Melt Generation and Fluid Flow in the Thermal Aureole of the Bushveld Complex

Granite sheets emplaced into the migmatite zone of the easterncontact aureole of the Bushveld Complex resulted from fluid-enhanced,incongruent biotite melting of the underlying Silverton Formationshales during prograde metamorphism. Ba concentrations are extremein both the sheets (>1000 ppm) and the hornfels (>800ppm) into which they have been emplaced. We conclude that aBa-rich, hydrothermal fluid induced melting in the aureole,and that fluid transport of Ba²⁺, and to a lesser extent, Sr²⁺and Eu²⁺, persisted in the melt zones under subsolidus conditions.Sr-isotope systematics from high-Ba localities define an errorchronof 2161 ± 106 Ma with an initial (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) ratio of0·705 ± 0·001. Metasedimentary rocks unaffectedby fluid infiltration were homogenized at the same time butwith an increased initial ratio, suggesting that whereas isotopehomogenization was achieved between outcrops permeated by fluids,there is no evidence of regional homogenization. Oxygen-isotopecompositions of psammitic metasediments in the aureole are uncorrelatedwith distance from the contact, suggesting the infiltratingfluid equilibrated isotopically with the metasediments. Theirelevated     

Periodic accumulation and destruction of aeolian erg sequences in the Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone, White Canyon, southern Utah, USA

The Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone represents the product of at least 12 separate aeolian erg sequences, each bounded by regionally extensive deflationary supersurfaces. Facies analysis of strata in the White Canyon area of southern Utah indicates that the preserved sequences represent erg‐centre accumulations of mostly dry, though occasionally water table‐influenced aeolian systems. Each sequence records a systematic sedimentary evolution, enabling phases of aeolian sand sea construction, accumulation, deflation and destruction to be discerned and related to a series of underlying controls. Sand sea construction is signalled by a transition from damp sandsheet, ephemeral lake and palaeosol deposition, through a phase of dry sandsheet deposition, to the development of thin, chaotically arranged aeolian dune sets. The onset of the main phase of sand sea accumulation is reflected by an upward transition to larger‐scale, ordered sets which represent the preserved product of climbing trains of sinuous‐crested transverse dunes with original downwind wavelengths of 300–400 m. Regularly spaced reactivation surfaces indicate periodic shifts in wind direction, which probably occurred seasonally. Compound co‐sets of cross strata record the oblique migration of superimposed slipfaced dunes over larger, slipfaceless draa. Each aeolian sequence is capped by a regionally extensive supersurface characterized by abundant calcified rhizoliths and bioturbation and which represents the end product of a widespread deflation episode whereby the accumulation surface was lowered close to the level of the water table as the sand sea was progressively cannibalized by winds that were undersaturated with respect to their potential carrying capacity. Aeolian sequence generation is considered to be directly attributable to cyclical changes in climate and related changes in sea level of probable glacio‐eustatic origin that characterize many Permo‐Carboniferous age successions. Sand sea construction and accumulation occurred during phases of increased aridity and lowered sea level, the main sand supply being former shallow marine shelf sediments that lay to the north‐west. Sand sea deflation and destruction would have commenced at, or shortly after, the time of maximum aridity as the available sand supply became exhausted. Restricted episodes of non‐aeolian accumulation would have occurred during humid (interglacial) phases, accumulation and preservation being enabled by slow rises in the relative water table. Subsidence analysis within the Paradox Basin, together with comparisons to other similar age successions suggests that the climatic cycles responsible for generating the Cedar Mesa erg sequences could be the product of 413 000 years so‐called long eccentricity cycles. By contrast, annual advance cycles within the aeolian dune sets indicate that the sequences themselves could have accumulated in just a few hundred years and therefore imply that the vast majority of time represented by the Cedar Mesa succession was reserved for supersurface development.     

