sandstones, and conglomerates in the middle; and andesites at the top. The total thickness of these strata is over 500 m. The formation age of the andesite at the depth of 6,031.9 m is 242.4 ± 2.1 Ma (MSWD = 0.06, n = 7). The youngest peak age of the sandstone at the depth of 6,286.2 m is 242.2 Ma. The formation age of the andesite at the depth of 6,286.2 m is 242.6 ± 1.5 Ma (MSWD = 1.02, n = 18). This study demonstrates that in the Songliao Basin, there are not only Carboniferous and Permian strata, but also a Triassic volcanic-sedimentary succession in the basement of the basin. The SK-2 drilling core reveals that this volcanic-sedimentary sequence has great thickness. These Triassic volcanic-sedimentary strata provide new clues for the study of the origin and development of the Songliao Basin. As both volcanic and sedimentary rocks can be oil and gas reservoirs, this discovery also provides a new target for oil and gas exploration deep in the Songliao Basin.</p>


Author(s):  
David M. Chew ◽  
Nicola Fallon ◽  
Christine Kennelly ◽  
Quentin Crowley ◽  
Michael Pointon

ABSTRACTThe Dalradian Supergroup contains three distinct glacigenic units, formerly termed ‘Boulder Beds’, which are correlated with widespread Neoproterozoic glaciations. The oldest and thickest unit, the Port Askaig Formation, marks the Appin–Argyll group boundary of the Dalradian Supergroup and has been correlated with the Middle Cryogenian (Sturtian) glaciation. The Auchnahyle Formation, a diamictite-bearing sequence near Tomintoul in NE Scotland, exhibits strong lithological similarities to the Port Askaig Formation. Both these glacigenic ‘Boulder Bed’ units contain abundant dolomite clasts in their lower parts and more granitic material at higher levels. Both metadiamictite units are overlain by thick shallow-marine quartzite units. C isotope data from Appin Group carbonate strata below the Auchnahyle Formation support this correlation. U–Pb laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) detrital zircon data from the Auchnahyle Formation metadiamictite differ slightly from the Port Askaig Formation, but are similar to detrital zircon spectra obtained from the Macduff Formation, a diamictite unit in the younger Southern Highland Group of the Dalradian Supergroup; both apparently reflect derivation from local basement rocks. No detritus younger than 0·9 Ga is observed, so the data do not constrain significantly the depositional age of the glacial strata. A thin tholeiitic pillow basalt unit in the lower part of the Auchnahyle Formation is geochemically distinct from pre-tectonic metadolerite sills and from basic metavolcanic rocks up-section. A Sturtian (c. 720–700 Ma) age for the Auchnahyle Formation metadiamictite would imply that this basaltic volcanism represents the oldest recorded volcanic activity in the Dalradian Supergroup and is inferred to represent an early, local phase of proto-Iapetan rifting within the Rodinian supercontinent.


2019 ◽  
Vol 131 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 1907-1919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Wang ◽  
Cai Li ◽  
Xiao-Wen Zeng ◽  
Hang Li ◽  
Jian-Jun Fan ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study presents 13 new U-Pb zircon ages obtained by laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) together with whole-rock geochemical, Sr-Nd isotopic and zircon Hf isotopic data for a mafic dike swarm in the southern Qiangtang area of Tibet. These data provide the basis for a new model of the late Paleozoic evolution of the Tethys. Combined with the results of previous zircon U-Pb dating, the magmatic zircon grains extracted from mafic dikes yield latest Carboniferous to Early Permian ages (317–279 Ma). The geochemistry of the southern Qiangtang mafic rocks indicates the presence of low-Ti (QLT) and high-Ti (QHT) suites. The magmas that formed the QLT suite underwent higher degrees of partial melting (>5%) and display evidence of crustal contamination, whereas the QHT suite was derived from magmas generated by low-degree (1%–5%) partial melting of a garnet-bearing mantle source, with a greater extent of fractional crystallization than the QLT suite, and no evidence of crustal contamination. We propose that the QHT and QLT suites may have been derived from magmas from different parts of a single mantle plume. The formation of the southern Qiangtang mafic dikes (latest Carboniferous to Early Permian; 317–279 Ma) may have been related to the northward drift of the Cimmerian continent from the northern Gondwana margin, which resulted in the opening of the Meso-Tethys Ocean.


