Metamorphic evolution of the southern part of the Hidaka belt, Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract The Hidaka metamorphic terrane in the Meguro-Shoya area, Hokkaido, Japan is divided into four progressive metamorphic zones: A—biotite zone; B—cordierite zone; C—cordierite–K-feldspar zone; and, D—sillimanite–K-feldspar zone of the andalusite–sillimanite facies series type of metamorphism. The metamorphic grade ranges from the higher temperature part of the greenschist facies (zone A) through the amphibolite facies (zones B and C) to the lower temperature part of the granulite facies (zone D). The zone boundaries intersect the bedding planes at high angles. P–T conditions estimated are 450–550°C and 2 kbar for zone A, 550–600°C and 2–2.5 kbar for zone B, 600–650°C and 2.5–3 kbar for zone C and 650–750°C and 3–4 kbar for zone D. The metapelites of zone D were partially melted.
At the later stage of the regional metamorphism which is early Oligocene to early Miocene in age, cordierite tonalite and biotite tonalite intrusives associated with segments of the highest grade rocks (zone D) were emplaced into the lower temperature part of the regional metamorphic rocks, giving rise to a contact metamorphic aureole. The thermally metamorphosed terrain (zone C') belongs to the amphibolite facies and its P–T conditions are estimated to have been 550–700°C and 2 kbar.
The P–T–t paths of the Hidaka metamorphism show a thickening–heating–uplifting process. The metamorphism is inferred to have taken place beneath an active island arc accompanied by partial melting of the crust.     

北京云蒙山岩浆杂岩体的岩石学和构造变形特征

位于北京市东北部的云蒙山岩浆杂岩体由十余个侵入体组成 ,它们普遍遭受了强烈韧性变形改造 ,与太古宇杂岩和变形变质的中 上元古代沉积岩共同卷入了云蒙山背形的构造系统中。野外调查和对岩石薄片的观察表明 ,岩浆杂岩体中各侵入体均具有变形变质特征 ,主要造岩矿物间具有明显的交代关系。虽然各侵入体在形成时代上存在明显的先后关系 ,但它们具有的片麻状构造是共同的 ,并且与围岩的变形是统一而协调的。这表明云蒙山岩浆杂岩体的片麻理不是岩体侵位时形成的 ,而是在岩体冷凝固结后受到构造变形作用改造的结果。即杂岩体侵位与其发育的片麻理构造所反映的变形事件在时间上存在明显差距。根据同位素年代学资料 ,岩浆侵位发生在燕山中期 ;但其与围岩一起卷入云蒙山背形构造系统的变形事件发生得较晚 ,可能形成于燕山晚期。云蒙山杂岩体中长英质侵入体的矿物学特征表明其在侵位后曾经历麻粒岩相区域变质作用 ,而在燕山晚期随变质核杂岩下盘的抬升又经历了角闪岩相退变质作用。云蒙山岩浆杂岩体可以代表燕山造山带新生的中部地壳的部分岩石组合     

Metamorphism and deformation at different structural levels in a strike-slip fault zone, Ross Lake fault, North Cascades, USA

Continental crust is displaced in strike-slip fault zones through lateral and vertical movement that together drive burial and exhumation. Pressure – temperature–deformation ( P–T–d ) histories of orogenic crust exhumed in transcurrent zones record the mechanisms and conditions of these processes. The Skagit Gneiss Complex, a migmatitic unit of the North Cascades, Washington (USA), was metamorphosed at depths of ∼25–30 km in a continental arc under contraction, and is bounded on its eastern side by the long-lived transcurrent Ross Lake fault zone (RLFZ). The P–T–d conditions recorded by rocks on either side of the RLFZ vary along the length of the fault zone, but most typically the fault separates high-grade gneiss and plutons from lower-grade rocks. The Ruby Mt–Elijah Ridge area at the eastern margin of the Skagit Gneiss exposes tectonic contacts between gneiss and overlying rocks; the latter rocks, including slivers of Methow basin deposits, are metamorphosed and record higher-grade metamorphism than in correlative rocks along strike along the RLFZ. In this area, the Skagit Gneiss and overlying units all yield maximum P–T conditions of 8–10 kbar at >650 °C, indicating that slices of basin rocks were buried to similar mid-crustal depths as the gneiss. After exhumation of fault zone rocks to <15 km depth, intrusion of granitoid plutons drove contact metamorphism, resulting in texturally late andalusite–cordierite in garnet schist. In the Elijah Ridge area of the RLFZ, an overlapping step-over or series of step-overs that evolved through time may have facilitated burial and exhumation of a deep slice of the Methow basin, indicating that strike-slip faults can have major vertical displacement (tens of kilometres) that is significant during the crustal thickening and exhumation stages of orogeny.     

