Thermobarometric constraints on pressure variations across the Plattengneiss shear zone of the Eastern Alps: implications for exhumation models during Eoalpine subduction

Forward and inverse mineral equilibria modelling of metapelitic rocks in the hangingwall and footwall of the Plattengneiss, a major shear zone in the Eastern Alps, is used to constrain their tectonometamorphic evolution and assess models for their exhumation. Forward (pseudosection) modelling of two metapelitic rocks suggests a steep clockwise P–T path with a near‐isothermal decompression segment from a pressure peak at ~18–19 kbar and 670 °C to the metamorphic peak at 680–720 °C and 11–13 kbar. A subsequent decrease to 600–645 °C and 8–9 kbar is inferred from the late growth of staurolite in some samples. Conventional thermobarometric calculations (inverse modelling) on 18 samples with the inferred peak assemblage garnet + plagioclase + muscovite + biotite + quartz + rutile ± ilmenite ± kyanite are associated with large 2σ uncertainties, and absolute pressures calculated for all samples are statistically indistinguishable. However, calculations constraining relative pressure differences (ΔP) between samples sharing a common mineral assemblage are associated with much smaller uncertainties and yield pressure differences that are statistically meaningful. Although the overall pattern is complicated, the results suggest a pressure gradient of up to 3 kbar across the shear zone that is consistent with volume loss and a model of exhumation related to slab extraction for the Plattengneiss shear zone.     

Alpine metamorphism in the south-east Tauern Window, Austria: 1. P–T variations in space and time

Abstract The Pennine rocks exposed in the south-east Tauern Window, Austria, contain mineral assemblages which crystallized in the mid-Tertiary ‘late Alpine’regional metamorphism. The pressure and temperature conditions at the thermal peak of this event have been estimated for rocks at four different structural levels using a variety of published and thermochemically derived geobarometers and geothermometers. The results are: (a) In the garnet+chlorite zone, 2–5 km structurally above the staurolite+biotite isograd: T= 490.50°C, P= 7° 1 kbar; (b) Within 0.5 km of the staurolite+biotite isograd: T= 560±300C, P=7.1 kbar; (c) In the staurolite+biotite zone, c. 2.5 km structurally below the staurolite+biotite isograd: T= 610±30°C, P=7.6±1.2 kbar; (d) In the staurolite+biotite zone, 3–4 km structurally below the staurolite+biotite isograd: T= 630±40°C, P= 6.6±1.2 kbar. The pressure estimates imply that the total thickness of overburden above the basement-cover interface in the mid-Tertiary was c. 26.4 km. This overburden can only be accounted for by the Austro-Alpine units currently exposed in the vicinity of the Tauern Window, if the Altkristallin (the ‘Middle Austro-Alpine’nappe) was itself buried beneath an ‘Upper Austro-Alpine’nappe or nappe-pile which was 7.4 km thick at that time. The occurrence of epidote + margarite + quartz pseudomorphs after lawsonite in garnet, indicates that part of the Mesozoic Pennine cover sequence in the south-east Tauern experienced blueschist-facies conditions (T<450°C, P<12 kbar) in early Alpine times. Evidence from the central Tauern is used to argue that the blueschist-facies imprint post-dated the main phase of tectonic thickening (D¹_A) and was thus a direct consequence of continental collision. Combined oxygen-isotope and fluid-inclusion studies on late-stage veins, thought to have been at lithostatic pressure and in thermal equilibrium with their host rocks during formation, suggest that they crystallized from aqueous fluids at 1.1±0.4 kbar and 420.20°C. Early Alpine, late Alpine and vein-formation P–T constraints have been used to construct a P–T path for the base of the Mesozoic cover sequence in the south-east Tauern Window. The prograde part of the P–T path, between early and late Alpine metamorphic imprints, is unlikely to have been a smooth curve and may well have had a low dP/dT overall; the decompression (presumably due to erosion) which occurred immediately before the thermal peak and possibly also earlier in the Tertiary, was probably partly or completely cancelled by the effects of early- to mid-Tertiary (D²_A) tectonic thickening. The thermal peak of metamorphism was followed by a phase of almost isothermal decompression, which implies a period of rapid uplift in the middle Tertiary. The peak metamorphic P–T estimates are compared with the solutions of England's (1978) one-dimensional conductive thermal model of the Eastern Alps, and are shown to be consistent with the idea that the late Alpine metamorphism was caused by tectonic burial of the Pennine Zone beneath the Austro-Alpine nappes in the absence of extraneous heat sources, such as large intrusions, at depth.     

