Advances in our understanding of the gem corundum deposits of the West Pacific continental margins intraplate basaltic fields

Recent discoveries over the last decade of new gemfields, exploitation of new and existing deposits, and application of relatively new techniques have greatly increased our knowledge of the basalt-derived gem sapphire–ruby–zircon deposits. In this paper we focus on the Late Mesozoic to Cenozoic intraplate basaltic fields of the West Pacific continental margins. We review advances made in understanding the genesis of these deposits, based on the application of newer techniques. We also critically review existing data on the gem corundum deposits, in order to further refine a model for their origin.In some of the intraplate basaltic fields, corundum-bearing xenoliths have been found showing a range of PT formation conditions from 790 °C at 0.85 GPa to as much as 1100 to 1200 °C at 1.0 to 2.5 GPa. Although most magmatic sapphires contain syngenetic inclusions of columbite-group phases, zircon, spinel and rutile, some contain additional nepheline and K-feldspar, suggesting crystallization from more undersaturated alkaline magma while the Weldborough field of NE Tasmania also contains molybdenite and beryl, suggesting at least some interaction with more fractionated ‘granitic-type’ magmas. There is a large range in PT conditions calculated for the metamorphic rubies (from 780 to 940 °C, through 800 to 1150 °C up to 1000 to 1300 °C). Fluid/melt inclusion studies on magmatic corundums generally suggest that they formed in a CO₂-rich environment from a ‘syenitic’ melt under a range of T conditions from 720 to 880 °C up to 1000 to 1200 °C. Oxygen isotope studies reveal that typical magmatic corundums have values of + 4.4 to 6.9‰, whereas metamorphic corundums from the same basaltic host have lower values of + 1.3 to 4.2‰.Geochronological studies have shown that some fields produced a simple eruptive and zircon/corundum crystallization event while others had multiple eruptive events but only one or two zircon crystallization events. For a few fields, some corundums/zircons crystallized in storage regions and then remained relatively inert for periods of 200 to 400 Ma without significant change before transport to the surface in the Cenozoic. Tectonic studies of the Australian region suggest that many of the corundums crystallized from magmas related to episodic basaltic volcanism in a tectonic regime of extension, associated with the opening of the Tasman and Coral Seas. For the Asian region, the magmatic–polygenetic corundums within the basaltic fields largely crystallized in a tectonic regime of distributed E–W extension, whereas the metamorphic-metasomatic corundums crystallised in a transpressional regime associated with the collision of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate (e.g., [Garnier, V., Giuliani, G., Maluski, H., Ohnenstetter, D., Deloule, E., 2003. Ar–Ar and U–Pb ages of marble-hosted ruby deposits from Central and South-east Asia. Geophysical Research Abstracts 5, 03751; Garnier, V., Giuliani, G., Ohnenstetter, D., and Schwarz, D., 2004. Les gisements de corindon: classification et genese. Les placers a corindon gemme. Le Regne Mineral 55, 7-47; Garnier, V., Ohnenstetter, D., Giuliani, G., Maluski, H., Deloule, E., Phan Trong, T., Pham Van, L., Hoang Quang, V., 2005a. Age and significance of ruby-bearing marble from the Red River Shear Zone, Northern Vietnam. Canadian Mineralogist 43, 1315–1329]).     

He–Ar and Nd–Sr isotopic compositions of late Pleistocene felsic plutonic back arc basin rocks from Ulleungdo volcanic island, South Korea: Implications for the genesis of young plutonic rocks in a back arc basin

