Evidence for a major crustal dislocation in the Hodgkinson Province,North Queensland

Several Late Palaeozoic granites which intrude strata of the Silurian‐Devonian Hodgkinson Province, north Queensland, display pronounced west‐northwest‐east‐southeast orientations, as do a suite of brittle structures that have affected both the plutons and country rocks. These features define a 20 km‐wide, west‐northwest‐trending zone, here named the Desailly Structure, which traverses the Hodgkinson Province and extends west across the Palmerville Fault into the Proterozoic Yambo Inlier. Deformation within the Desailly Structure was heterogeneously partitioned into zones of west‐northwest‐east‐southeast faulting separated by tracts of competent country rock. The latter contain a pervasive north‐south‐trending structural grain which locally controlled pluton emplacement and resulted in a meridional orientation of many granitoid bodies. Initiation of the Desailly Structure is attributed to have occurred syn‐ to post‐D₂ of the regional deformation history. It was reactivated in the Hunter‐Bowen Orogeny (D₄), with the zone expressing an overall sinistral sense of displacement.     

东秦岭灰池子花岗岩体的岩石结构特征及变形演化

灰池子岩体主要由花岗岩类岩石组成,该岩体岩石普遍具变形结构,变形过程较复杂。据岩石结构、矿物生长关系和野外产状特征,变形过程大体可划分为两期,第一期又可划分为二个幕。第一期变形的温度高,矿物动态重结晶显著,但S-C面理、S-L组构不发育,产状上下呈带状分布。这些特征与常见糜棱岩很不相同,推测第一期变形是岩体底辟侵位过程中发生的。第二期变形形成具一般特征的糜棱岩,变形环境大体属绿片岩相。     

新疆克拉玛依北西西向岩墙群侵位的磁组构证据

准噶尔盆地西北缘克拉玛依地区广泛发育二叠纪中基性岩墙群,该区岩墙被认为是碰撞后伸展的典型产物.本文根据岩墙宏观野外特征和镜下显微构造分析(岩墙分支、捕虏体、矿物线理和定向斑晶)得出研究区北西西-南东东向岩墙侵位方向由北西西向南东东侵位.通过对该区岩墙边界采样后进行磁化率各向异性测量得到磁组构的最大磁化率长轴优势方位分布图和磁组构各向异性特征分析,进一步指示其岩浆以一定仰角由北西西向南东东侵位.结合克拉玛依地区岩墙群与达拉布特深大断裂的时空分布特征推测该区北西西向岩墙岩浆来源于北西侧的达拉布特断裂,岩浆沿着达拉布特深大断裂上侵到先存裂隙而形成岩墙.     

The upper Hawasina nappes in the central Oman Mountains: stratigraphy,palinspastics and sequence of nappe emplacement

Abstract

In the Oman mountains, a succession of sedimentary decollement nappes, the Hawasina nappes, is sandwiched between the Samail ophiolite nappe and its underlying melange and the “autochthonous” sequences of the Arabian platform. The sediments of the Hawasina nappes document the Mesozoic evolution of the northeastern Arabian continental margin and the adjacent Tethys Ocean. In earlier paleogeographic reconstructions, based on simple telescoping of the tectonic units, the upper Hawasina nappes represent the distal part and the lower nappes the proximal part of the margin. New stratigraphic data suggest a revision of the paleogeography and a more complex model for nappe emplacement in the central Oman mountains. The lower Hawasina nappes with their Jurassic and Cretaceous base of slope and basin sediments (Hamrat Duru, Wahrah) form the original cover of part of the upper Hawasina nappes. In the latter (Al Ayn, Haliw), Triassic pelagic sediments, locally overlain by massive sandstone successions are preserved. Complete Mesozoic sequences with pelagic Cenomanian sediments as youngest dated elements are found in the highest Hawasina units (Al Aridh and Oman Exotics). The stratigraphic data indicate polyphase thrusting in the central Oman mountains. Downward propagation of thrusting in front of the Samail is responsible for cutting the original stratigraphie sequence into a number of thrust-sheets, involving successively older and more external formations. This kind of thrust propagation eventually leads to the observed superposition of originally lower stratigraphie units onto their original cover. Regional deformation of the nappe contacts in post-nappe culminations (J. Akhdar, Saih Hatat) is related to ramp-flat-systems in the Arabian foreland.     