Metamorphic P–T Paths from pelitic schists and greenstones from the south-west Tauern Window, Eastern Alps

Abstract Petrological data from intercalated pelitic schists and greenstones are used to construct a pressure–temperature path followed by the Upper Schieferhülle (USH) series during progressive metamorphism and uplift in the south-west Tauern Window, Italy. Pseudomorphs of Al–epidote + Fe-epidote + albite + oligoclase + chlorite after lawsonite and data on amphibole crystal chemistry indicate early metamorphism in the lawsonite-albite-chlorite subfacies of the blueschist facies at P ± 7–8 kbar. Geothermometry and geobarometry yield conditions of final equilibration of the matrix assemblage of 475±25°C, 5–6 kbar; calculations with plagioclase and phengite inclusions in garnet indicate early garnet growth at pressures of ∼ 7.5 kbar. Garnet zoning patterns are complex and reversals in zoning can be correlated between samples. Thermodynamic modelling of these zoning profiles implies garnet growth in response to four distinct phases of tectonic activity. Fluid inclusion data from coexisting immiscible H₂O–CO₂–NaCl fluids constrain the uplift path to have passed through temperatures of 380 + 30°C at 1.3 + 0.2 kbar.
There is no evidence for metamorphism of USH at pressures greater than ∼ 7.5 kbar in this area of the Tauern Window. This is in contrast to pressures of ± 10 kbar recorded in the Lower Schieferhülle only 2–3 km across strike. A history of differential uplift and thinning of the intervening section during metamorphism is necessary to reconcile the P–T data obtained from these adjacent tectonic units.     

Pressure–temperature–structural distance relationships within Greater Himalayan rocks in eastern Bhutan: implications for emplacement models

In the Himalayan orogen, Greater Himalayan (GH) rocks were buried to mid‐ to lower‐crustal levels and are now exposed across the strike of the orogen. Within the eastern Himalaya, in the Kingdom of Bhutan, the GH is divided into structurally lower (lower‐GH) and upper (upper‐GH) levels by the Kakhtang thrust (KT). Pressure–temperature estimates from lower‐ and upper‐GH rocks collected on two transects across the KT yield similar P–T–structural distance trends across each transect. In the eastern transect, temperatures are similar (from 730 to 650 °C) over a structural thickness of ~11 km, but peak pressures decrease from ~10 to 6 kbar with increasing structural level. In comparison, peak temperatures in the central Bhutan transect are similar (from 730 to 600 °C), but pressures decrease from 10 to 6.5 kbar with increasing structural level over a structural thickness of ~6 km. The structurally highest sample reveals slightly higher pressures of 8.0 kbar in comparison to pressures of ~6.5 kbar for samples collected from within the KT zone, ~4 km below. Within each transect, there are increases in pressure ± temperature within the overall upright P–T gradient that may demarcate intra‐GH shear zone(s). These P–T results combined with evidence that the timing of initial melt crystallization becomes older with increasing structural level suggest that the intra‐GH shear zones emplaced deeper GH rocks via progressive ductile underplating. These shear zones, including the KT, likely aided in the initial emplacement and construction of the GH as a composite tectonic unit during the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene, from c. 27 to 16 Ma.     

