The greenschist facies of an Archean assemblage near Wawa, Ontario

1983 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1409-1420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Studemeister

A stock of trondhjemite intrudes an Archean succession metamorphosed to the greenschist facies at Gutcher Lake, 30 km north of Wawa in Ontario. The stock is 4 km2 in plan and is partly enveloped by an aureole of epidote–amphibole hornfels up to 1 km wide. Within this aureole chlorite partly replaces biotite; chlorite, calcite, and quartz mantle hornblende and epidote; zoned amphibole has a rim of actinolite; and albite varies from 0 to 8% An. The stock has chlorite pseudomorphous after biotite, and feldspar is mottled by white mica and has a clear rim of albite. Fractures filled with quartz, calcite, ankerite, white mica, chlorite, pyrite, and native gold cross-cut the stock and its aureole. Wall rocks to these veins were modified by hydrothermal alteration with addition of Si, Fe, K, H2O + CO2, S, and Rb, leaching of Na, and a shift in Fe2+/Fet from ~0.66 to ~0.90. Primary inclusions in the vein quartz have a solution with a CO2 gas bubble that homogenizes into the liquid at around 300 °C.Initial contact metamorphism of volcanic rocks at T = 450–550 °C and P < 200 MPa (2 kbar) formed an aureole of epidote–hornblende hornfels near the stock. Subsequent regional metamorphism during the Archean at T = 325–450 °C and P = 200–300 MPa (2–3 kbar) retrograded the stock and its contact aureole to a lower greenschist assemblage. The retrogression involved hydration and CO2 fixation in hornfels and trondhjemite by a hot reducing fluid of low salinity. This metamorphic fluid precipitated native gold with quartz and pyrite along fractures in response to cooling and chemical reaction with wall rocks.

1979 ◽  
Vol 43 (326) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Verma

SummaryThe Lower Cambrian Weymouth Formation at Nahant, Massachusetts, consisting of interbedded pelitic and calcareous rocks, was intruded by the Nahant Gabbro. The predominant metapelitic mineral assemblage of the contact aureole is quartz-muscovite-chlorite-magnetite-ilmenite. The calcareous hornfelses exhibit a varied mineral assemblage, and in some cases the variation can be spatially related to the intrusive. A number of cross-cutting thin mineral veins, many containing prehnite, are characteristically associated with these calcsilicate rocks.The minerals have been analysed by electron microprobe and this work indicates the presence of a possible solvus in the Fe3+-Al epidote solid solution series. At the physicochemical conditions of the formation of the Nahant hornfelses, the ferric mole fractions of coexisting epidotes are 0.49 and 0.98.Comparison with experimental work shows that the conditions of the contact metamorphism were T ≃ 500°C, Ptotal ≃ 2 kb, and XCO2 ≃ 0.2. However, the present assemblages are the result of a later low-grade regional metamorphism, the ultimate product of which was prehnite.


1966 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 959-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. C. Taylor ◽  
E. A. Schiller

The Meguma group of lithic greywacke, feldspathic quartzite, slate siltstone, and argillite is Early Ordovician or older in age and has undergone both regional and contact metamorphism. Both types of metamorphism have resulted in recrystallization and locally in orientation of newly formed minerals. Metasomatism and retrogressive metamorphism are subordinate and only locally important. Regionally metamorphosed rocks are divided into greenschist and almandine–amphibolite facies, although some assemblages cannot be assigned with certainty. Locally, biotite and garnet isograds are mappable within the greenschist zone.Relationships between regional metamorphism and structural elements (folding) show that deformation preceded regional metamorphism. Intrusion of granitic rocks has produced a zone of contact metamorphism (hornblende–hornfels facies) that is superimposed upon regional greenschist facies rocks, which shows that granite emplacement occurred after the regional grade was reached. Gold–quartz veins are confined to areas lying in the greenschist zone of regional metamorphism, which suggests that the almandine–amphibolite zone is not favorable.