Metamorphism of the Scourian Complex, NW Scotland

The rocks of the Scourian Complex have been intensively studied, but there is still no consensus as to the conditions of the granulite-facies metamorphism preserved in these rocks. Recent estimates of these conditions fall into two groups, one at 820-920°C and ca. 11 kbar and the second at ca. 1000°C and >12 kbar. Investigation of a variety of rocks shows that the recorded conditions vary with grain-size, with higher-grade conditions recorded by the cores of coarser ( ca. 10 mm) crystals, and lower-grade conditions recorded by the rims of coarser grains and by finer grains. This observation suggests that re-equilibration during recovery of these rocks to the surface has been important which may account for the discrepancy in estimated P-T conditions. Revised estimates of the equilibration conditions of the Scourian Complex of T > 1000°C and P > 8.5 kbar are presented. The conditions suggested for the peak of metamorphism mean that the role of anatexis in the genesis of these rocks must be considered and the nature of the fluid phase thoroughly investigated.     

Metamorphism and deformation of blueschist belts and their tectonic implications, North Qilian Mountains, China

Abstract Two blueschist belts in the North Qilian Mountains occur in Middle Cambrian and Lower Ordovician strata and strike N30–35°W for about 500 km along the Caledonian fold belt on the south-west margin of the Sino-Korean plate. The styles of metamorphism and deformation are quite different in the two belts. The Middle Cambrian to Ordovician rocks in the high-grade belt are mainly blueschists and C-type eclogites in which six phases of lower and upper crustal deformation have been recognized. The rocks contain glaucophane, phengite, epidote, clinozoisite, chlorite, garnet, stilpnomelane, piedmontite, albite, titanite and quartz. The estimated P–T conditions of eclogites are 340 ± 10°C, 8 ± 1 kbar and, of blueschist, >380°C, 6–7 kbar. The Ordovician rocks in the low-grade belt are characterized by ductile to brittle deformation in the middle to upper crust. The low-grade blueschists contain glaucophane, lawsonite, pumpellyite, aragonite, albite and chlorite. The estimated P–T conditions are 150–250°C and 4–7 kbar.
K–Ar and ³⁹Ar/⁴⁰Ar geochronology on glaucophane and phengite from the high-grade blueschist belt suggest two stages of metamorphism at 460–440 and 400–380 Ma, which may represent the times of subduction and orogeny. The subduction metamorphism of the northern low-grade blueschist belt took place approximately at the end of the Ordovician.     

Compositional controls on coexisting prehnite-actinolite and prehnite-pumpellyite facies assemblages in the Tal y Fan metabasite intrusion, North Wales: implications for Caledonian metamorphic field gradients

Abstract The Tal y Fan Intrusion is a 110 m thick sub-concordant metabasite sheet intruded into volcaniclastic and pyroclastic rocks of Ordovician age in North Wales. Despite low grade metamorphism, primary textural zones resulting from initial cooling of the sheet are preserved and retain primary mineralogical and chemical variations which influenced the nature and extent of metamorphic recrystallization. This has resulted in a vertical sequence of secondary mineral assemblages through the intrusion. During early hydrothermal alteration K-feldspar replaced plagioclase micropheno-crysts in the marginal and contact zones, and olivine in the central zone was replaced by saponite. Subsequent regional metamorphism resulted in the development of (metastable) prehnite-pumpellyite-epidote assemblages in two sub-zones characterized by high Fe₂O₃. Elsewhere the assemblage prehnite-actinolite-epidote developed except in the contact and marginal zones where activity of CO₂ suppressed both prehnite and pumpellyite. Both assemblages contain excess albite, quartz and chlorite and, on the basis of uniform mineral compositions over the area of an individual thin section, are considered to represent buffered equilibrium assemblages indicative of prehnite-pumpellyite and prehnite-actinolite facies conditions. A metamorphic temperature of 310° C at 1.85 kbar is obtained using the P-T-X grid of Liou, Maruyama & Cho (1985), which implies a field gradient of ～ 44° C km^-1. Assuming that metamorphism relates to burial, an overburden thickness of ～ 7 km is indicated. Total maximum thicknesses, however, of Ordovician, Silurian and Lower Devonian strata, in the area, do not exceed 6 km indicating a field gradient of 52° C km^-1. These relatively high gradients may possibly be related to concealed late Caledonian intrusions, or alternatively may result from high heat flow as a consequence of crustal thinning, rapid sedimentation and intense magmatic activity in a marginal basin setting.     

