Microstructure,metamorphism, thermochronology and P-T-t-deformation history of the Port aux Basques gneisses,south-west Newfoundland,Canada*

Abstract The Port aux Basques gneisses comprise three lithostratigraphic units separated by major fault zones: the Grand Bay Complex; the Port aux Basques Complex; and the Harbor le Cou Group. A similar regionally developed polyphase history of penetrative deformation characterizes each of these units. Thickening during D1 produced rare recumbent folds (F1) and an axial planar schistosity (S1), overprinted by D2 recumbent folds (F2), and transposed during development of a locally penetrative, differentiated crenulation cleavage (S2). In western sectors of the area, D2 was associated with NW-directed reverse shearing. The NE-trending structural grain reflects D3 transpression, partitioned into dextral transcurrent movement along major shear zones and development of upright-to-steeply inclined, periclinal folds (F3) and a variably penetrative schistosity (S3). Amphibolite facies metamorphism increases in grade from west to east across the area. Microstructures, including porphyroblast-matrix foliation relations and internal textural unconformities in garnet, indicate episodic porphyroblast nucleation and growth, which reflect a prograde traverse sequentially across univariant reactions during syntectonic metamorphism. Garnet, kyanite and staurolite porphyroblasts are wrapped by the S2 foliation, but each may contain trails of inclusions that define S1; commonly these trails preserve early stages of S2 crenulation cleavage development. Progressive and sequential reaction out of kyanite, staurolite and muscovite in favour of sillimanite, garnet, biotite and K-feldspar, and the development of an increasing volume of anatectic migmatite in south-eastern sectors of the area record syn- to late-D2 peak metamorphic conditions. Microstructural relationships and petrogenetic grid considerations indicate clockwise trajectories in P-T space for units of the Port aux Basques gneisses. Peak metamorphic conditions are estimated to have been 620–650° C at ≤8kbar in the west and 700–750° C at ≤8 kbar in the east. Titanite from an upper amphibolite facies calc-silicate gneiss yields U-Pb ages of c. 420 Ma, interpreted to date cooling shortly after the thermal peak in these gneisses. Variable D3 strain was associated with some recrystallization of hornblende and micas. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar hornblende plateau isotope correlation ages range from c. 419 to c. 393 Ma, from east to west across the area, and are interpreted to record cooling through c. 500° C coeval with or soon after D3 deformation. The range in ages may record the effects of heterogeneous D3 deformation and differential uplift from south-east to north-west associated with displacement on major shear zones. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar muscovite plateau ages cluster at c. 390 Ma, and date cooling through c. 375° C during regional exhumation. Cooling rates are moderate to fast and may indicate a component of tectonic exhumation. The Port aux Basques gneisses are a product of Silurian collisional tectonics. The higher grade of metamorphism in comparison with adjacent areas of the Canadian Appalachians is interpreted to reflect greater thickening due to juxtaposition of the St Lawrence promontory (Laurentian margin) with the Cabot promontory (Avalonian margin) during closure of the Iapetus Ocean.     

Delayed plastic model for time‐dependent behaviour of materials

A delayed plastic model, based on the theory of plasticity, is proposed to represent the time‐dependent behaviour of materials. It is assumed in this model that the stress can lie outside the yield surface and the conjugate stress called static stress is defined on the yield surface. The stress–strain relation is calculated based on the plastic theory embedding the static stress. Thus, the stress–strain relation of the model practically corresponds to that of the inviscid elastoplastic model under fairly low rate deformation. The delayed plastic model is coupled with the Cam‐clay model for normally consolidated clays. The performance of the model is then examined by comparing the model predictions with reported time‐dependent behaviour of clays under undrained triaxial conditions. It is shown that the model is capable of predicting the effect of strain rate during undrained shear and the undrained creep behaviour including creep rupture. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inference of a detailed P–T path from P–T pseudosections using metapelitic rocks of variable composition from a single outcrop, Shackleton Range, Antarctica

Generally, P–T pseudosections for reduced compositional systems, such as K₂O–FeO–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O, Na₂O–K₂O–FeO–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O and MnO–K₂O–FeO–MgO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂–H₂O, are well suited for inferring detailed P–T paths, comparing mineral assemblages observed in natural rocks with those calculated. Examples are provided by P–T paths inferred for four metapelitic samples from a 1 m² wide outcrop of the Herbert Mountains in the Shackleton Range, Antarctica. The method works well if the bulk composition used is reconstituted from average mineral modes and mineral compositions (AMC) or when X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) data are corrected for Al₂O₃ and FeO. A plagioclase correction is suitable for Al₂O₃. Correction for FeO is dependent on additional microscopic observations, e.g. the kind and amount of opaque minerals. In some cases, all iron can be treated as FeO^tot, whereas in others a magnetite or hematite correction yields much better results. Comparison between calculated and observed mineral modes and mineral compositions shows that the AMC bulk composition is best suited to the interpretation of rock textures using P–T pseudosections, whereas corrected XRF data yield good results only when the investigated sample has few opaque minerals. The results indicate that metapelitic rocks from the Herbert Mountains of the Northern Shackleton Range underwent a prograde P–T evolution from about 600 °C/5.5 kbar to 660 °C/7 kbar, followed by nearly adiabatic cooling to about 600 °C at 4.5 kbar.     

Gedrite–garnet–sillimanite-bearing granulites from Amessmessa area, south In Ouzzal, Hoggar, Algeria

Some granulites from the Amessmessa area (south In Ouzzal unit, Hoggar) contain the peak assemblage gedrite+garnet+sillimanite+quartz that was used to estimate the P–T conditions of metamorphism. The rocks developed symplectites and corona textures by the breakdown of the primary paragenesis to orthopyroxene, cordierite and spinel. The successive parageneses formed in separate microdomains according to a clockwise P–T path. Geothermometry, geobarometry and phase diagram calculations indicate that the textures formed by decompression and cooling from 7–9 kbar and 850–900°C to 3.5–4.5 kbar and 700–800°C. This P–T evolution is consistent with low to medium a_H2O, between 0.4 and 0.7, and is similar to the metamorphic conditions deduced in Al–Mg granulites from the north of In Ouzzal.     