2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (11) ◽  
pp. 1383-1404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reed S. Lewis ◽  
Jeffrey D. Vervoort ◽  
Russell F. Burmester ◽  
Peter J. Oswald

The authors analyzed detrital zircon grains from 10 metasedimentary rock samples of the Priest River complex and three other amphibolite-facies metamorphic sequences in north-central Idaho to test the previous assignment of these rocks to the Mesoproterozoic Belt–Purcell Supergroup. Zircon grains from two samples of the Prichard Formation (lower Belt) and one sample of Cambrian quartzite were also analyzed as controls with known depositional ages. U–Pb zircon analysis by laser ablation — inductively coupled plasma — mass spectrometry reveals that 6 of the 10 samples contain multiple age populations between 1900 and 1400 Ma and a scatter of older ages, similar to results reported from the Belt–Purcell Supergroup to the north and east. Results from the Priest River metamorphic complex confirm previous correlations with the Prichard Formation. Samples from the Golden and Elk City sequences have significant numbers of 1500–1380 Ma grains, which indicates that they do not predate the Belt. Rather, they are probably from a relatively young, southwestern part of the Belt Supergroup (Lemhi subbasin). Non-North American (1610–1490 Ma) grains are rare in these rocks. Three samples of quartzite from the Syringa metamorphic sequence northwest of the Idaho batholith contain zircon grains younger than the Belt Supergroup and support a Neoproterozoic age. A single Cambrian sample has abundant 1780 Ma grains and none younger than ∼1750 Ma. These results indicate that the likely protoliths of many high-grade metamorphic rocks in northern Idaho were strata of the Belt–Purcell Supergroup or overlying rocks of the Neoproterozoic Windermere Supergroup and not basement rocks.


Minerals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 388
Author(s):  
Cheng Wang ◽  
Yongjun Shao ◽  
Kuanxin Huang ◽  
Haodi Zhou ◽  
Jianguo Zhang ◽  
...  

The Xiajinbao gold deposit is located at the northern margin of the North China Craton. Hydrothermal pyrites belonging to three stages were identified: Py1; Py2; and Py3. Geochemical study of these pyrites was conducted using electron probe microanalysis and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to investigate the distributions of minor and trace elements, constrain pyrite genesis, and to obtain an improved understanding of the ore-forming processes. Py1 and Py2 contain high concentrations of Au and are interpreted to have been deposited from fluids from a dominantly magmatic source. Py3 grains have the lowest Co/Ni ratios. All generations of pyrite were deposited by mixing of meteoric waters with magmatic-hydrothermal fluids. Boiling of early ore-forming fluids led to the precipitation of Py1 and gold. Decreasing fO2 in the ore-forming system resulted in the formation of Py2 and gold. Fluid mixing was the dominant controlling factor for the precipitation of Py3 together with small amounts of gold.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley S. Hall ◽  
Holly J. Stein ◽  
Andrew R.C. Kylander-Clark ◽  
Murray W. Hitzman ◽  
Yvette D. Kuiper ◽  
...  