Deformation history and timing of granite emplacement in the Butchers Hill — Helenvale region,northern Hodgkinson Province,Queensland

Granite plutons of the Whypalla Supersuite in the Butchers Hill — Helenvale region of north Queensland were intruded into the upper crust of the Hodgkinson Formation during contractional deformation associated with the Permian‐Triassic Hunter‐Bowen Orogeny. A four‐stage structural history has been resolved for the area, with fabric overprinting relationships, porphyroblast‐matrix microstructural geometries and isotopic ages being consistent with granite emplacement during D₄ shortening at ca 274 Ma. Microstructural relationships suggest the possibility of a minor syn‐D₃ phase of granite emplacement. The deformation‐emplacement history of the Butchers Hill — Helenvale area is consistent with that recognised regionally for the Hodgkinson Province, indicating province‐wide synchronous syntectonic granite intrusion during a major phase of contractional deformation. Intense syn‐emplacement deformation partitioning was ongoing in the country rocks during progressive D₄ and was associated with upward translation of country rock from the microscale to the macroscale along D₄ cleavages and shears. Kinematic indicators show that this progressive uplift, at the scale of the area examined, was east‐side‐up.     

Highly retentive core domains in K-feldspar and their implications for 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology illustrated by determining the cooling curve for the Capoas Granite,Palawan, The Philippines

K-feldspar from the late Miocene Capoas Granite on Palawan in The Philippines appears to contain highly retentive diffusion domains that are closed to argon diffusion at near-solidus temperatures during cooling of this ～7 km-diameter pluton. This is an important result, for K-feldspar is commonly considered not retentive in terms of its ability to retain argon. Closure temperatures for argon diffusion in K-feldspars are routinely claimed to be in the range ～150–400°C but the release of ³⁹Ar from irradiated K-feldspar during furnace step-heating experiments in vacuo yields Arrhenius data that imply the existence of highly retentive core domains, with inferred closure temperatures that can exceed ～500–700°C. These high closure temperatures from the Capoas Granite K-feldspar are consistent with the coincidence of ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages with U–Pb zircon ages at ca 13.5 ± 0.2 Ma. The cooling rate then accelerated, but the rate of change had considerably slowed by ca 12 Ma. Low-temperature (U–Th)/He thermochronology shows that the cooling rate once again accelerated at ca 11 Ma, perhaps owing to renewed tectonic activity.     

Chandrayaan-1 observation of distant secondary craters of Copernicus exhibiting central mound morphology: Evidence for low velocity clustered impacts on the Moon

Analysis of the Chandrayaan-1 Terrain Mapping Camera image of a 20 km×27 km area in the Mare Imbrium region revealed a cluster of thousands of fresh and buried impact craters in the size range of 20-1300 m. A majority of the large fresh craters with diameter ranging from 160 to 1270 m exhibit near-circular mounds (30-335 m diameter and 10-40 m height) in the crater floor, and their size depends on the host crater size. The origin of this cluster of secondary craters may be traced to Copernicus crater, based on global lunar image and the analysis of Chandrayaan-1 Hyper Spectral Imager data. Our findings provide further evidence for secondary crater formation by low-velocity impact of a cloud of clustered fragments. The presence of central mounds can also distinguish the secondary craters from the primary craters and refine the chronology of lunar surface based on counting of small craters.     

Geochemistry of magmatic rocks and time constraints on deformational phases and shear zone slip in the Méiganga area,central Cameroon

The Méiganga area is situated in the Adamawa–Yadé domain (AYD) of the Pan-African fold belt in Cameroon. The AYD is characterized by abundant plutonic rocks that intruded Palaeoproterozoic gneisses. It is cut by the transcurrent Central Cameroonian Shear Zone (CCSZ). The studied area is made up of metadiorite (MD), pyroxene-bearing granite (PGr) and biotite-muscovite granite (BMGr), hosted in a metasedimentary sequence of amphibole-biotite gneisses. The granitoids are metaluminous to slightly peraluminous, and mainly of I-type (ASI ≤ 1.1), representing a high-K calc-alkaline to shoshonitic suite. They were derived from crustal protoliths (BMGr), from rocks of mantle origin (MD, PGr), and/or from the remelting of metabasalt or metatonalite (MD, PGr). Four successive deformational phases (D1, D2, D3, and D4) are present in the Méiganga area. The S1 foliation is formed by tectonic transposition of the S0 primitive surface represented by contacts between the gneiss and intercalated amphibolites. The synmigmatitic D2 deformational phase is characterized by S2 banded schistosity, S2/C2 sinistral shear planes, and F2 folds with axes parallel to a L2 stretching lineation. Imprints of the D2 and subsequent deformational phases are similar in the metadiorite and host rocks, implying syn-D2 emplacement and crystallization of the metadiorite; therefore 614–619 Ma ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb zircon evaporation ages obtained for this rock type date the syn-D2 magmagenesis. Similarly, the D3 phase of the PGr is 601 ± 1 Ma, dated by the ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb evaporation method. D4 is a late-stage brittle deformational phase. Sinistral movement of the CCSZ is associated with D2, whereas its latest activity, characterized by dextral slip, cannot be older than emplacement of the 558 ± 2 Ma BMGr (²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb zircon evaporation age).     

