Microstructural evidence for magma confluence and reusage of magma pathways: implications for magma hybridization,Karakoram Shear Zone in NW India

In the Karakoram Shear Zone, Ladakh, NW India, Miocene leucogranitic dykes form an extensive, varied and complex network, linking an anatectic terrane exposed in the Pangong Range, with leucogranites of the Karakoram Batholith. Mineral paragenesis of the heterogeneous anatectic source rocks suggests melting has resulted from water influx into rocks at upper amphibolite facies conditions, and microstructures suggest anatexis was contemporaneous with shearing. The network is characterized by continuous and interconnected dykes, with only rare cross‐cutting relationships, forming swarms and chaotic injection complexes where magmatic rocks cover up to 50% of the outcrop area. Despite this volume of magma, the system did not lose continuity, suggesting that it did not flow en masse and that the magma network was not all liquid simultaneously. Leucogranites in this network, including leucosomes in migmatites, carry an isotopic signature intermediate between the two main anatectic rocks in the source, suggesting efficient homogenization of the magmatic products. Here, we describe a number of microscopic features of these magmatic rocks which suggests that several pulses of magma used the same pathways giving rise to textural and chemical disequilibrium features. These include: (i) narrow, tortuous corridors of fine‐grained minerals cutting across or lining the boundaries of larger grains, interpreted to be remnants of magma‐filled cracks cutting across a pre‐existing magmatic rock; (ii) corrosion of early formed grains at the contact with fine‐grained material; (iii) compositional zoning of early formed plagioclase and K‐feldspar grains and quartz overgrowths documented by cathodoluminescence imaging; (iv) incipient development of rapakivi and anti‐rapakivi textures, and (iv) different crystallographic preferred orientation of early formed quartz and fine‐grained quartz. Mapping of the fine‐grained corridors interpreted to represent late melt channels reveal an interlinked network broadly following the S‐C fabric defined by pre‐existing magmatic grains. We conclude that early formed dykes provided a pathway exploited intermittently or continuously by new magma batches. New influxes of magma opened narrow channels and migrated through a microscopic network following predominantly grain boundaries along an S‐C fabric related to syn‐magmatic shearing. A mixed isotopic signature resulted not from the mixing of magmas, but from the micro‐scale interaction between new magma batches and previously crystallized magmatic rocks, through local equilibration.     

辽西台里地区新太古代片麻岩杂岩的形成时代、岩石成因和地质意义

辽西台里地区片麻岩杂岩主要由片麻状花岗岩、黑云斜长片麻岩、角闪斜长片麻岩组成。锆石U-Pb定年结果表明,该套杂岩形成于2 510~2 559 Ma,与"绥中花岗岩"时代相同,同属华北克拉通新太古代结晶岩石。野外产状和岩石组构特征显示,本区片麻岩杂岩为一套同变形的深熔型混合岩。其中,角闪斜长片麻岩代表低度熔融的"古成体",其间分布少量具"浅色体"特征的长英质岩脉;黑云斜长片麻岩为熔融程度较低的"残留体";片麻状花岗岩为部分熔融程度最高的"新成体"。它们在矿物组成和地球化学上呈现良好的递变关系。结合前人Hf同位素研究资料,本文认为台里地区片麻岩杂岩可能记录了一期重要的陆壳再造事件。     

Retrograde melt–residue interaction and the formation of near‐anhydrous leucosomes in migmatites

Considering physical segregation of melt from its residue, the chemical potentials of the components (oxides) are the same in both when segregation occurs. Then, as P–T conditions change, gradients in chemical potential are established between the melt‐rich domains and residue permitting diffusional interaction to occur. In particular, on cooling, the chemical potential of H₂O becomes higher in the melt segregation than in the residue, particularly when biotite becomes stable in the residue assemblage. Diffusion of water from the melt to the residue promotes crystallization of anhydrous products from the melt and hydrous products in the residue. This diffusive process, when coupled with melt loss from the rocks subsequent to some degree of crystallization, can result in a significant degree of anhydrous leucosome being preserved in a migmatite with only minor retrogression of the residue. If H₂O can diffuse between the melt segregation and all of the residue, then no apparent selvedge between the two will be observed. Alternatively, if H₂O can diffuse between the melt segregation and only part of the residue, then a distinct selvedge may be produced. Diffusion of H₂O into the residue may be in part responsible for the commonly anhydrous nature of leucosomes, especially in granulite facies migmatites. Diffusion of other relatively mobile species such as Na₂O and K₂O has a lesser effect on overall melt crystallization but can change the proportion of quartz, plagioclase and K‐feldspar in the resultant leucosome. The diffusion of H₂O out of the melt results in the enhanced crystallization of the melt in the segregation and increases the amount of resulting anhydrous leucosome relative to the amount produced if melt crystallized in chemical isolation from the residue. For high residue:melt ratios, the proportion of resulting near‐anhydrous leucosome can approach that of the proportion of melt present at the onset of cooling with only minor loss of melt from a given segregation required. Crystallization of melt segregations via the diffusion of H₂O out of them into the host may also play a major role in driving melt‐rich segregations across key rheological transitions that would allow the expulsion of remaining melt from the system.     