Structural and metamorphic evolution of the Moornambool Metamorphic Complex,western Lachlan Fold Belt,southeastern Australia

The wedge‐shaped Moornambool Metamorphic Complex is bounded by the Coongee Fault to the east and the Moyston Fault to the west. This complex was juxtaposed between stable Delamerian crust to the west and the eastward migrating deformation that occurred in the western Lachlan Fold Belt during the Ordovician and Silurian. The complex comprises Cambrian turbidites and mafic volcanics and is subdivided into a lower greenschist eastern zone and a higher grade amphibolite facies western zone, with sub‐greenschist rocks occurring on either side of the complex. The boundary between the two zones is defined by steeply dipping L‐S tectonites of the Mt Ararat ductile high‐strain zone. Deformation reflects marked structural thickening that produced garnet‐bearing amphibolites followed by exhumation via ductile shearing and brittle faulting. Pressure‐temperature estimates on garnet‐bearing amphibolites in the western zone suggest metamorphic pressures of ～0.7–0.8 GPa and temperatures of ～540–590°C. Metamorphic grade variations suggest that between 15 and 20 km of vertical offset occurs across the east‐dipping Moyston Fault. Bounding fault structures show evidence for early ductile deformation followed by later brittle deformation/reactivation. Ductile deformation within the complex is initially marked by early bedding‐parallel cleavages. Later deformation produced tight to isoclinal D₂ folds and steeply dipping ductile high‐strain zones. The S₂ foliation is the dominant fabric in the complex and is shallowly west‐dipping to flat‐lying in the western zone and steeply west‐dipping in the eastern zone. Peak metamorphism is pre‐ to syn‐D₂. Later ductile deformation reoriented the S₂ foliation, produced S₃ crenulation cleavages across both zones and localised S₄ fabrics. The transition to brittle deformation is defined by the development of east‐ and west‐dipping reverse faults that produce a neutral vergence and not the predominant east‐vergent transport observed throughout the rest of the western Lachlan Fold Belt. Later north‐dipping thrusts overprint these fault structures. The majority of fault transport along ductile and brittle structures occurred prior to the intrusion of the Early Devonian Ararat Granodiorite. Late west‐ and east‐dipping faults represent the final stages of major brittle deformation: these are post plutonism.     

Paragenetic and mineral-chemical relationships in orthoamphibole-bearing gneisses from Enderby Land, east Antarctica: a record of Proterozoic uplift

Abstract Polymetamorphic orthoamphibole-bearing gneisses from the vicinity of shear zones in Casey Bay, Enderby Land, Antarctica, record both the overprinting of Archaean granulite lithologies by Proterozoic metamorphism and the subsequent evolution of the latter episode during localized deformation.
Mineral chemistry and zoning relationships in orthoamphibole-garnet-kyanite-quartz and later orthoamphibole-garnet-cordierite-quartz assemblages are used together with interpretation of reaction and corona textures to constrain the Proterozoic pressure-temperature path experienced by the rocks. Consideration of reaction topologies, P-T-X(Fe-Mg-A1) relationships in orthoamphibole-bearing assemblages, and standard geothermobarometry indicate that the gneisses underwent a near-isothermal decompression P-T history (steep positive dP/dT) from ± 8 kbar and 700°C to <5.5kbar and 650°C. This uplift path is correlated with the general effects of Rayner Complex metamorphism and deformation which occurred after 1100 Ma in a major erogenic belt south of Casey Bay.     