Metamorphic P–T profile and P–T path discontinuity across the far‐eastern Nepal Himalaya: investigation of channel flow models

Thermobarometric data and compositional zoning of garnet show the discontinuities of both metamorphic pressure conditions at peak‐T and P–T paths across the Main Central Thrust (MCT), which juxtaposes the high‐grade Higher Himalayan Crystalline Sequences (HHCS) over the low‐grade Lesser Himalaya Sequences (LHS) in far‐eastern Nepal. Maximum recorded pressure conditions occur just above the MCT (～11 kbar), and decrease southward to ～6 kbar in the garnet zone and northward to ～7 kbar in the kyanite ± staurolite zone. The inferred nearly isothermal loading path for the LHS in the staurolite zone may have resulted from the underthrusting of the LHS beneath the HHCS. In contrast, the increasing temperature path during both loading and decompression (i.e. clockwise path) from the lowermost HHCS in the staurolite to kyanite ± staurolite transitional zone indicates that the rocks were fairly rapidly buried and exhumed. Exhumation of the lowermost HHCS from deeper crustal depths than the flanking regions, recording a high field pressure gradient (～1.2–1.6 kbar km^?1) near the MCT, is perhaps caused by ductile extrusion along the MCT, not the emplacement along a single thrust, resulting in the P–T path discontinuities. These observations are consistent with the overall scheme of the model of channel flow, in which the outward flowing ‘HHCS’ and inward flowing ‘LHS’ are juxtaposed against each other and are rapidly extruded together along the ‘MCT’. A rapid exhumation by channel flow in this area is also suggested by a nearly isothermal decompression path inferred from cordierite corona surrounding garnet in gneiss of the upper HHCS. However, peak metamorphic temperatures show a progressive increase of temperature structurally upward (～570–740 °C) near the MCT and roughly isothermal conditions (～710–810 °C) in the upper structural levels of the HHCS. The observed field temperature gradient is much lower than those predicted in channel flow models. However, the discrepancy could be resolved by taking into account heat advection by melt and/or fluid migration, as these can produce low or nearly no field temperature gradient in the exhumed midcrust, as observed in nature.     

Petrology and tectonic significance of metabasite slivers in the Lesser and Higher Himalayan domains of Sikkim,India

The metamorphic history of the Himalayas has been constrained mostly through studies of the ubiquitous metapelitic rocks. Non‐eclogitic metabasite rock lenses that occur intercalated with the metapelites have received little attention and it is not clear whether they share a common metamorphic history. This study reports the results of a petrological study of the metabasite lenses (dm³–m³) from the Lesser Himalayan (LH) and the Higher Himalayan (HH) domains in Sikkim. These have similar bulk chemical compositions and chemical affinities (sub‐alkaline tholeiitic basalts), with plagioclase and amphibole as the dominant mineralogical constituents. Garnet and clinopyroxene occur in some samples depending on small variations in bulk chemistry; and orthopyroxene is developed as a retrograde phase in some rocks. Minor phases are ilmenite, chlorite, titanite and rutile. The rocks were metamorphosed at similar conditions (～9–12 kbar, 800 °C). Minor differences in bulk chemical composition lead to different phase assemblages and mineral chemistry in adjacent metabasite lenses, a feature that is used to demonstrate that metamorphic conditions (peak P–T as well as retrograde P–T path) can be reliably retrieved through a combination of pseudosection analysis and kinetically constrained individual thermobarometry. The peak P–T conditions of the metabasites from this region are independent of the present geographic or tectonic (i.e. within the LH or HH) location of the samples and they differ from the conditions at which the regional metapelites (i.e. metapelites not immediately adjacent to the metabasite lenses) were metamorphosed. Metapelites that are immediately adjacent to the metabasite lenses differ in their appearance, phase assemblage and recorded P–T history from those of the regional metapelites, either because they were emplaced as slivers along with the metabasites, or because they were modified when they came in contact with the metabasites. The retrograde P–T paths of the LH and HH metabasites are different: the HH samples underwent steep decompression whereas the LH followed a more gentle exhumation path. The P–T conditions of peak metamorphism (9–12 kbar, 800 °C) are commensurate with a thermal perturbation at the base of a crust of average thickness and may be the signature of a widespread (samples found across different regions in the Himalaya) and long‐lasting (e.g. homogeneous garnet compositions) crustal underplating event that occurred during the early stages (?subduction) of the Himalayan orogeny, or earlier if the metamorphism was pre‐Himalayan.     

