Geology, geochemistry and origin of the banded and granite gneisses in the basement complex of the Ilesha area, southwestern Nigeria

The basement complex in the Ilesha area consists of two distinct units — the gneisses and the schists. The Ilesha Schist Belt is a back-arc basin where there has been a subduction of an ocean slab into the mantle. This was followed by partial melting of mantle and ocean sediments to generate a wet basaltic magma, as revealed by spidergrams and REE fractionation patterns for the rocks in this belt. In this environment, differentiation of the wet basaltic magma led to the emplacement of a set of rocks, which formed a proto-continent. These rocks were then eroded to generate a sedimentary sequence which was metamorphosed into banded gneiss from which the granite gneisses were derived. The banded gneiss, characterised by alternation of felsic and mafic bands, is composed of medium to very coarse plagioclase, hornblende, quartz and biotite. The granite gneiss, composed of biotite, K--feldspars, quartz and minor garnet, occurs in close association with the banded gneiss.Chemical evidence revealed that elements that are depleted in the banded gneiss are concentrated in the granite gneiss and vice-versa; suggesting a petrogenetic link between these rocks.The schists were deposited as sediments composed of quartz, muscovite, biotite and Fe oxides. These sediments were metamorphosed to form quartzite schists which were folded into the gneisses. After the emplacement of these rocks, there was transpressive tectonic activity in this schist belt, causing deformation of these rocks, and emplacement of the northeast-southwest Ifewara-Zungeru Fault System, which separates the Ilesha Schist Belt into two halves.