Sr and Nd isotopic compositions, age and petrogenesis of A-type granitoids of the Vernon Supersuite, New Jersey Highlands, USA

Voluminous late Mesoproterozoic monzonite through granite of the Vernon Supersuite underlies an area of approximately 1300 km² in the Highlands of northern New Jersey. The Vernon Supersuite consists of hastingsite±biotite-bearing granitoids of the Byram Intrusive Suite (BIS) and hedenbergite-bearing granitoids of the Lake Hopatcong Intrusive Suite (LHIS). These rocks have similar major and trace element abundances over a range of SiO₂ from 58 to 75 wt.%, are metaluminous to weakly peraluminous, and have a distinctive A-type chemistry characterized by high contents of Y, Nb, Zr, LREE, and Ga/Al ratios, and low MgO, CaO, Sr and HREE. Whole-rock Rb–Sr isochrons of BIS granite yield an age of 1116±41 Ma and initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of 0.70389, and of LHIS granite an age of 1095±9 Ma and initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of 0.70520. Both suites have similar initial ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd ratios of 0.511267 to 0.511345 (BIS) and 0.511359 to 0.511395 (LHIS). Values of _Nd are moderately high and range from +1.21 to +2.74 in the BIS and +2.24 to +2.95 in the LHIS. Petrographic evidence, field relationships, geochemistry, and isotopic data support an interpretation of comagmatism and the derivation of both suites from a mantle-derived or a juvenile lower crustal parent with little crustal assimilation. Both suites crystallized under overlapping conditions controlled by P–T–f_H2O. Lake Hopatcong magma crystallized at a liquidus temperature that approached 900°C and a pressure of about 6 kbar, and remained relatively anhydrous throughout its evolution. Initial P–T conditions of the Byram magma were ≥850°C and about 5.5 kbar. BIS magma was emplaced contemporaneous with, or slightly preceding LHIS magma, and both magmas were emplaced during a compressional tectonic event prior to granulite facies metamorphism that occurred in the Highlands between 1080 and 1030 Ma.