Metamorphism and geochronology of high-pressure mafic granulites (retrograded eclogites?) in East Cathaysia terrane of South China: Implications for Mesozoic tectonic evolution

Author(s):  
Yanfei Xia ◽  
Changqing Yin ◽  
Shoufa Lin ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Jiahui Qian ◽  
...  

High-pressure mafic granulites (retrograded eclogites?) were discovered as minor lenses enclosed in garnet-kyanite-cordierite gneiss from the Badu Complex of the East Cathaysia terrane in South China. These rocks consist mainly of garnet, clinopyroxene, hornblende, quartz, and rutile/ilmenite with or without omphacite pseudomorphs that are indicated by clinopyroxene + sodic plagioclase symplectic intergrowths. Mineral textures and reaction relationships suggest three metamorphic stages: (1) an eclogite-facies stage (M1) characterized by the mineral assemblage of garnet + clinopyroxene (omphacite) + hornblende + rutile + quartz; (2) a high-pressure granulite-facies (M2) stage mainly represented by garnet + clinopyroxene + plagioclase + hornblende + rutile + quartz in the matrix; and (3) an amphibolite retrograde stage (M3) defined by hornblende + plagioclase + ilmenite + quartz symplectites surrounding garnet porphyroblasts. Conventional geothermometers and geobarometers in combination with phase equilibria modeling constrain metamorphic P−T conditions of 15.8−18.2 kbar/625−690 °C (M1), 11.8−14.5 kbar/788−806 °C (M2), and 5.4−6.4 kbar/613−668 °C (M3), respectively. Two-staged decompression processes are defined after the peak pressure, which suggests a two-staged exhumation of these deeply buried rocks. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) zircon U-Pb dating and trace element analysis show that the high-pressure metamorphism occurred at 240−244 Ma. Complete early Mesozoic orogenic processes characterized by initial subduction and/or crustal thickening and subsequent exhumation followed by rapid uplift are reconstructed for this part of the East Cathaysia terrane, South China.

2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
pp. 1169-1187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane A Gilotti ◽  
Synnøve Elvevold

The Payer Land gneiss complex is unique among the mostly amphibolite-facies, mid-crustal gneiss complexes in the East Greenland Caledonides due to its well-preserved, regional high-pressure (HP) granulite-facies metamorphism. High-pressure – high-temperature (HP–HT) assemblages are recognized in mafic, ultramafic, granitic, and metasedimentary lithologies. Anatectic metapelites contain the assemblage garnet + kyanite + K-feldspar + antiperthite (exsolved ternary feldspar) + quartz ± biotite ± rutile and record approximately the same peak metamorphic conditions (pressure (P) = 1.4–1.5 GPa, temperature (T) = 800–850°C) as those of the neighboring mafic HP granulites. The HP granulite-facies metamorphism is Caledonian based on in situ U–Th–Pb electron microprobe dating of monazite from two samples of the aluminous paragneiss. The monazites are found along garnet–kyanite phase boundaries, as inclusions in garnet and kyanite, and within small leucocratic melt pods (K-feldspar + plagioclase + kyanite ± garnet) within the HP–HT paragneisses. Mylonitic equivalents of the metapelites contain a detrital monazite age signature that suggests the Payer Land paragneisses correlate with other Mesoproterozoic metasedimentary sequences in the area. The gneisses form a metamorphic core complex that is separated from the overlying low-grade sedimentary rocks of the Neoproterozoic Eleonore Bay Supergroup by an extensional detachment. This newly recognized Payer Land detachment is part of a system of prominent extensional faults located in the southern half of the Greenland Caledonides (i.e., south of 76°N). The HP granulites preserve the deepest level of crust exposed in this southern segment of the orogen and attest to significant crustal thickening.