Proterozoic low-pressure/high-temperature metamorphism and an anticlockwise P–T–t path for the Hazeldene area, Mount Isa Inlier, Queensland, Australia

In the Hazeldene area, situated in the Mount Isa Inlier, Queensland, the metamorphic grade changes from chlorite zone, through biotite and cordierite zones, to sillimanite/K-feldspar zone.
Microstructural studies of rocks near the sillimanite isograd demonstrate that cordierite grew early during the development of a steep foliation (S2), was replaced by biotite, andalusite and sillimanite at the metamorphic peak late in S2, and in turn by kyanite + chlorite adjacent to localized small post-D2 shear zones. Although the anticlockwise P–T–t path is well defined, the precise P–T conditions are uncertain because of problems with experimental and thermodynamic data. The best estimate for the metamorphic peak for rocks close to the sillimanite isograd is around 600° C at 4 kbar.
The metamorphism has been dated at 1544 Ma, and was synchronous with a major crustal shortening event. Because proposed extensional events occurred more than 60 Ma earlier, their contribution to the peak metamorphic thermal perturbation would have been insignificant. The syn-metamorphic Mica Creek Pegmatites, the abundance of high heat-producing elements in the nearby pre-D2 Sybella Granite, and advective heat by fluids which caused considerable metasomatism in the Hazeldene area, may have each contributed to the thermal budget. However, the metamorphic thermal gradient may be 80°C km^-1 or higher, strongly suggesting a local magmatic control. As none are known in the area, such syn-metamorphic plutons would have to lie beneath the exposed high-grade rocks.     

Oxygen isotope geochemistry of the Omeo Metamorphic Complex,Victoria: Implications for metamorphic fluid flow,mineralisation and anatexis

Metamorphosed turbidites from the Omeo Metamorphic Complex show only minor changes in δ¹⁸O values with increasing metamorphic grade from 13.4 ± 1.7% in the chlorite and biotite zones to 12.3 ± 1.0% in the sillimanite + K‐feldspar zone. Rocks within 5 km of the S‐type granite at Hume Dam have δ¹⁸O values of 6.8–8.1% that probably reflect interaction with heated meteoric‐igneous fluids. Interaction with igneous fluids has also occurred close to other I‐ and S‐type granites in this region. However, pervasive metamorphic fluid‐rock interaction in this terrain did not occur, which limits the region's potential for hydrothermal mineralisation. Anatexis at high grades was probably via dehydration‐melting reactions that consumed muscovite and biotite, which is consistent with there being little fluid present during metamorphism. Small (kilometre scale or less) S‐type granites in the sillimanite + K‐feldspar zone have δ¹⁸O values similar to those of the surrounding metasediments and probably formed by melting of those rocks. By contrast, larger (tens of kilometres scale) Ca‐rich, peraluminous, S‐type granites have lower δ¹⁸O values than the surrounding metasediments, and may represent melts of underlying middle to lower crust.     

Deformation and metamorphism in the Bard area of the Sesia Lanzo Zone, Western Alps, during subduction and uplift

The structure, microstructure and petrology of a small area close to the village of Bard in Val d'Aosta (Italy) has been studied in detail. The area lies across the contact between the Gneiss Minuti (GM) and the Eclogitic Micaschist (EMS) Complexes of the Lower element of the Sesia portion of the Sesia-Lanzo Zone (Western Alps). Both complexes have undergone high-pressure metamorphism, but the metamorphic assemblages indicate a sudden increase in pressure in going across the contact from the GM to the EMS. Therefore, we interpret the contact as a thrust dividing the lower element of the Sesia into two sub-elements. This interpretation is supported by structural evidence.
The early Alpine (90-70 Ma) metamorphic history is best preserved in the EMS and is one of increasing pressure associated with thrusting. The maximum P/T recorded in the EMS is >1500 MPa (>15kbar) and 550°C and in the GM is < 1500-1300 MPa (< 15-13 kbar) and 500-550°C. We suggest that the rocks were probably in an active Benioff zone during this time.
From then on the histories of the GM and EMS are the same. Deformation continued and the thrust and thrust slices were folded during decreasing pressure. We interpret the first postthrusting deformation in terms of uplift associated with continued shortening of the crust and underplating after the Benioff zone had become inactive and a new Benioff zone had developed further to the north-west.
A still later deformation and the Lepontine metamorphism (38 Ma) are related to continued uplift. Much of this deformation is characterized by structures indicative of vertical shortening and lateral spreading as the mountains rose above the general level of the surface.     