2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 1165-1178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nabil A. Shawwa ◽  
Robert P. Raeside ◽  
David W.A. McMullin ◽  
Christopher R.M. McFarlane

At Kellys Mountain, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, the late Neoproterozoic Glen Tosh formation (a low-grade metapsammite–metapelite unit of the George River Metamorphic Suite) has been intruded by diorite, granodiorite, and granite plutons, and the diorite hosts a narrow contact metamorphic aureole. New mapping and sampling in the contact aureole reveals that the metasedimentary rocks have reached amphibolite-facies metamorphism resulting in the development of neoformed biotite, muscovite, cordierite, ilmenite, garnet, andalusite, sillimanite, monazite, and spinel within the meta-pelite, a mineral assemblage also found in the Kellys Mountain Gneiss as a result of low-pressure regional metamorphism. Neoformed minerals and the disappearance of foliation defines a contact metamorphic aureole within 300 m of the pluton contacts. Petrographic and microprobe analyses of equilibrium assemblages in metapelitic units of the contact aureole yielded metamorphic pressures of 250 MPa, implying an intrusion depth of ∼9 km, with temperatures ranging from 365 to 590 °C. The presence of earlier-formed andalusite and garnet indicates the rocks may have initially undergone a low-pressure regional metamorphic event prior to contact metamorphism. Monazite in the contact aureole was dated using in-situ U–Pb methods and yielded an age of 480.9 ± 3.7 Ma, interpreted as the time of formation of the contact metamorphic aureole.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irakli Javakhishvili ◽  
David Shengelia ◽  
Tamara Tsutsunava ◽  
Giorgi Chichinadze ◽  
Giorgi Beridze ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;The Dizi Series is exposed within the Southern slope zone of the Greater Caucasus that occurs as a complex geological structure, which constitutes an integral part of the Mediterranean (Alpine-Himalayan) collisional orogenic belt. It is built up of terrigenous and volcanogenic-sedimentary rocks faunistically dated from the Devonian to Triassic inclusive (Somin, 1971; Somin, Belov, 1976; Kutelia 1983). Most of them are metamorphosed under conditions of chlorite-sericite subfacies of the greenschist facies of regional metamorphism (chlorite-phengite-albite&amp;#177;quartz, graphite-sericite-quartz phyllites and marbleized limestones), and only a minor part represented by clay-carbonaceous, phengite-chlorite-carbonaceous and prehnite-chlorite-carbonate schists underwent anchimetamorphism (Shengelia et al., 2015). The Dizi Series is intruded by numerous magmatic bodies of gabbro-diabases, diabases, diorites, diorite-porphyries, syenites, monzo-syenites and granitoids. The age of the intrusions was defined by K-Ar method at 176-165 Ma (Dudauri, Togonidze, 1998) and by U-Pb LA-ICP-MS zircon dating at 166.5 &amp;#177; 4.6 Ma (authors` unpublished data) and corresponds to the Bathonian orogeny. The Middle Jurassic intrusions caused intense contact metamorphism of the rocks of the Dizi Series resulted in the formation of various hornfelses containing andalusite, cordierite, corundum, biotite, plagioclase, potassium feldspar, clinozoisite, hornblende, cummingtonite, clinopyroxene, wollastonite and scapolite. These rocks correspond to albite-epidote-hornfels, andalusite-biotite-muscovite-chlorite-hornfels and andalusite-biotite-muscovite-hornfels subfacies of the contact metamorphism (Javakhishvili et al., 2020). The analogues of the Dizi Series rocks have not previously been established either in the Greater Caucasus or in the neighboring regions. In our view, Paleozoic rocks similar to the Dizi Series occur under the Cretaceous and Jurassic deposits within the folded basement of the plain Crimea where they were recovered by wells. Most of these rocks, as in the Dizi Series, underwent metamorphism of chlorite subfacies of the greenschist facies and, to a lesser extent, deep epigenesis (clayey-carbonaceous, sericite-carbonaceous, actinolite-chlorite-prehnite, muscovite-albite-chlorite, epidote-actinolite-chlorite and graphite-talc-quartz schists) (Chernyak, 1969). These rocks are also intruded by Middle Jurassic igneous rocks, including gabbro-diabases, diabases, diorites, syenites, monzo-syenites, granite-porphyries, etc. (Shniukova, 2016; Shumlyanskyy, 2019). As a result of the contact metamorphism of the basement rocks, muscovite-quartz-cordierite and cordierite-quartz-feldspar micaceous hornfelses were formed. Quartz syenite yielded a K-Ar age of 158 Ma (Scherbak, 1981), while monzo-syenite was dated at 170 &amp;#177; 5 Ma applying 40Ar/39Ar method (Meijers, 2010). Thus, based on the rock associations, the nature of metamorphism, the age of the metamorphic and igneous rocks, and on the spatial position of the Dizi Series and folded basement of the plain Crimea we assume that these units developed coevally in similar environment and geological conditions.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Acknowledgements.This work was supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation (SRNSF) [PHDF-19-159, Regional and Contact Metamorphism of the Dizi Series].&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 987-1005
Author(s):  
A.Yu. Selyatitskii ◽  
O.P. Polyansky ◽  
R.A. Shelepaev