Tourmaline breakdown in the migmatite zone of the Ryoke metamorphic belt,SW Japan

A sharp line delimitating the distribution of tourmaline (termed as a ‘tourmaline‐out isograd’) is defined in the migmatite zone of the Ryoke metamorphic belt, Japan. The trend of the tourmaline‐out isograd closely matches that of the isograds formed through the regional metamorphism, suggesting that it represents the breakdown front of tourmaline during regional metamorphism. This is confirmed by the presence of the reaction textures of tourmaline to sillimanite and cordierite near the tourmaline‐out isograd. The breakdown of tourmaline would release boron into associated melts or fluids and be an important factor in controlling the behaviour of boron in tourmaline‐bearing high‐temperature metamorphic rocks. Near the tourmaline‐out isograd, large tourmaline crystals occur in the centre of interboudin partitions containing leucosome. In the melanosome of the intervening matrix, reaction textures involving tourmaline are locally observed. These observations imply that tourmaline breakdown is related to a melting reaction and that the boron in the leucosome is derived from the breakdown of tourmaline in the melanosome during prograde metamorphism. Boron released by tourmaline breakdown lowers both the solidus temperature of the rock and the viscosity of any associated melt. Considering that the tourmaline‐out isograd lies close to the schist–migmatite boundary, these effects might have enhanced melt generation and segregation in the migmatite zone of the Ryoke belt. The evidence for the breakdown of tourmaline and the almost complete absence of any borosilicates throughout the migmatite zone suggest that boron was effectively removed from this region by the movement of melt and/or fluid. This implies that the tourmaline‐out isograd can reflect a significant amount of mass transfer in the anatectic zones.     

A Metamorphic Core Complex Model for the Host of Uranium Mineralization in the Khoshoumi Mountain,Central Iran

A metamorphic core complex model is proposed for Khoshoumi Mountain uranium mineralization located in the Bafq–Saghand metallogenic zone of central Iran. Uranium mineralization occurred in the Chapedoni metamorphic complex. Detailed structural analysis of the complex leads to the interpretation that the mineralization is spatially concentrated in a low angle shear zone of mylonitized migmatite, the lower ductile part of the Chapedoni metamorphic complex. The shear zone that has top to the NE sense of shear in the northeastern and southeastern parts of the mountain and top to the WNW sense of shear in the southwestern part is a detachment zone to the Chapedoni Metamorphic Core Complex (CMCC). The Eocene granite is the plutonic core to the CMCC. The shear zone is cut by several NE‐trending left‐lateral strike‐slip faults. This later faulting is interpreted to account for the significant enrichment of uranium in the southern part of the mountain. The bimodal distribution of radiometric data gathered from exploratory drill holes in this part of the mountain constrains this interpretation. That is, the lower value is from the shear zone across the area but the higher value is from the places that the shear zone is cut by the transverse faults.     

Geological context of crustal anatexis and granitic magmatism in the northeastern Glenelg River Complex,western Victoria

The Cambro‐Ordovician Glenelg River Complex in the Harrow district, western Victoria, consists of extensive granitic rocks associated with a migmatitic metasedimentary envelope. Metasedimentary rocks comprise amphibolite facies massive‐laminated quartzo‐feldspathic schists and layered gneisses with minor sillimanite‐bearing horizons. Intercalated are stromatic and nebulitic migmatites of granitic and tonalitic character; textural evidence suggests that both varieties developed by in situ partial melting. Ranging from adamellite to leucotonalite, granitic rocks contain abundant magmatic muscovite, commonly with garnet and sillimanite, and exhibit generally unrecrystallised igneous textures. Heterogeneous structurally concordant plutons transitional to migmatites and more uniform intrusive phases are delineated with both types hosting diverse metasedimentary enclaves, micaceous selvages and schlieren; a gneissic foliation of variable intensity is defined by the latter. These petrographic attributes are consistent with derivation of plutons by anatexis of a peraluminous metasedimentary protolith. The schlieric foliation is not tectonically imposed, but rather directly inherited from the migmatitic precursor, compositional variations within which are preserved by the layered Schofield Adamellite. The most mafic granitic body (Tuloona Granodiorite) also has igneous microgranular enclaves indicating a more complex petrogenesis. Metasedimentary rocks experienced five episodes of folding, the latest involving macroscopic open warps. This is analogous to the structural history elucidated elsewhere in the Glenelg River Complex, by inference a coherent tectonic entity whose present metamorphic and stratigraphic configuration might be governed by F₅ folding. Structures within migmatites intimate that partial melting proceeded throughout the deformational history and peaked syn‐D₄ to pre‐D₅, whilst temperatures had waned to sub‐biotite grade in the southwestern Glenelg River Complex. Granitic rocks were generated during this anatectic culmination and were therefore emplaced late in the orogenic history relative to other syntectonic phases of the Glenelg River Complex.     

