Historical mining and smelting in the Vosges Mountains (France) recorded in two ombrotrophic peat bogs

Two peat sequences were sampled in the vicinity of the main mining districts of the Vosges Mountains: Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines and Plancher-les-Mines. Lead isotopic compositions and excess lead fluxes were calculated for each of these radiocarbon-dated sequences. Geochemical records are in very good agreement with the mining history of the area, well known over the last millennium. Except for an anomaly corresponding to the Middle Bronze Age which has not yet been resolved, there is no clear geochemical evidence of local metal production in the Vosges before the 10th century as excess lead deposition archived between 500 BC and 500 AD is attributed to long-range transport of polluted particulate matter. The approach described here can be applied to other mining districts where archaeological evidence is scarce or even lacking, but where past exploitation is suspected.     

U-Pb chronology of the Northampton Complex, Western Australia – evidence for Grenvillian sedimentation, metamorphism and deformation and geodynamic implications

Conventional and SHRIMP U-Pb analyses of zircon, monazite, titanite and apatite from the high grade rocks of the Northampton Complex in Western Australia provide constraints on the timing of metamorphic processes and deformation events in the northern Darling Mobile Belt (western margin of the Archean Yilgarn Craton). Paragneisses and mafic volcanics and/or intrusions have undergone granulite facies metamorphism in a probable extensional tectonic setting prior to formation of W- to NW-verging folds and thrusts cut by normal shears (interpreted as late collapse structures) during the main deformation event (D₁). These structures are folded by open to tight folds with NW-striking axial surfaces developed in a second, NE-SW contractional event (D₂). Zircons from a mafic granulite provide an age of 1079 ± 3 Ma attributed to new zircon growth prior to, or at the peak of regional granulite facies metamorphism. Metamorphic monazites extracted from a paragneiss yield an identical age of 1083 ± 3 Ma. The similarity of ages between zircons from the mafic granulite (1079 ± 3 Ma) and monazites from the paragneiss (1083 ± 3 Ma) is interpreted to reflect fast cooling and/or rapid uplift, which is consistent with thrusting of the gneissic units during the first deformation event (D₁) associated with the onset of retrograde metamorphism. Granitic activity at 1068 ± 13 Ma was followed by intrusion of post-D₂ pegmatite (989 ± 2 Ma), which constrains the end of metamorphism and associated deformation. Cooling of the complex to about 500 °C is timed by the apatite age of 921 ± 23 Ma. SHRIMP U-Pb ages of detrital zircons from a paragneiss sample yield a maximum age of 2043 Ma, with no evidence of an Archean Yilgarn signature. A majority of ages between 1.6 and 1.9 Ga are consistent with derivation from the Capricorn Orogen on the northern margin of the Yilgarn Craton. Younger detrital zircons with 1150–1450 Ma ages, however, indicate an additional source that had undergone early Grenvillian igneous or metamorphic event(s) and also places a maximum age constraint upon deposition. The source of this clastic material may have been from within the southern Darling Mobile Belt or from Greater India (adjacent to the Northampton Complex in Rodinia reconstructions). This study documents an extended Grenvillian history, with basin formation, sedimentation, granulite facies metamorphism, contractional tectonics (two periods with orthogonal directions of shortening) and late pegmatite emplacement taking place between 1150–989 Ma on the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton. Ages recorded in this study indicate that the proposed global distribution of Grenvillian belts during assembly of the Rodinia supercontinent should be reassessed to include the Darling Mobile Belt. Received: 7 January 1998 / Accepted: 10 March 1999     

Origin of Pyroxenite-Peridotite Veined Mantle by Refertilization Reactions: Evidence from the Ronda Peridotite (Southern Spain)

The Ronda orogenic peridotite (southern Spain) contains a varietyof pyroxene-rich rocks ranging from high-pressure garnet granulitesand pyroxenites to low-pressure plagioclase–spinel websterites.The ‘asthenospherized’ part of the Ronda peridotitecontains abundant layered websterites (‘group C’pyroxenites), without significant deformation, that occur asswarms of layers showing gradual modal transitions towards theirhost peridotites. Previous studies have suggested that theselayered pyroxenites formed by the replacement of refractoryspinel peridotites. Here, we present a major- and trace-element,and numerical modelling study of a layered outcrop of groupC pyroxenite near the locality of Tolox aimed at constrainingthe origin of these pyroxenites after host peridotites by pervasivepyroxene-producing, refertilization melt–rock reactions.Mg-number [= Mg/(Mg + Fe) cationic ratio] numerical modellingshows that decreasing Mg-number with increasing pyroxene proportion,characteristic of Ronda group C pyroxenites, can be accountedfor by a melt-consuming reaction resulting in the formationof mildly evolved, relatively low Mg-number melts (0·65)provided that the melt fraction during reaction and the time-integratedmelt/rock ratio are high enough (>0·1 and > 1,respectively) to balance Mg–Fe buffering by peridotiteminerals. This implies strong melt focusing caused by melt channellingin high-porosity domains resulting from compaction processesin a partial melted lithospheric domain below a solidus isothermrepresented by the Ronda peridotite recrystallization front.The chondrite-normalized rare earth element (REE) patterns ofgroup C whole-rocks and clinopyroxenes are convex-upward. Numericalmodeling of REE variations in clinopyroxene produced by a pyroxene-forming,melt-consuming reaction results in curved trajectories in the(Ce/Nd)_N vs (Sm/Yb)_N diagram (where N indicates chondrite normalized).Based on (Ce/Nd)_N values, two transient, enriched domains betweenthe light REE (LREE)-depleted composition of the initial peridotiteand that of the infiltrated melt may be distinguished in thereaction column: (1) a lower domain characterized by convex-upwardREE patterns similar to those observed in Ronda group C pyroxenite–peridotite;(2) an upper domain characterized by melts with strongly LREE-enrichedcompositions. The latter are probably volatile-rich, small-volumemelt fractions residual after the refertilization reactionsthat generated group C pyroxenites, which migrated throughoutthe massif—including the unmelted lithospheric spinel-tectonitedomain. The Ronda mantle domains affected by pyroxenite- anddunite- or harzburgite-forming reactions (the ‘layeredgranular’ subdomain and ‘plagioclase-tectonite’domain) are on average more fertile than the residual, ‘coarsegranular’ subdomain at the recrystallization front. Thisindicates that refertilization traces the moving boundariesof receding cooling of a thinned and partially melted subcontinentallithosphere. This refertilization process may be widespreadduring transient thinning and melting of depleted subcontinentallithospheric mantle above upwelling asthenospheric mantle. KEY WORDS: subcontinental mantle; refertilization; pyroxenite; peridotite; websterite; melt–rock reaction; plagioclase; trace elements