用拉格朗日插值法求钻程坐标及其PC—1500程序

传统方法绘制的钻程线投影图,往往成为较明显的折线。不符合本来是圆滑曲线的钻程线,且其误差也较大,而用拉格朗日插值法可以根据已得到的测斜结果,拟合出一条圆滑的钻程线。本文介绍了用这种方法编制的PC—1500机BASIC程序,使地质人员可用该机计算制图,摆脱繁锁的手工操作,提高工效和成图质量。     

北秦岭官坡地区柯石英榴辉岩变质作用的P－T－t轨迹

根据矿物包裹和替代关系以及共生组合规律，北秦岭官坡地区柯石英榴辉岩的变质作用演化可划分为５个阶段，即前榴辉岩相的绿帘角闪岩相、榴辉岩相、后榴辉岩相的角闪岩相、绿帘角闪岩相和绿片岩相。Ｓｍ－Ｎｄ同位素定年显示，北秦岭柯石英榴辉岩于４００±１６Ｍａ沿朱夏断裂被推覆上升，Ｐ－Ｔ－ｔ轨迹的地球动力学成因可能与扬子和华北陆块间的俯冲－碰撞作用有关。     

Late Proterozoic High-pressure granulite facies meta-morphism in the north-east Ox inlier, north-west Ireland

Abstract High-pressure granulite-facies gneisses in the NE Ox inlier in NW Ireland have undergone extensive Caledonian retrogression. In the local area of Slishwood, however, reworking was negligible and the gneisses (psammites, semipelites, pelites, metabasites and ultramafites) preserve evidence of P–T changes at high grade which mainly post-date pre-Caledonian polyphase deformation. Temperatures reached 850–900°C (based on garnet-clinopyroxene geothermometry and the presence of mesoperthite) during and after decompression from earlier eclogite-facies conditions (inferred from textural evidence of plagioclase release in sieve-textured augite). Subsequent cooling at high pressure is inferred from the unequivocal replacement of sillimanite by kyanite.
A Sm–Nd mineral isochron (gt–cpx–plag–WR) of 605 ± 37 Ma is taken to date a point on the cooling path, and confirms the hitherto suspected pre-Caledonian age of the high-grade metamorphism. Geochemical and Sm–Nd isotopic data indicate that the protoliths were probably late Proterozoic arkosic sediments and tholeiites. Following metamorphism they apparently came to reside near the base of the crust where they slowly cooled. The eventual exhumation of these gneisses is attributed to Caledonian crustal imbrication, followed by rapid isostatic recovery.     

Exhumation during oblique transpression: The Feiran–Solaf region, Egypt

The Feiran–Solaf metamorphic complex of Sinai, Egypt, is one of the highest grade metamorphic complexes of a series of basement domes that crop out throughout the Arabian-Nubian Shield. In the Eastern Desert of Egypt these basement domes have been interpreted as metamorphic core complexes exhumed in extensional settings. For the Feiran–Solaf complex an interpretation of the exhumation mechanism is difficult to obtain with structural arguments as all of its margins are obliterated by post-tectonic granites. Here, metamorphic methods are used to investigate its tectonic history and show that the complex was characterized by a single metamorphic cycle experiencing peak metamorphism at ∼700–750 °C and 7–8 kbar and subsequent isothermal decompression to ∼4–5 kbar, followed by near isobaric cooling to 450 °C. Correlation of this metamorphic evolution with the deformation history shows that peak metamorphism occurred prior to the compressive deformation phase D ₂, while the compressive D ₂ and D ₃ deformation occurred during the near isothermal decompression phase of the P–T loop. We interpret the concurrence of decompression of the P–T path and compression by structural shortening as evidence for the Najd fault system exhuming the complex in an oblique transpressive regime. However, final exhumation from ∼15 km depth must have occurred due to an unrelated mechanism.     

THE DEMOGRAPHIC CONSEQUENCES OF METROPOLITAN POPULATION DECONCENTRATION IN THE U.S.

Although the recent growth in the nonmetropolitan population of the U.S. is now well documented, little attention has been given to the consequences these trends will have on the future composition and growth of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan regions. This paper discusses the feedback effects of migration on the future age structure and population growth of both regions during the period 1975–2000.     

Dehydration melting, fluid buffering and decompressional P–T path in a granulite complex from the Eastern Ghats, India

A suite of metapelites, charnockites, calc-silicate rocks, quartzo-feldspathic gneisses and mafic granulites is exposed at Garbham, a part of the Eastern Ghats granulite belt of India. Reaction textures and mineral compositional data have been used to determine the P–T–X evolutionary history of the granulites. In metapelites and charnockites, dehydration melting reactions involving biotite produced quartzofeldspathic segregations during peak metamorphism. However, migration of melt from the site of generation was limited. Subsequent to peak metamorphism at c . 860° C and 8 kbar, the complex evolved through nearly isothermal decompression to 530–650° C and 4–5 kbar. During this phase, coronal garnet grew in the calc-silicates, while garnet in the presence of quartz broke down in charnockite and mafic granulite. Fluid activities during metamorphism were internally buffered in different lithologies in the presence of a melt phase. The P–T path of the granulites at Garbham contrasts sharply with the other parts of the Eastern Ghats granulite belt where the rocks show dominantly near-isobaric cooling subsequent to peak metamorphism.