Metamorphic mineral assemblages of slightly calcic pelitic rocks in and around the Taconic Allochthon, southwestern Massachusetts and adjacent Connecticut and New York

1981 ◽  
Author(s):  
E-an Zen
1962 ◽  
Vol S7-IV (4) ◽  
pp. 477-491
Author(s):  
Andre Michard

Abstract A Permo-Carboniferous series and a polymetamorphic series are distinguished in the rocks of the southern Cottian Alps, Italy. The metamorphic mineral assemblages and facies of the principal rock types represented in each series and their zonal distribution are discussed. Alpine metamorphism is considered to have occurred after the tectonic activity responsible for superposition of the three structural units recognized in the region between Varaita and Stura.


1980 ◽  
Vol 43 (331) ◽  
pp. 857-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Robinson ◽  
R. A. Nicholls ◽  
L. J. Thomas

SummaryIllite crystallinity determinations on Palaeozoic pelitic rocks, whose stratigraphic range runs from Lower Cambrian to Westphalian, indicate that anchimetamorphism has affected both the Lower and Upper Palaeozoic sequences. Two metamorphic episodes are in evidence, with the earlier, Caledonian, being of slightly higher grade. The higher anchizone crystallinity values are recorded from the Fishguard area in which mineral assemblages of the prehnite-pumpellyite facies have recently been recognized in basic igneous rocks. The later metamorphic episode has affected rocks to the south of the Variscan front. Here crystallinity values are low anchizone but some straddle the boundary with the diagenetic state. The Pembroke coalfield lies in this southern area and has coals largely of anthracite rank with volatile matter contents of between 10.1 and 5% Grade of metamorphism as indicated by crystallinity and by coal rank data from the Pembroke coalfield shows anomalous results to that described from the main South Wales coalfield. A neo-formed 2M illite from the Variscan spaced cleavage is described with analytical and X-ray diffraction data.


1985 ◽  
Vol 49 (352) ◽  
pp. 365-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Primmer

AbstractThe north coast of Cornwall, from Bude to Newquay, provides a continuous section through a major Variscan fold/thrust complex. Illite crystallinity studies have revealed a transition from diagenesis in the north to greenschist facies metamorphism in the south in the Upper Palaeozoic succession. More detailed studies of mineral assemblages in both metabasites and pelitic rocks support the regional pattern of metamorphism indicated by illite crystallinity, and show that locally in the Tintagel district, the grade of metamorphism may have reached middle to upper greenschist facies. An attempt to correlate the above data with temperatures (108–985°C) derived from O-isotope geothermometers is made. Interpretation of the metamorphic data presented helps to emphasize the tectonic importance of the major structures seen in the fold/thrust complex.


The stratigraphic units, structural elements and metamorphic mineral assemblages of a regional metamorphic culmination in the 1.9 Ga Wopmay Orogen are exposed over greater than 30 km of composite structural depth, in a series of oblique sections produced by cross folding. Regional metamorphism developed continuously in three sequential, rapidly changing thermo-tectonic régimes within an evolving continental magmatic arc. At ca . 1900 Ma, stretching of intra-arc crust resulted in the accumulation of clastic sediment and bimodal volcanic rift-fill deposits. The onset (first stage) of regional metamorphism is marked by high- T low P mineral assemblages, condensed metamorphic zonal sequences and extensive areas of high-grade gneisses devoid of associated plutons. These features are interpreted in terms of a high thermal gradient related to stretching and thinning of the continental lithosphere. Five to ten million years after stretching, following deposition of a west-facing sedimentary prism, a suite of 1896—1878 Ma plutons was emplaced into the rift and margin deposits as they underwent subhorizontal shortening and deformation during the Calderian Orogeny. Thrusted and folded syn-orogenic foredeep deposits are also intruded by the syn-tectonic plutons. At high and intermediate structural levels, syn-tectonic metamorphic mineral growth and metamorphic zonal sequences which are spatially related to the plutons, document heat advection into the deforming marginal prism and mark a second stage of regional metamorphism related to the emplacement of the plutonic bodies. Inverted mineral isograds in autochthonous Proterozoic units beneath a basal décollement record downward thermal relaxation of isotherms following east-directed Calderian transport of the deformed, thickened, and still hot marginal prism over a relatively cold basement. Derivation of multi-point P - T trajectories from post-tectonic, poikiloblastic garnets charts metamorphic mineral growth during uplift and erosion of the internal zone, documenting the third (final) stage of regional metamorphism in Wopmay Orogen. The short erosional time interval (less than 11 Ma) between tectonic thickening and the end of uplift constrains the heat required for this last metamorphic stage to be inherited from the two preceding thermo-tectonic régimes: epicontinental stretching and the emplacement of the syn-tectonic plutonic suite.


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