Abstract The ages of sedimentation and copper-silver mineralization in the late Meso- to Neoproterozoic Kalahari Copperbelt in Botswana, an economically significant copper province, have previously been poorly constrained within a ~600 m.y. period that spans the Neoproterozoic from the assembly and breakup of Rodinia to the assembly of Gondwana. Rhenium-osmium geochronology of molybdenite and copper sulfide minerals and U-Th-Pb laser ablation split-stream inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LASS ICP-MS) analysis of xenotime grains are utilized to provide absolute and relative age data on the host rocks and mineralizing events within the Ghanzi Ridge region of the Kalahari Copperbelt. The data reveal a prolonged history of events, which is partially comparable with depositional and mineralizing events in the neighboring Central African Copperbelt. Abundant disseminated molybdenite is located within a shale layer near the base of the Proterozoic D’Kar Formation at the Northeast Mango Two deposit. Unusual molybdenite textures suggest organic matter may have been a precursor. Two molybdenite separates from a small calcite-molybdenite stringer in a wall-rock fragment that is enclosed within an epigenetic quartz-calcite-chalcopyrite vein with ill-defined and mismatched margins yielded Re-Os ages of 981 ± 3 and 981 ± 7 Ma. These ages indicate an early hydrothermal mineralizing event in the basin. A xenotime inclusion intergrown with molybdenite and chalcopyrite within the epigenetic vein yielded a younger U-Th-Pb age of 538 ± 8 Ma, suggesting two mineralizing events are preserved in a complex 6-cm-wide vein. Based on vein texture and alteration, the ages represent an ~981 Ma calcite-molybdenite mineralization event overprinted by an ~538 Ma quartz-chalcopyrite-molybdenite mineralization event, perhaps during reopening of the vein. Re-Os and U-Th-Pb geochronology were utilized at the Zone 6 deposit on minerals associated with a hydrothermal quartz-calcite-chalcocite-idaite-bornite vein. Several authigenic xenotime grains that occur along the margin of the vein yielded three concordant U-Th-Pb ages that indicate xenotime growth at ~950 to 925 Ma while other xenotime grains in a similar position yielded mostly discordant data, suggesting disturbance of the isotopic system in the xenotime grains. A coprecipitated chalcocite-idaite mixture within the hydrothermal vein produced an Re-Os age of 549.0 ± 11.2 Ma. Re-Os analysis obtained from a coprecipitated molybdenite-bornite mixture at the Northeast Fold deposit yielded an age of 515.9 ± 2 Ma. Together, the earliest Neoproterozoic Re-Os molybdenite and U-Th-Pb xenotime ages provide both a minimum depositional age constraint for the lowermost D’Kar Formation and clear evidence that diagenetic hydrothermal mineralizing events took place within the Ghanzi basin. The timing of this mineralizing event corresponds with a poorly documented regional thermal event that affected the northern margin of the Kalahari craton during the final stages of the assembly of Rodinia at ~980 Ma. The lower to middle Ghanzi Group of the Kalahari Copperbelt is at least 100 m.y. older than the host rocks within the neighboring Central African Copperbelt, which are associated with the breakup of Rodinia. The latest Neoproterozoic to Cambrian Re-Os and U-Th-Pb ages indicate that hydrothermal copper-silver mineralizing events occurred during the Pan-African (~600–480 Ma) fold-thrust evolution of the Ghanzi-Chobe zone and were broadly synchronous with widespread epigenetic hydrothermal copper-cobalt mineralizing events in the adjacent Central African Copperbelt.


2017 ◽  
Vol 155 (6) ◽  
pp. 1330-1350 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN SCHMIEDER ◽  
BARRY J. SHAULIS ◽  
THOMAS J. LAPEN ◽  
DAVID A. KRING

AbstractThis work presents a systematic study of zircon and apatite in melt-bearing impactites from the annular trough of the ~180 km and ~66.04 Ma Chicxulub impact crater, Yucatán, Mexico, usingin situlaser ablation – inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, in which the petrologic context of the analysed minerals was assessed. Geochronologic U–Pb results for variably shocked zircon from the Yaxcopoil-1 core, including monocrystalline grains and neocrystallised granular aggregates, yielded a discordant array of ages representing the Early Palaeozoic age of the crystalline–metamorphic Maya block in the crater basement and the timing of the Chicxulub impact, respectively, and provide evidence for impact-induced resetting of the U–Pb system. Zircon and fluor-chlorapatite from the Yaxcopoil-1 core, and fluorapatite in clasts of impact melt from the Yucatán-6 core have low206Pb/204Pb, suggesting the presence of detectable common Pb. The Chicxulub impactites were altered in an initially hot hydrothermal system that lasted up to ~2 Myr; locally, Pb-rich sulphides precipitated. Hydrothermal conditions did not reset the U–Th–Pb systematics of relict zircon, however, due to elevated closure temperatures for Pb diffusion at the fast cooling rates associated with the crater locations of the Yucatán-6 and Yaxcopoil-1 boreholes. Thus, the zircon preserves pre-impact and impact-related ages, rather than those of the hydrothermal system. In contrast, no useful geochronologic information was obtained from relict apatite, because common Pb in these grains overwhelmed radiometrically derived isotope ratios.


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