Late-glacial ice advances in the western Italian Alps

The extent of ice on the south side of the Mont Blanc massif during two late-glacial readvances is known primarily from the distribution of crystalline erratics on sedimentary and metasedimentary terrain, and from the distribution of end moraines and outwash remants. Similar dual moraine complexes are found elsewhere in upper Val d'Aosta and indicate that the pattern is regional in character. During the earlier readvance equilibrium-line altitudes were ca. 450 ± 50m lower than at present, whereas during the later readvance they were ca. 350 ± 50 m lower. The moraines, not yet closely dated, were deposited sometime after 14,200 ¹⁴C Years ago by which time Lago'd Alice near the margin of the würm moraine system at Ivrea had been deglaciated, and before 8400 years ago, at which time Rutor Glacier in upper Val d'Aosta was no larger than at present. The younger moraines are believed to correlate with Egesen moraines on the north side of the Alps, whereas the older set may either correlate with an early phase of the Egesen or with Daun advance.     

REE and PGE Geochemical Constraints on the Formation of Dunites in the Luobusa Ophiolite, Southern Tibet

The Luobusa ophiolite, Southern Tibet, lies in the Indus–YarlungZangbo suture zone that separates Eurasia to the north fromthe Indian continent to the south. The ophiolite contains awell-preserved mantle sequence consisting of harzburgite, clinopyroxene(cpx)-bearing harzburgite and dunite. The harzburgite containsabundant pods of chromitite, most of which have dunite envelopes,and the cpx-bearing harzburgites host numerous dunite dykes.Dunite also exists as a massive unit similar to those of themantle–crust transition zones in other ophiolites. Allof the dunites in the ophiolite have a similar mineralogy, comprisingmainly olivine with minor orthopyroxene and chromite and tracesof clinopyroxene. They also display similar chemical compositions,including U-shaped chondrite-normalized REE patterns. Mantle-normalizedPGE patterns show variable negative Pt anomalies. Detailed analysisof a chromite-bearing dunite dyke, which grades into the hostcpx-bearing harzburgite, indicates that LREE and Ir decrease,whereas HREE, Pd and Pt increase away from the dunite. Thesefeatures are consistent with formation of the dunite dykes byinteraction of MORB peridotites with boninitic melts from whichthe chromitites were formed. Because the transition-zone dunitesare mineralogically and chemically identical to those formedby such melt–rock reaction, we infer that they are ofsimilar origin. The Luobusa ultramafic rocks originally formedas MORB-source upper mantle, which was subsequently trappedas part of a mantle wedge above a subduction zone. Hydrous meltsgenerated under the influence of the subducted slab at depthmigrated upward and reacted with the cpx-bearing harzburgitesto form the dunite dykes. The modified melts ponded in smallpockets higher in the section, where they produced podiformchromitites with dunite envelopes. At the top of the mantlesection, pervasive reaction between melts and harzburgite producedthe transition-zone dunites. KEY WORDS: melt–rock interaction; REE; PGE; hydrous melt; mantle; ophiolite; Tibet     

A Stable Isotope Study of Anorogenic Magmatism in East Central Asia

A stable isotope study of 168 plutonic igneous rock and fivewater samples from Transbaikalia, East Asia, has been made,including 318 whole-rock and mineral ¹⁸O/¹⁶O analyses and 14D/H analyses. This represents the first detailed isotopic studyof the enormous Phanerozoic K-rich (mostly anorogenic) granitoidbelts of this region, which are thousands of kilometers in lengthand span an age range of >250Ma. Of the five main intrusivesuites, emplacement of the youngest (Permo-Triassic) was accompaniedby intense meteoric-hydrothermal activity, locally causing extreme¹⁸O depletio (¹⁸O _feldspar<–12). This reflects thevery low ¹⁸O of the water involved in these systems, which probablyhad ¹⁸O < – 20 and D < – 150, consistent withthe high paleolatitude of Transbaikalia in the early Mesozoic(80N). Despite local post-emplacement, hydrothermal ¹⁸O-depletioneffects near Permo-Triassic and younger plutons, the variationof magmatic isotopic composition in the five intrusive suites,in space and time, can be clearly discerned using the ¹⁸O/¹⁶Ovariation in phases such as quartz and sphene that are resistantto sub-solidus exchange. A procedure for analyzing ¹⁸O/¹⁶O insphene using a laser fluorination technique is described: analysisof samples as small as 0.4 mg (including single crystals ofsphene from granitoids) is possible and provides an effectiveway to estimate the magmatic ¹⁸O value of plutonic igneous rocks.Most sphene and quartz ¹⁸O values vary by 1.0–2.0% withineach of the five main intrusive suites in Transbaikalia (rangingin age from mid-Paleozoic to Mesozoic), and are uniform bothwithin individual plutons and among plutons of the same suiteseparated by tens or hundreds of kilometers. However, each suitehas a unique range in ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, indicating that, on a regionalscale, the magmatic ¹⁸O values of these granitoids decreasedprogressively in 1% decrements from +10 in the earliest groupto +6 in the youngest. This progression was accompanied by increasesin the concentration of elements such as K and Zr, and decreasesin the concentration of elements such as Sr and Ba. These systematicsrequire large scale deep crustal melting and mixing processesto generate the compositional uniformity of individual plutonsand groups over such wide areas, and also a progressive hybridizationof the crust with alkalic, mantle-derived magmas to generatesyenites and granites with progressively lower ¹⁸O values. Thisprocess may be a hallmark of anorogenic granitoid petrogenesisand the intracontinental cratonization process in general, andalso represents an important (though largely cryptic) crustalgrowth mechanism. KEY WORDS: anorogenic granitoids; crustal growth; hybridization; hydrothermal systems; stable isotopes ¹Present address: Galson Sciences Limited, 5 Grosvenor House, Melton Road, Oakham LE15 6AX, UK.