铜陵地区中酸性侵入岩及其包体的成因和矿物温压计的应用

铜陵地区中酸性侵入岩可划分为橄榄安粗岩系列和高钾钙碱性系列。前者岩石组合为辉石二长闪长岩+二长岩+石英二长岩,后者为辉长闪长岩+石英二长闪长岩+花岗闪长岩。两个系列岩石的组成矿物种类相似,但在不同岩石中的含量不同,主要造岩矿物为斜长石、辉石、角闪石、黑云母、钾长石、石英。橄榄安粗岩系列岩石中含有大量的深源包体,包括辉石堆积岩包体、角闪石堆积岩包体和角闪石辉长质堆积岩包体,主要矿物为辉石、角闪石,其次为尖晶石、斜长石、磷灰石、金云母;高钾钙碱性系列岩石中含大量的微粒闪长质包体、镁铁质石英二长闪长质包体和富云母包体,主要矿物为斜长石、角闪石、黑云母。在考虑温压计使用条件的前提下,选择合适的温压计计算了两个系列侵入岩及包体形成的温压条件。结果表明,橄榄安粗岩系列侵入岩侵位深度(4～6km)略小于高钾钙碱性系列侵入岩(6～7km),各种堆积包体形成于45～65km的深位岩浆房,微粒闪长质包体形成于12～15km的浅位岩浆房,镁铁质石英二长闪长质包体是早期侵入岩的边缘相,而富云母包体可能为地壳部分熔融的残余相。     

The retrograde P–T–t path for low-pressure granulites from the Reynolds Range, central Australia: petrological constraints and implications for low-P/high-T metamorphism

Several aspects of the petrogenesis of low-pressure granulite facies rocks from the Reynolds Range (central Australia) are contentious, including: (a) the shape of the retrograde P–T –time path, and whether it is an artefact of repeated thermal events at different P–T conditions; (b) the type of regional metamorphism; and (c) the causes of metamorphism. Granulite facies rocks from the Reynolds Range Group experienced three major periods of mineralogical equilibration. Metapelitic rocks underwent dehydration-melting reactions to form migmatites under peak M2 P–T conditions of c. 5.0–5.3 kbar and c. 750–800 °C. Metapsammitic rocks that did not melt during M2 show spectacular garnet–orthopyroxene intergrowths that developed at c. 3.5–3.7 kbar and c. 700–750 °C after penetrative regional deformation, but prior to amphibolite facies rehydration in discrete strike-parallel zones. Rehydration occurred within the sillimanite stability field at P–T conditions close to the granite solidus (c. 3.2–3.4 kbar and 650–700 °C). Subsequently the terrane cooled into the andalusite stability field. Geochronological constraints suggest that: (a) peak-M2 conditions were reached at c. 1594 Ma; (b) the garnet–orthopyroxene intergrowths in unmelted metapsammites probably developed between c. 1594 Ma and c. 1586 Ma; and (c) upper amphibolite facies rehydration occurred between c. 1586 Ma and 1568 Ma. The lack of petrological evidence for multiple dehydration and rehydration of the rocks suggests that the three episodes of mineralogical recrystallization can be linked to yield a single continuous retrograde P–T–t path of minor initial decompression (c. 1.5 kbar) from the M2 peak, followed by cooling (c. 100 °C) to the granite solidus over a period of c. 26 Ma. Late kyanite-bearing shear zones that dissect the terrane are unrelated to this event and formed during the c. 300–400 Ma Alice Springs Orogeny. The shape of the P–T–t path and the duration of M2 metamorphism suggests that advective heating was not the major cause of high-grade metamorphism, and that some other, longer lived heat source, such as the burial of anomalously radiogenic, pre-tectonic granites, is required.     