Evolution of a reworked orogenic zone: The boundary between the delamerian and lachlan fold belts,southeastern Australia *

⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age data from the boundary between the Delamerian and Lachlan Fold Belts identify the Moornambool Metamorphic Complex as a Cambrian metamorphic belt in the western Stawell Zone of the Palaeozoic Tasmanide System of southeastern Australia. A reworked orogenic zone exists between the Lachlan and Delamerian Fold Belts that contains the eastern section of the Cambrian Delamerian Fold Belt and the western limit of orogenesis associated with the formation of an Ordovician to Silurian accretionary wedge (Lachlan Fold Belt). Delamerian thrusting is craton-verging and occurred at the same time as the final consolidation of Gondwana. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age data indicate rapid cooling of the Moornambool Metamorphic Complex at about 500 Ma at a rate of 20 – 30°C per million years, temporally associated with calc-alkaline volcanism followed by clastic sedimentation. Extension in the overriding plate of a subduction zone is interpreted to have exhumed the metamorphic rocks within the Moornambool Metamorphic Complex. The Delamerian system varies from a high geothermal gradient with syntectonic plutonism in the west to lower geothermal gradients in the east (no syntectonic plutonism). This metamorphic zonation is consistent with a west-dipping subduction zone. Contrary to some previous models involving a reversal in subduction polarity, the Ross and Delamerian systems of Antarctica and Australia are inferred to reflect deformation processes associated with a Cambrian subduction zone that dipped towards the Gondwana supercontinent. Western Lachlan Fold Belt orogenesis occurred about 40 million years after the Delamerian Orogeny and deformed older, colder, and denser oceanic crust, with metamorphism indicative of a low geothermal gradient. This orogenesis closed a marginal ocean basin by west-directed underthrusting of oceanic crust that produced an accretionary wedge with west-dipping faults that verge away from the major craton. The western Lachlan Fold Belt was not associated with arc-related volcanism and plutonism occurred 40 – 60 million years after initial deformation. The revised orogenic boundaries have implications for the location of world-class 440 Ma orogenic gold deposits. The structural complexity of the 440 Ma Stawell gold deposit reflects its location in a reworked part of the Cambrian Delamerian Fold Belt, while the structurally simpler 440 Ma Bendigo deposit is hosted by younger Ordovician turbidites solely deformed by Lachlan orogenesis.     

A tectonic model for the metamorphic evolution of the Basal Gneiss Complex, Western South Norway

A review of currently available information relevant to the Basal Gneiss Complex (BGC) of Western South Norway, combined with the authors'own observations, leads to the following conclusions.
1. Most of the BGC consists of Proterozoic crystalline rocks and probably subordinate Lower Palaeozoic cover.
2. The last major deformation of these rocks was during the Caledonian orogeny and involved large-scale thrusting, recumbent folding and doming. The structural development of the BGC is closely tied in with that of the Caledonian allochthon.
3. The whole eclogite-bearing part of the BGC has suffered a high pressure metamorphism with conditions of between 550°C, 12.5 kbar (Sunnfjord) and about 750°C, 20 kbar (Møre og Romsdal) at the metamorphic climax.
4. This metamorphism was of Caledonian age, probably rather early in the Caledonian tectonic history of the BGC and is considered to have been a rather transient event.
By setting these conclusions in a framework provided by geophysical evidence for the deep structure of the crust in southern Norway we have constructed a geotectonic model to explain the recorded metamorphic history of the BGC. It is suggested that considerable crustal thickening was caused by imbrication of the Baltic plate margin during continental collision with the Greenland plate. This resulted in high pressure metamorphism in the resulting nappe stack. Progradation of the suture caused underthrusting of the Baltic foreland below the eclogite-bearing terrain causing it to emerge at the Earth's surface, aided by tectonic stripping and erosion.
Application of isostacy equations to the model shows that eclogites can be formed by in-situ metamorphism in crustal rocks and reappear at the land surface above a normal thickness of crust in a single orogenic episode of approximately 65-70 Ma duration.     

Incipient metamorphism in the Lower Palaeozoic marginal basin of Wales

Abstract A diagenctic through anchizone to epizone transition is demonstrated in pelitic rocks of the Lower Palaeozoic marginal basin of Wales by examination of variations in phyllo-silicate mineralogy, illite crystallinity and b_o parameter of white micas. This transition represents a temperature range from ∼ 150°C to ∼ 400°C and the metamorphism is of a low-pressure facies series type, with a geothermal gradient of ∼ 40°Ckm^-1. Variations in grade can be correlated largely with the original basin and shelf form, suggesting a depth-related metamorphism. However, in areas closer to the site of Caledonian plate collision an increasingly syn-tectonic metamorphic event is apparent.
Correlation of pelite data with metabasite assemblages is variable, the most consistent relationship being between epizone crystallinity values andepidote-actinolite (greenschist facies) assemblages. Diagenetic clay mineral assemblages are found associated with prehnite-pumpellyite assemblages in metabasites and it is suggested that the latter represent non-buffered, and therefore non-diagnostic, assemblages.     