2016 ◽  
Vol 154 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. ENGVIK ◽  
B. BINGEN

AbstractGranulite-facies metamorphism recorded in NE Mozambique is attributed to three main tectonothermal events, covering more than 1400 Ma from Palaeoproterozoic – early Palaeozoic time. (1) Usagaran–Ubendian high-grade metamorphism of Palaeoproterozoic age is documented in the Ponta Messuli Complex by Grt-Sil-Crd-bearing metapelites, estimated to pressure (P) 0.75 ± 0.08 GPa and temperature (T) 765 ± 96°C. The post-peak P-T path is characterized by decompression followed by near-isobaric cooling. (2) Irumidian medium- to high-pressure granulite-facies metamorphism is evident in the Unango and Marrupa complexes of late Mesoproterozoic – early Neoproterozoic age. High-pressure granulite-facies is documented by Grt-Cpx-Pl-Rt-bearing mafic granulites in the northwestern part of the Unango Complex, with peak conditions up to P = 1.5 GPa and T = 850°C. Medium-pressure granulite-facies conditions recording P of c. 1.15 GPa and T of 875°C are documented by Grt-Opx-Cpx-Pl assemblage in mafic granulites and charnockitic gneisses of the central part of the Unango Complex. (3) Tectonothermal activity during the Ediacaran–Cambrian Kuunga Orogeny is recorded in the Mesoproterozoic gneiss complexes as amphibolite facies to medium-pressure granulite-facies metamorphism. Granulite facies are documented by Grt-Opx-Cpx-Pl-bearing mafic granulites and charnockitic gneisses, reporting P = 0.99 ± 13 GPa at T = 738 ± 84°C in the Unango Complex and P = 0.92 ± 18 GPa at T = 841 ± 135°C in the Marrupa Complex. This metamorphism is attributed to crustal thickening related to overriding of the Cabo Delgado Nappe Complex, and shorthening along the Lurio Belt during the early Palaeozoic Kuunga Orogeny.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-63
Author(s):  
Milena Georgirva ◽  
Tzvetomila Vladinova

Garnet–clinopyroxene–K-feldspar granulite occurs as a thick layer or boudin within the variegated rocks of the Chepelare shear zone in the Central Rhodope massif, Bulgaria. It consists of several domains: mesocratic homogeneous matrix (clinopyroxene–plagioclase–K-feldspar–quartz ± amphibole), porphyroblastic garnet, K-feldspar and clinopyroxene, and strongly foliated fine-grain bands (chloritized biotite–chlorite–prehnite–albite ± epidote). The origin and nature of the matrix mineral association is still unclear. The peak porphyroblast association forms at the expense of plagioclase from the matrix at higher pressure. The fine-grain deformation zones channel the lattermost fluid infiltration. The clinopyroxene-garnet and Zr-in-titanite thermometry give temperatures higher than 790–860 ºC at 2 GPa and, with thermodynamic modeling, suggests crystallization at ~1.8–2.1 GPa and temperature of ~850 ºC in HP granulite field for the porphyroblast granulite association.


2019 ◽  
Vol 104 (10) ◽  
pp. 1503-1520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Marger ◽  
Cindy Luisier ◽  
Lukas P. Baumgartner ◽  
Benita Putlitz ◽  
Barbara L. Dutrow ◽  
...  