Geochronology of high-pressure mafic granulite dykes in SW Sweden: tracking the P–T–t path of metamorphism using Hf isotopes in zircon and baddeleyite

Although the U–Pb zircon chronometer has been widely used for dating metamorphism in moderate‐ to high‐grade rocks, it is generally difficult to link the U–Pb age of zircon to specific metamorphic reactions. In this study, the initial Hf isotopic composition of secondary zircon is compared with the evolution of Hf isotopic composition of the bulk sample, back‐projected from the measured value through time. This approach may enhance the interpretation of radiometric ages performed on metamorphic mineral assemblages. Here, U–Pb, Sm–Nd and Lu–Hf geochronology and thermobarometry have been integrated and applied to two metamorphosed diabase dykes in the Sveconorwegian orogen, SW Sweden. The dykes are located ～5 km east of the NNE‐trending Göta Älv deformation zone in the Idefjorden terrane, and trend parallel to this zone. The Lunden dyke is recrystallized into a coronitic, granulite facies assemblage. U–Pb isotopic analyses of baddeleyite in this dyke indicate an emplacement age of c. 1300 Ma. Thermobarometric techniques applied to garnet and omphacitic clinopyroxene coronas indicate high‐pressure metamorphism at ～15 kbar and ～740 °C. The growth of polycrystalline zircon at the expense of baddeleyite occurred at 1046 ± 6 Ma. The identical Hf isotopic composition of polycrystalline zircon and baddeleyite shows that the baddeleyite‐to‐zircon transition took place before Hf equilibration among the other metamorphic minerals and, hence the c. 1046 Ma age of polycrystalline zircon sets an upper age limit of metamorphism of this sample. The Haregården dyke is recrystallized into a granoblastic transitional upper amphibolite to granulite facies assemblage. The estimated P–T conditions are ～10 kbar and ～700 °C. Analyses of small (～30 μm), clear and round zircon in this sample yield a Concordia U–Pb age of 1026 ± 4 Ma, which is indistinguishable from the Lu‐Hf and Sm‐Nd mineral isochron ages of 1027 ± 9 and 1022 ± 34 Ma, respectively. This type of secondary zircon plots at the lower end of the Lu‐Hf isochron and indicates simultaneous growth with garnet at c. 1026 Ma, a time when Hf isotopic equilibrium among minerals must have been reached.     

Petrology, Origin and Metamorphic History of Proterozoic-aged Granulites of the Natal Metamorphic Province, Southeastern Africa

The geochemistry of the Leisure Bay Formation, Natal Metamorphic Province suggests that its protoliths were greywackes, pelites and arkoses that were deposited in an oceanic island arc environment. These rocks contain the mineral assemblage biotite + hypersthene + cordierite (with hercynite inclusions) + garnet + quartz + feldspar. Numerous generations of garnet genesis are evident from which a long history of metamorphism can be interpreted. M₁ involved syn-D₁ high temperature/low pressure metamorphism (4kb and >850^oC) and dehydration melting to produce essentially anhydrous assemblages particularly in the vicinity of, and probably related to the intrusion of the Munster Suite sills. The inclusions of hercynite in cordierite and the garnet + quartz symplectites after hypersthene + plagioclase (550^oC and 5kb) suggests isobaric cooling after M₁. This indicates an anticlockwise P-T loop related to the early intrusion of subduction related calc-alkaline magmatic rocks. M₂ involved syn-D₂ dehydration melting of hydrous assemblages possibly related to the emplacement of many A-type rapakivi charnockite granitoids, which provided heat and loading. The D₂ tectonism post-dated all lithologies in the region, except for syn- to late-D₂ granitoid plutons, and is interpreted as a transpressional tectonothermal reworking of pre-existing (Proterozoic) crust at 1030Ma.