Physical volcanology and geochemistry of Palaeoarchaean komatiite lava flows from the western Dharwar craton,southern India: implications for Archaean mantle evolution and crustal growth

ABSTRACT

Palaeoarchaean (3.38–3.35 Ga) komatiites from the Jayachamaraja Pura (J.C. Pura) and Banasandra greenstone belts of the western Dharwar craton, southern India were erupted as submarine lava flows. These high-temperature (1450–1550°C), low-viscosity lavas produced thick, massive, polygonal jointed sheet flows with sporadic flow top breccias. Thick olivine cumulate zones within differentiated komatiites suggest channel/conduit facies. Compound, undifferentiated flow fields developed marginal-lobate thin flows with several spinifex-textured lobes. Individual lobes experienced two distinct vesiculation episodes and grew by inflation. Occasionally komatiite flows form pillows and quench fragmented hyaloclastites. J.C. Pura komatiite lavas represent massive coherent facies with minor channel facies, whilst the Bansandra komatiites correspond to compound flow fields interspersed with pillow facies. The komatiites are metamorphosed to greenschist facies and consist of serpentine-talc ± carbonate, actinolite–tremolite with remnants of primary olivine, chromite, and pyroxene. The majority of the studied samples are komatiites (22.46–42.41 wt.% MgO) whilst a few are komatiitic basalts (12.94–16.18 wt.% MgO) extending into basaltic (7.71 – 10.80 wt.% MgO) composition. The studied komatiites are Al-depleted Barberton type whilst komatiite basalts belong to the Al-undepleted Munro type. Trace element data suggest variable fractionation of garnet, olivine, pyroxene, and chromite. Incompatible element ratios (Nb/Th, Nb/U, Zr/Y Nb/Y) show that the komatiites were derived from heterogeneous sources ranging from depleted to primitive mantle. CaO/Al₂O₃ and (Gd/Yb)_N ratios show that the Al-depleted komatiite magmas were generated at great depth (350–400 km) by 40–50% partial melting of deep mantle with or without garnet (majorite?) in residue whilst komatiite basalts and basalts were generated at shallow depth in an ascending plume. The widespread Palaeoarchaean deep depleted mantle-derived komatiite volcanism and sub-contemporaneous TTG accretion implies a major earlier episode of mantle differentiation and crustal growth during ca. 3.6–3.8 Ga.     

太行山阜平杂岩中麻棚-赤瓦屋岩体的时代、侵位深度及构造意义

中生代岩浆活动在太行山北段形成了一系列花岗岩体,其中的麻棚-赤瓦屋岩体侵位于穹窿状的阜平杂岩中,具有贫硅、富碱、高铝的钙碱性I型花岗岩特征。岩体分带明显,由边部向核部可以划分为石英闪长岩、花岗闪长岩、似斑状花岗岩3个相带,它们的锆石LA-ICP-MS U-Pb年龄分别为126.4±2.4 Ma、125.4±2.0 Ma和126.2±2.0 Ma,在误差范围内一致,指示岩体在早白垩世期间快速侵位、结晶。各相带样品的角闪石全铝平均值分别为1.018、0.880和0.871,对应的角闪石平均结晶压力分别为0.183、0.118和0.114 GPa,均值为0.141 GPa,对应的侵位深度约5 km,明显小于区域内元古界至侏罗系的地层厚度,表明在岩体侵位之前,阜平杂岩就已经具有穹窿状构造特征。结合相关资料,估计太行山早白垩世以来的平均隆升速率为0.07~0.08 km/Ma。