Deformation and possible origins of the Cooma Complex,southeastern Lachlan Fold Belt,New South Wales

The western half of the Cooma Complex, New South Wales, consists of three thrust‐bound blocks that contain the same structural fabrics, but with different orientations and intensities, owing largely to heterogeneous strain late in the deformation history. Correlation of these fabrics with those found regionally outside the complex shows that a well‐developed, gently dipping crenulation cleavage (S₄) apparently has no regional counterpart. This cleavage may have formed by vertical shortening that was restricted to the complex and its development may have been assisted by the higher temperatures there. The Cooma Complex is one of five metamorphic complexes in what is known as the Eastern Metamorphic Belt, which stretches several hundred kilometres through the southeastern Lachlan Fold Belt. The complexes may have formed as local hot spots, possibly related to underplating of mafic magma or intrusion of hot tonalites at or near the base of the Ordovician metasediments (or both). Whether or not these complexes are exhumed portions of an extensive layer in the mid‐crust of the fold belt can be tested by evaluating Late Ordovician/Early Silurian thermal gradients in the ubiquitous Ordovician metasediments.     

A corundum and sapphirine paragenesis from the Limpopo Mobile Belt, southern Africa

An assemblage consisting of corundum, sapphirine, spinel, cordierite, garnet, biotite and bronzite is described from the Messina area of the Limpopo Mobile Belt, and consideration given to its petrogenesis. Various geothermometers and geobarometers have been applied in an attempt to determine the temperatures and pressures of metamorphism.
A former coexistence of garnet and corundum is suggested to have developed during the earliest high pressure phase of the metamorphism, where temperatures exceeded 800°C and pressures as high as 10kbar may have been experienced. Subsequently, continuous retrograding reactions from medium pressure granulite facies at about 800°C and 8kbar towards amphibolite facies generated spinel, cordierite, sapphirine and possibly also bronzite. The most notable reaction was probably of the form: garnet + corundum = cordierite + sapphirine + spinel.     

Metamorphic evolution of the Central Metamorphic Belt, Klamath Province, California: an inverted metamorphic gradient beneath the Trinity peridotite

ABSTRACT Metabasalts and metasedimentary rocks of the Devonian Central Metamorphic Belt comprise the lower plate of the east-dipping Trinity thrust system in the Klamath province. An inverted metamorphic gradient is preserved in the Central Metamorphic Belt; metamorphic conditions decrease from amphibolite facies adjacent to the Trinity thrust, through albite-epidote amphibolite facies, to upper greenschist facies at the base of the Central Metamorphic Belt. Mineral chemistry, mineral assemblages and limited geothermometry suggest that peak metamorphic conditions decrease structurally downward from 650 ± 50° C at the Trinity thrust to 500 ± 50° C at the base of the Central Metamorphic Belt, under pressures of 5 ± 3 kbar. Synmetamorphic Ab + Qtz veins, up to 1 m thick, increase in abundance towards the Trinity thrust. Infiltration of H₂O-CO₂ fluids derived from prograde devolatilization reactions in the Central Metamorphic Belt caused extensive hydration and metasomatism of the Trinity peridotite; the hanging wall block of the Trinity thrust zone. Geological relationships and the preserved inverted metamorphic gradient suggest that the Central Metamorphic Belt formed in an east-dipping Devonian subduction zone in an oceanic environment. The Central Metamorphic Belt appears to represent a discrete slice of accreted oceanic crust several km thick, rather than progressively accreted material. Metamorphic pressures recorded by the Central Metamorphic Belt are intermediate between the ∼2 kbar pressures recorded in dynamothermal aureoles beneath obducted ophiolites and the 7–10 kbar preserved in subduction-related inverted metamorphic gradients. The lack of blueschist facies mineral assemblages in the Central Metamorphic Belt may possibly be explained by an anomalously warm geotherm prior to subduction or early shear heating prior to the arrival of wet rocks at depth.     