Abstract —Thermal metamorphism produced an aureole near the early Paleozoic Bayan-Kol gabbro–monzodiorite intrusion in the Erzin shear zone of western Sangilen (Tuva–Mongolia microcontinent, Central Asian Orogenic Belt). Field observation of intrusive contact, structure–textural and mineral transformations of metamorphic rocks, regular changes in the chemical composition of minerals with approaching the intrusive contact, and high temperature gradient from intrusive to wallrocks verified the occurrence of a contact aureole near the Bayan-Kol intrusion. The high-gradient thermal metamorphism (M2) affected garnet–staurolite–kyanite schists that formed during earlier regional metamorphism (M1) at 6.2–7.9 kbar and 600–670 ºC. The 0.5 km wide M2 metamorphic aureole mapped along the northwestern intrusion margin consists of a muscovite–sillimanite zone adjacent to the sedimentary country rocks and a cordierite–K-feldspar zone on the side of the intrusion. The M2 metamorphic reactions occurred within the granulite facies temperature range 880–910 ºC along the contact with monzodiorites and at ~950 ºC along the boundary with gabbronorites; the temperature on the aureole periphery was about 640 ºC. Pressure estimates indicate deep-seated high-grade metamorphism at 6.9–7.8 kbar, while the intrusion itself crystallized at 7.7–7.8 kbar. The suggested numerical model implying the formation of a thermal aureole at a depth of 26 km (7 kbar) in the lower crust is consistent with the temperature pattern determined by geothermobarometry for several key points of the metamorphic zoning and confirms its deep-level origin. Thus, the aureole near the Bayan-Kol intrusion represents a rare case of contact metamorphism in the lower continental crust. The obtained results, along with published petrological and geochronological evidence, reveal two depth levels of the early Paleozoic M2 metamorphism in the Sangilen area: upper (7–15 km, 2–4 kbar) and lower (26–30 km, 7–8 kbar) crust. The Bayan-Kol gabbro–monzodiorite intrusion is likely a small apophysis or a fragment of a deep-crust intermediate magma chamber, while the moderate-pressure (7–8 kbar) M2 granulites in the Erzin shear zone are products of high-gradient metamorphism related to the Cambrian–Ordovician collisional mafic magmatism in the Sangilen area.


2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 1413-1437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Tettelaar ◽  
Aphrodite Indares

The Tasiuyak paragneiss at the western margin of the Nain Plutonic Suite has been subjected to two granulite-facies metamorphic events: (i) regional metamorphism during the Paleoproterozoic Torngat orogeny, and (ii) contact metamorphism due to emplacement of the Mesoproterozoic Nain Plutonic Suite. Regional metamorphism led to partial melting of pelitic rocks and the development of a locally well-preserved sequence of prograde and retrograde textures. These textures are partly controlled by bulk composition and formed in the pressure–temperature (P–T) field of the continuous reaction: biotite + sillimanite + plagioclase + quartz  = garnet + K-feldspar + melt, along a hairpin P–T path with peak conditions of ~8–10 kbar (0.8–1.0 GPa) and up to 870 °C in the NaKFMASH (Na2O–K2O–FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O) system. These textures controlled the development of the contact metamorphic assemblages. Contact metamorphism of the pelitic rocks between the Tessiarsuyungoakh intrusion and the Makhavinekh Lake pluton led to growth of orthopyroxene-cordierite symplectite after garnet–biotite, and cordierite–spinel symplectite after garnet–sillimanite. These phase associations attest to reactions in specific microtextural settings, some of which produced a second generation of partial melt. Maximum temperatures were above ~750 °C and pressures were lower than those of the regional metamorphism. The aureole around the Makhavinekh Lake pluton is ~4 km wide and shows a progressive development of the contact metamorphic assemblages toward the pluton. In contrast, the contact metamorphic overprint is incipient around the Tessiarsuyungoakh intrusion, which developed a ~20 m wide contact aureole and is most prominent in screens of paragneiss within that intrusion.


2002 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 941-951 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Ings ◽  
J. V. Owen

Abstract Reaction textures including corona structures in granulites from the Proterozoic Long Range Inlier of western Newfoundland are spatially associated with a Silurian (0.34 Ga) mafic intrusion, the Taylor Brook Gabbro Complex. They comprise, in metabasites and tonalitic gneiss, coronal orthopyroxene and plagioclase on garnet and, in metapelites, cordierite and spinel formed at the expense of sillimanite, garnet and quartz. Although generally interpreted to indicate near-isothermal decompression (ITD) following regional metamorphism, which in the inlier occurred at ˜1.10–1.03 Ga, these features appear to be absent elsewhere. Therefore they are interpreted to be products of contact metamorphism (near-isobaric heating – IBH) within the thermal aureole of the gabbro. Thus, there is a ˜0.7 Ga difference (i.e. mid-Proterozoic vs. mid-Silurian) between the age of the regional metamorphic mineral assemblages and the contact aureole assemblages. The observation that classic ITD features occur in this aureole environment underscores the fact that P-sensitive reactions can progress during IBH as well as by pressure release.