Wet or dry? The difficulty of identifying the presence of water during crustal melting

Partial melting of continental crust and evolution of granitic magmas are inseparably linked to the availability of H₂O. In the absence of a free aqueous fluid, melting takes place at relatively high temperatures by dehydration of hydrous minerals, whereas in its presence, melting temperatures are lowered, and melting need not involve hydrous minerals. With the exception of anatexis in water‐saturated environments where anhydrous peritectic minerals are absent, there is no reliable indicator that clearly identifies the presence of a free aqueous fluid during anatexis. Production of Ab‐rich magmas or changes in LILE ratios, such as an increase in Sr and decrease in Rb indicating increased involvement of plagioclase, are rough guidelines to the presence of aqueous fluids. Nevertheless, all indicators have caveats and cannot be unequivocally applied, allowing for the persistence of a bias in the literature towards dehydration melting. Investigation of mineral equilibria modelling of three metasedimentary protoliths of the Kangaroo Island migmatites in South Australia, shows that the main indicator for the presence of small volumes of excess water under upper amphibolite to lower granulite facies conditions (660–750°C) is the melt volume produced. Melt composition, modal content or chemical composition of peritectic minerals such as cordierite, sillimanite or garnet are relatively insensitive to the presence of free water. However, the mobility of melt during open system behaviour makes it difficult to determine the melt volume produced. We therefore argue that the presence of small volumes of excess water might be much more common than so far inferred, with large impact on the buffering of crustal temperatures and fertility, and therefore rheology of the continental crust.     

Evidence for melt migration enhancing recrystallization of metastable assemblages in mafic lower crust, Fiordland, New Zealand

A major arc batholith, the Western Fiordland Orthogneiss (WFO) in Fiordland, New Zealand, exhibits irregular, spatially restricted centimetre-scale recrystallization from two-pyroxene hornblende granulite to garnet granulite flanking felsic dykes. At Lake Grave, northern Fiordland, the composition and texture of narrow (<10–20 mm across) felsic dykes that cut the orthogneiss are consistent with an igneous origin and injection of melt to form orthogneiss migmatite. New U–Pb geochronology suggests that the injection of dykes and migmatization occurred at c . 115 Ma, during the later stages of arc magmatism. Recrystallization to garnet granulite is promoted by volatile extraction from the host two-pyroxene hornblende granulite via adjacent dykes and the patchy development of garnet granulite is left as a marker adjacent to the melt migration path. New mineral equilibria modelling suggests that a two-pyroxene hornblende assemblage is stable at <11 kbar, whereas a garnet granulite assemblage is stable at >12 kbar, suggesting that garnet granulite may have formed with <5 km crustal loading of the batholith. Although the garnet granulite assemblages signify that the WFO experienced high- P conditions, the very local nature of these textures indicates widespread metastability (>90%) of the two-pyroxene hornblende granulite assemblages. These results indicate the strongly metastable nature of assemblages in mafic lower arc crust during deep burial and demonstrate that the degree of reaction in the case of Fiordland is related to interaction with migrating melts.     

粤西福湖岭混合岩及其原岩的地质年代学研究

为了深入认识华夏地块早古生代陆内造山作用相应的地壳再造过程,本文选取粤西福湖岭混合岩进行了详细的岩相学以及锆石U-Pb年代学研究。根据混合岩化程度,粤西福湖岭混合岩剖面由上而下可以分为3部分:混合岩化沉积变质岩、条带状混合岩和混合花岗岩。根据岩性与岩相学特征,福湖岭混合岩又可分为古成体、暗色体和浅色体。LA-ICP-MS锆石U-Pb定年结果及与区域上基底变质岩资料的对比研究表明,福湖岭混合岩的原岩(古成体)是形成于新元古代的变质沉积岩。粤西福湖岭混合岩的形成时代为441~435 Ma,是华夏地块早古生代陆内造山事件的重要产物。     

粤西福湖岭加里东混合岩-花岗岩形成温度研究

钦-杭结合带南段广泛发育加里东期的混合岩和混合花岗岩。研究这些混合岩和混合花岗岩形成的P-T条件,不但有助于了解加里东造山阶段本区地壳内部的温度特征,对于花岗岩浆形成以及大陆流变等理论问题的研究也有重要意义。本文讨论的福湖岭剖面位于钦-杭结合带南端,为一海边岩壁,其上出露分带清晰的加里东期混合岩-混合花岗岩,自上而下依次为斑点状混合岩、条纹状混合岩、窄条带状混合岩、宽条带状混合岩及混合花岗岩。作者在野外对剖面上不同类型的岩石进行了影像采样,在计算机上对采集影像样品进行处理,在统一阀值下转换成代表浅色体(熔体)和暗色体(未熔岩石或熔渣)的黑白影像,并统计浅色体的含量百分比(熔体比)。将由此得到的各类岩石熔融比数据投到用Winkler and von Platen(1961)的硬砂岩熔融实验数据构成的温度-熔体比曲线图上,获知该剖面混合岩的形成温度在630~705℃之间,原岩的熔断温度("脏"花岗岩浆生成温度)为705℃,岩石熔融时(439~445Ma)剖面的埋深大体处于当时地表以下7km左右。本文结合福湖岭剖面地质研究和岩石熔融实验数据建立的"熔融温度计",为混合岩-混合花岗岩形成温度的测定提供了一种新方法,不仅适用于福湖岭,也可用于其它地区。