Up-temperature flow of surface-derived fluids in the mid-crust: the role of pre-orogenic burial of hydrated fault rocks

The Walter‐Outalpa shear zone in the southern Curnamona Province of NE South Australia is an example of a shear zone that has undergone intensely focused fluid flow and alteration at mid‐crustal depths. Results from this study have demonstrated that the intense deformation and ductile shear zone reactivation, at amphibolite facies conditions of 534 ± 20 °C and 500 ± 82 MPa, that overprint the Proterozoic Willyama Supergroup occurred during the Delamerian Orogeny (c. 500 Ma) (EPMA monazite ages of 501 ± 16 and 491 ± 19 Ma). This is in contrast to the general belief that the majority of basement deformation and alteration in the southern Curnamona Province occurred during the waning stages of the Olarian Orogeny (c. 1610–1580 Ma). These shear zones contain hydrous mineral assemblages that cut wall rocks that have experienced amphibolite facies metamorphism during the Olarian Orogeny. The shear zone rock volumes have much lower δ¹⁸O values (as low as 1‰) than their unsheared counterparts (7–9‰), and calculated fluid δ¹⁸O values (5–8‰) consistent with a surface‐derived fluid source. Hydrous minerals show a decrease in δD_(H2O) from ?14 to ?22‰, for minerals outside the shear zones, to ?28 to ?40‰, for minerals within the shear zones consistent with a contribution from a meteoric source. It is unclear how near‐surface fluids initially under hydrostatic pressure penetrate into the middle crust where fluid pressures approach lithostatic, and where fluid flow is expected to be dominantly upward because of pressure gradients. We propose a mechanism whereby faulting during basin formation associated with the Adelaidean Rift Complex (c. 700 Ma) created broad hydrous zones containing mineral assemblages in equilibrium with surface waters. These panels of fault rock were subsequently buried to depths where the onset of metamorphism begins to dehydrate the fault rock volumes evolving a low δ¹⁸O fluid that is channelled through shear zones related to Delamerian Orogenic activity.     

Petrogenesis of the Kinsman Intrusive Suite: Peraluminous Granitoids of Western New Hampshire

The Kinsman Intrusive Suite occurs in six major plutons of westernNew Hampshire, covering a total area of 2240 km². It is an Acadian-agesyntectonic gneissic S-type peraluminous granitoid, rangingin composition from quartz diorite to granite. Much of the Kinsmanis characterized by very large (up to 120 mm in maximum dimension)megacrysts of alkali feldspar, but the bulk chemistry of therocks indicates that these cannot be phenocrysts crystallizedfrom initially homogeneous melts. Locally, there is abundant(20 per cent) almandine-rich garnet, and graphite is a commonaccessory.In contrast to the unannealed orthoclase in surroundingmetapelites, the alkali feldspar of the Kinsman has, for themost part, inverted to maximum microcline. The garnets havecore temperatures in the range of 800 to 900 ?C, and are pseudomorphedby, or show reaction rims to, biotite. Plagioclase commonlyshows zoning, some of it oscillatory. These features are magmaticin nature, and argue against the conclusions of previous investigatorsthat the mineralogy and textures of the rock are due to regionalmetamorphism of a previously-crystallized two-mica granitoidwhich has undergone prograde reactions such as:muse + bio +3 qtz 2 Kfs + gar + 2H₂O.The intrusives have also producedrecognizable contact-metamorphic features in the wallrocks andare probably coeval with the dominant M2 Acadian metamorphism.Majorelement analytical data for the Kinsman suite has been examinedby least squares mixing-model and extended Q-mode factor analysis.These calculations, supported by consideration of REE data,suggest that the most likely origin for the Kinsman magmas isby deep-crustal anatexis of slightly calcareous metapelites,and involves a reaction such as:bio + Al₂SiO₅ + qtz + feldspars gar + cord + Kfs + plag + melt.In non-calcareous pelites thisreaction produces a water-undersaturated peraluminous melt attemperatures above 700 ?C, and allows for the early crystallizationor recrystallization of K-feldspar, plagioclase, and garnetin a crystal-liquid mush or migma. Geochemically, garnet + plagioclaseare treated as restite, and a minimum-melt granite as the magmain the Q-mode and mixing-model calculations. The variabilityin chemistry of the Kinsman Intrusive Suite is best explainedon the basis of mixing of leucogranitic anatectic melts withgarnet-plagioclase restitic material and a quartz-feldspar-sillimanite-biotiterock, but only very slightly affected by crystal settling.     