2003 ◽  
Vol 140 (5) ◽  
pp. 595-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOCHEN E. MEZGER ◽  
CEES W. PASSCHIER

The Bossòst dome is an E–W-trending elongated structural and metamorphic dome developed in Cambro-Ordovician metasedimentary rocks in the Variscan Axial Zone of the central Pyrenees. A steep fault separates a northern half-dome, cored by massif granite, from an E–W-trending doubly plunging antiform with granitic sills and dykes in the core to the south. The main foliation is a flat-lying S1/2 schistosity that grades into a steeper-dipping slaty cleavage at the dome margins. Three major deformational and two metamorphic phases can be differentiated. S1/2 schistosity is an axial planar cleavage to W-vergent recumbent folding that probably occurred in mid-Westphalian time. Peak regional metamorphism M1 is characterized by static growth of staurolite and garnet following thermal relaxation of the previously thickened crust. Strong non-coaxial deformation recording uniform top-to-the-SE extension during D2a is preserved in staurolite–garnet schists in a 1.5 km thick, shallowly SE-dipping zone in the southeastern dome. A 500 m thick contact aureole (M2) was imprinted on the regionally metamorphosed rocks following the intrusion the Bossòst granite during D2b. More coaxial deformation prevailed during synkinematic growth of M2 phases in the inner part of the contact aureole around the northern part of the dome, where it obliterated D2a fabrics. Progressive non-coaxial deformation continued in the southeastern antiform and is recorded by late-synkinematic growth of cordierite. Successive overprinting of the M1 staurolite–garnet assemblage by andalusite and cordierite of M2 is preserved in the southern part. The assemblage muscovite+cordierite+staurolite+biotite is considered metastable, given the low Mn and Zn contents of staurolite and cordierite, and interpreted as the result of prograde metamorphism during decompression. P–T conditions during M2 were approximately 3 kbar and 600 °C. Pervasive crenulations and mesoscopic to regional southerly verging folds are the result of D3 NNE–SSW compression post-dating ductile deformation and contact metamorphism. Polymetamorphic assemblages of the Bossòst dome preserve a regionally confined zone of ESE-directed extensional shearing within an overall N–S compressional setting. Exact timing of extensional shearing is not known, but can be constrained by recumbent folding during the mid-Westphalian and granitic intrusions, which confine it to Late Carboniferous time (c. 305 Ma). Crustal-scale flat-lying extensional shear zones with similar orientation and time frame are observed in the Hospitalêt massif of the eastern Axial Zone. This suggests that crustal extension, though probably restricted by regional strain partitioning over orthogneiss or intruding granitic bodies within an overall compressive setting, was not uncommon in Late Carboniferous time in the Axial Zone of the Pyrenees.


1990 ◽  
Vol 54 (375) ◽  
pp. 219-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Wilkinson

AbstractVeins developed during contact metamorphism associated with the emplacement of the Cornubian granite batholith contain both H2O-rich and CO2-rich fluid inclusions. Microthermometric data indicate that unmixing of a low-CO2, low-salinity fluid occurred at 400–200°C and 1000–500 bars to produce low-density CO2-rich vapour and saline aqueous fluids (8–42 wt. % NaCl equivalent). Decrepitation-linked ICP analyses show that the cation composition of the brines is dominated by Na, K and Ca, but that significant amounts of Li, Sr, Ba, Fe, Mn, Zn and B are also present. Bulk volatile analyses confirm the dominance of CO2 over N2 and CH4 in the vapour phase, with CO2/N2 molar ratios of 15.3–28.7 and CO2/CH4 molar ratios of 66.9–292. The relative abundance of nitrogen suggests an aureole-derived ‘organic’ component is present.The source of the fluids is ambiguous as they are intermediate in composition between ideal ‘magmatic’ and ‘metamorphic’ end-members. It is proposed that this is due to mixing of the two types of fluid in the contact aureole during granite intrusion. A model is suggested in which magmatic-metamorphic circulation occurred synchronously with granite emplacement and subsequently evolved to a meteoric-dominated system with the bulk of the ore deposits forming in response to the influx of meteoric fluids.


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