Abstract A series of tourmaline reference materials are developed for in situ oxygen isotope analysis by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), which allow study of the tourmaline compositions found in most igneous and metamorphic rocks. The new reference material was applied to measure oxygen isotope composition of tourmaline from metagranite, meta-leucogranite, and whiteschist from the Monte Rosa nappe (Western Alps). The protolith and genesis of whiteschist are highly debated in the literature. Whiteschists occur as 10 to 50 m tube-like bodies within the Permian Monte Rosa granite. They consist of chloritoid, talc, phengite, and quartz, with local kyanite, garnet, tourmaline, and carbonates. Whiteschist tourmaline is characterized by an igneous core and a dravitic overgrowth (XMg > 0.9). The core reveals similar chemical composition and zonation as meta-leucogranitic tourmaline (XMg = 0.25, δ18O = 11.3–11.5‰), proving their common origin. Dravitic overgrowths in whiteschists have lower oxygen isotope compositions (8.9–9.5‰). Tourmaline in metagranite is an intermediate schorl-dravite with XMg of 0.50. Oxygen isotope data reveal homogeneous composition for metagranite and meta-leucogranite tourmalines of 10.4–11.3‰ and 11.0–11.9‰, respectively. Quartz inclusions in both meta-igneous rocks show the same oxygen isotopic composition as the quartz in the matrix (13.6–13.9‰). In whiteschist the oxygen isotope composition of quartz included in tourmaline cores lost their igneous signature, having the same values as quartz in the matrix (11.4–11.7‰). A network of small fractures filled with dravitic tourmaline can be observed in the igneous core and suggested to serve as a connection between included quartz and matrix, and lead to recrystallization of the inclusion. In contrast, the igneous core of the whiteschist tourmaline fully retained its magmatic oxygen isotope signature, indicating oxygen diffusion is extremely slow in tourmaline. Tourmaline included in high-pressure chloritoid shows the characteristic dravitic overgrowth, demonstrating that chloritoid grew after the metasomatism responsible for the whiteschist formation, but continued to grow during the Alpine metamorphism. Our data on tourmaline and quartz show that tourmaline-bearing white-schists originated from the related meta-leucogranites, which were locally altered by late magmatic hydrothermal fluids prior to Alpine high-pressure metamorphism.


2014 ◽  
Vol 151 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Aoki ◽  
B. F. Windley ◽  
S. Maruyama ◽  
S. Omori

K. Aoki, B. F. Windley, S. Maruyama & S. Omori reply: First, we thank Viete, Oliver & Wilde for their interesting and thought-provoking comments on the timing of the high-pressure granulite facies (HGR) metamorphism recorded in metamorphic rocks at Cairn Leuchan, Scotland, published by Aoki et al. (2013). Based on new metamorphic data of garnetites and garnet-amphibolites at Cairn Leuchan and new zircon U–Pb ages of amphibolitized eclogite at Tomatin, we suggested in our publication that the HGR metamorphism was retrograde after eclogite facies before the c. 470 Ma ‘Barrovian metamorphism’. Viete, Oliver & Wilde however speculate that the HGR metamorphism at Cairn Leuchan may have occurred at c. 1000 Ma, as a result of their new U–Pb zircon age of the Cowhythe Gneiss at Portsoy and from previous studies of the geological structure and geochronology. We are grateful for this opportunity to describe, albeit in a preliminary manner, our new understanding and tectonic model of the Caledonian orogen in Scotland and western Ireland of which the Barrovian metamorphism is a key component. A reply to a comment is not the correct place to propose an entirely new paradigm for such a classic orogen, but we will present our model more fully in a future publication.


1999 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. O’Brien

AbstractDetailed electron-microprobe line profiles and small-area compositional maps of zoned garnets in a sample of high-pressure-high-temperature granulite show features inconsistent with commonly applied diffusion models. Larger grains of an early garnet generation have their highest Ca contents in domains away from the rim or inclusions but show a sharp fall in Ca balanced by increased Mg and Fe (and slightly higher XMg) towards inclusions and the rim. In domains with secondary biotite, the sharp decrease in Ca is accompanied by variations in XMg dependent upon proximity to biotite, thus producing one-sided, asymmetric profiles with XMg lower against biotite. As a consequence, rim compositions of the same grain are different on the sides adjacent and away from biotite and there is no relationship between grain size and rim XMg. Such a zoning pattern requires that grain-boundary diffusion is as slow as volume diffusion and implies the absence of a diffusion-enhancing grain-boundary fluid phase during the majority of the rock's high-temperature exhumation history. Diffusion models ignoring this probability could yield either cooling rates that were too fast, or extrapolated ages based on closure temperature models that were too old.A second garnet generation in the same rock, grown in a Ca-rich domain resulting from kyanite breakdown, has irregularly distributed patches, identified by compositional mapping, containing higher Ca than the first-formed garnet but at lower XMg. Use of such garnet compositions for geothermobarometrical determination of the high-pressure granulite stage would clearly lead to erroneous results. The presence of such contrasting garnet compositions in a granulite-facies rock is clearly evidence of disequilibrium, and further supports the proposition that there was a lack of an effective transport medium even at the mm scale.


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