P-T paths from high temperature shear zones beneath ophiolites

Abstract Mctamorphic rocks of the St Anthony Complex of north-western Newfoundland are best interpreted in terms of a high-temperature shear zone formed between down-going continental margin rocks and overriding oceanic lithosphere in a subduction zone. High-grade rocks, immediately beneath the oceanic lithosphere peridotite, display retrograde meta-morphism in high-strain zones, whereas lower grade rocks, near the base of the metamorphic complex, display prograde metamorphism in high-strain zones. Mylonite zones in meta-basitcs at all levels in the complex contain the assemblage epidote-hornblende-albite-sodic oligoclase. These observations suggest that the 'inverted metamorphic gradient'within the St Anthony Complex results from the fortuitous preservation of residual metamorphic assemblages from different crustal levels within an epidote amphibolite facies shear zone. The degree of re-equilibration is strongly dependent on the degree of strain, and is best achieved in synmetamorphic mylonite zones. This interpretation of the St Anthony Complex can be extended to other sub-ophiolite metamorphic sheets, which show very similar relationships. It is proposed that most metamorphic sheets beneath ophiolites are high temperature shear zones, the P-T paths of which preserve records of burial and exhumation in subduction zones.     

The generation of quartz-normative melts and corundum-bearing restites by crustal anatexis: petrogenetic modelling based on an example from the Lewisian of North-West Scotland

Abstract Rare layers of an aluminous, muscovite-rich rock from the Lewisian Complex at Stoer, North-West Scotland, display evidence which suggests that the rock has undergone local partial melting to form quartz-bearing veins and a corundum-bearing restite. The assemblages observed in these rocks match those predicted by modelling in the system KAlO₂-NaAlO₂-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-H₂O (KNASH) where certain bulk compositions melt peritectically to give corundum-bearing restites and quartz-normative melts. Study of the model system shows that the observed parageneses could have formed from a range of bulk compositions with a variety of possible values of a H₂O which could have been internally or externally buffered. The KNASH petrogenetic grid, together with another in the system CaO-Na₂O-FeO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-H₂O (CNFASH), allows the P–T path of the rocks to be delineated and an estimate to be made of the conditions at the peak of metamorphism as > 11 kbar and 900-925°C. This estimate is in agreement with P–T estimates using thermobarometric methods on adjacent lithologies: The activity of H₂O in the system throughout metamorphism is calculated to have been >0.3.     

The role of crustal fertility in the generation of large silicic magmatic systems triggered by intrusion of mantle magma in the deep crust

The Sesia magmatic system of northwest Italy allows direct study of the links between silicic plutonism and volcanism in the upper crust and the coeval interaction of mafic intrusions with the deep crust. In this paper, we focus on the chemical stratigraphy of the pre-intrusion crust, which can be inferred from the compositions of crustal-contaminated mafic plutonic rocks, restitic crustal material incorporated by the complex, and granitic rocks crystallized from anatectic melts. These data sources independently indicate that the crust was compositionally stratified prior to the intrusion of an 8-km-thick gabbroic to dioritic body known as the Mafic Complex, with mica and K-feldspar abundance decreasing with depth and increasing metamorphic grade. Reconsideration of published zircon age data suggest that the igneous evolution initiated with sporadic pulses at around 295 Ma, when mafic sills intruded deep granulites which provided a minor amount of depleted crustal contaminant, very poor in LIL elements. With accelerated rates of the intrusion, between 292 and 286 m.y, mafic magmas invaded significantly more fertile, amphibolite-facies paragneisses, resulting in increased contamination and generating hybrid rocks with distinct chemistry. At this point, increased anatexis produced a large amount of silicic hybrid melts that fed the incremental growth of upper-crustal plutons and volcanic activity, while the disaggregated restite was largely assimilated once ingested by the growing Mafic Complex. This “igneous climax” was coincident with an increasing rate of intrusion, when the upper Mafic Complex began growing according to the “gabbro glacier” model and, at about the same time, volcanic activity initiated. Cooling lasted millions of years. In the coupled magmatic evolution of the deep and upper crust, the Mafic Complex should be considered more as a large reservoir of heat rather than a source of upper-crustal magma, while the fertility of “under/intra-plated” crust plays a crucial role in governing the generation of large volumes of continental silicic magmas.