Coarse-grained sediment gravity flow facies in a large supraglacial lake

Near Williams Lake, in the central interior of British Columbia, the Fraser River exposes long sections of late Pleistocene glaciolacustrine sediments selectively preserved within a bedrock trough. The dominant facies types are thick, normally graded gravels and sands that occupy steeply dipping multistorey channels up to 300 m wide and several tens of metres deep. Channels appear to have been simultaneously cut and filled by high density turbidity currents in a glacial lake floored by stagnant ice. Fining upward sediment gravity flow sequences up to 50 m thick may be the product of quasi-continuous ‘surging’ turbidity flows triggered by catastrophic meltwater discharges into the trough or retrogressive failure of ice-cored sediments. Large-scale post-depositional deformation structures, such as synclinal folds, normal faults, sedimentary dyke swarms and dewatering structures, record gravitational foundering of sediment and pore-water expulsion caused by the melt of underlying glacier ice. Melting of buried ice masses along the floor of the trough appears to have controlled the flow paths of turbidity currents by producing sub-basins within the overlying sediment pile. An idealized model of ‘supraglacial’ lacustrine sedimentation is developed that may be applicable to other glaciated areas with similar bedrock topography.     

Distal alluvial deposits in a foreland basin setting—the Lower Freshwater Miocene), Switzerland: sedimentology, architecture and palaeosols

The Lower Freshwater Molasse (Untere Susswasser Molasse) crops out over a wide area of the Swiss Molasse Basin. Coarse grained alluvial fan conglomerates dominate in proximal basin areas along the Alpine front. These conglomerates pass northwards into sandstones and mudstones of an extensive northeastward draining meandering river system which ran parallel to the basin axis. Sedimentological study of outcrops, quarry exposures and boreholes in the basal Miocene (‘Aquitanian‘) has permitted detailed facies analysis of this distal alluvial sequence. The distal Aquitanian is made up of distinct ‘architectural elements’characterized by their geometries and sedimentary structures. Each may be assigned to a particular depositional setting: meander belt, levees, crevasse channels and splays, overbank fines and palaeosols, and lacustrine. Meander belt sandstones were deposited in mixed load channels with a dominant bedload component. Sandstones commonly comprise amalgamated and locally stacked ribbon bodies 2–15 m thick and 150–1500 m wide. Interbedded rippled, laminated and mottled fine grained levee sandstones and siltstones form lenticular packages up to 3 m thick and 30–100 m across. Small scale crevasse channel sandstones 2–4 m thick and 5–10 m across pass laterally into metre scale, medium to fine grained crevasse sandstone sheets. Rare laminated lacustrine siltstones occur only in the north-east part of the basin. Floodplain mudstones and marls make up the remainder of the succession. These display a variety of pedogenic features recording cyclical palaeosol development. Palaeosols show strong variations in morphology and maturity both laterally across the floodplain and downstream along the basin axis, reflecting local variation in aggradation rate associated with proximity to alluvial channel courses as well as regional variation in subsidence and floodplain drainage. Analysis of the organization and distribution of the various sediment bodies permits reconstruction of the fluvial system and allows development of a model for the sedimentary architecture of the Lower Freshwater Molasse in the study area. Integration of palaeosol studies into a well defined architectural framework assists recognition of areal facies belts and may aid location of sand-prone sequences in the subsurface.     

Bounce Rock—A shergottite‐like basalt encountered at Meridiani Planum,Mars

Abstract– The Opportunity rover of the Mars Exploration Rover mission encountered an isolated rock fragment with textural, mineralogical, and chemical properties similar to basaltic shergottites. This finding was confirmed by all rover instruments, and a comprehensive study of these results is reported here. Spectra from the miniature thermal emission spectrometer and the Panoramic Camera reveal a pyroxene‐rich mineralogy, which is also evident in Mössbauer spectra and in normative mineralogy derived from bulk chemistry measured by the alpha particle X‐ray spectrometer. The correspondence of Bounce Rock’s chemical composition with the composition of certain basaltic shergottites, especially Elephant Moraine (EET) 79001 lithology B and Queen Alexandra Range (QUE) 94201, is very close, with only Cl, Fe, and Ti exhibiting deviations. Chemical analyses further demonstrate characteristics typical of Mars such as the Fe/Mn ratio and P concentrations. Possible shock features support the idea that Bounce Rock was ejected from an impact crater, most likely in the Meridiani Planum region. Bopolu crater, 19.3 km in diameter, located 75 km to the southwest could be the source crater. To date, no other rocks of this composition have been encountered by any of the rovers on Mars. The finding of Bounce Rock by the Opportunity rover provides further direct evidence for an origin of basaltic shergottite meteorites from Mars.