We report analyses of noble gases and Nd–Sr isotopes in mineral separates and whole rocks of late Pleistocene (< 0.2 Ma) monzonites from Ulleungdo, South Korea, a volcanic island within the back arc basin of the Japan island arc. A Rb–Sr mineral isochron age for the monzonites is 0.12 ± 0.01 Ma. K–Ar biotite ages from the same samples gave relatively concordant ages of 0.19 ± 0.01and 0.22 ± 0.01 Ma. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar yields a similar age of 0.29 ± 0.09 Ma. Geochemical characteristics of the felsic plutonic rocks, which are silica oversaturated alkali felsic rocks (av., 12.5 wt% in K₂O + Na₂O), are similar to those of 30 alkali volcanics from Ulleungdo in terms of concentrations of major, trace and REE elements. The initial Nd–Sr isotopic ratios of the monzonites (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.70454–0.71264, ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd = 0.512528–0.512577) are comparable with those of the alkali volcanics (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.70466–0.70892, ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd = 0.512521–0.512615) erupted in Stage 3 of Ulleungdo volcanism (0.24–0.47 Ma). The high initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values of the monzonites imply that seawater and crustally contaminated pre-existing trachytes may have been melted or assimilated during differentiation of the alkali basaltic magma.A mantle helium component (³He/⁴He ratio of up to 6.5 RA) associated with excess argon was found in the monzonites. Feldspar and biotite have preferentially lost helium during slow cooling at depth and/or during their transportation to the surface in a hot host magma. The source magma noble gas isotopic features are well preserved in fluid inclusions in hornblende, and indicate that the magma may be directly derived from subcontinental lithospheric mantle metasomatized by an ancient subduction process, or may have formed as a mixture of MORB-like mantle and crustal components. The radiometric ages, geochemical and Nd–Sr isotopic signatures of the Ulleungdo monzonites as well as the presence of mantle-derived helium and argon, suggests that these felsic plutonic rocks evolved from alkali basaltic magma that formed by partial melting of subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath the back arc basin located along the active continental margin of the southeastern part of the Eurasian plate.     

花岗岩研究的误区——关于花岗岩研究的思考之五

本文在对花岗岩四大基石(混合作用、结晶分离作用、构造环境和源区)问题分析的基础上,指出花岗岩研究存在的三大误区: (1)不恰当地仿效玄武岩的理论和研究方法,忽视了花岗岩的复杂性。(2)不恰当地用板块构造学说解释大陆花岗岩问题。板块构造是地球演化到一定阶段的产物,并成功解释了与板块边界相联系的岩浆活动,但是,它不能解决主要来源于大陆的花岗岩的地质问题。(3)太过重视花岗岩的地球化学研究而忽视了对花岗岩基础地质的研究。作者指出,地球化学方法在花岗岩中的使用应当是有限制的,花岗岩研究陷入误区是我们缺少扎实的基础研究、对板块构造的理解不深和对花岗岩复杂性认识不足等三个方面的原因造成的。文中还批评了学术界存在的人云亦云的奴性思想,指出它严重地阻碍了我们的创新思维,是当前亟待改进和克服的。     

Origin and evolution of alkali basaltic magma in the Okinawa Trough

I~IOXThe Okinawa Trough is an extending back--arc basin between the East China Sea Shelf andthe Ry'Ukyu Island Arc of Japan. There are widespreadly distributing acid pumice in the troughand a little basalt just in some area of the extending center. There have been some detailed rePOrtsabout the mineralogy and petrochemical feature of the subalkali tholeiite and alkali trachyte in thetrough (Zhai and Gan, 1995; Li et al., 1997; Qin and Zhai, 1988). This paper mainly reportselectron mic…     

冲绳海槽玄武岩中中酸性残余熔体研究及其岩石学意义

与洋壳有关的酸性岩由于对了解幔源岩浆的演化以及判别古老蛇绿岩套及其构造位置的重要意义而倍受岩石学家和构造地质学家的关注。本对发现于冲绳海槽玄武岩基质中的中酸性到酸性残余熔体进行了详细研究，它们提供了幔源玄武岩浆结晶分异形成酸性岩浆的直接证据。在细小的基质矿物间分布有一种玻璃质的残余熔体，其成分随距冷凝边距离(L)的增加而越来越酸性。在SiO2对Na2O K2O图解上，残余熔体的投影点从玄武岩到英安岩均有分布，反映了一个连续的演化系列。在AFM图解上，残余熔体表现出与Thingmuli火山岩系列类似的拉斑玄武岩系列的演化趋势。我们的研究表明：残余熔体的演化受结晶分异作用控制。在早期结晶阶段，辉石的结晶起主导作用，结果造成残余熔体中SiO2、Al2O3，Na2O的迅速增加，FeO、MgO、CaO迅速降低。在晚期结晶阶段，斜长石成为主导结晶相，导致残余熔体中Al2O3，Na2O的迅速消减。Al2O3、Na2O从增加到降低的转变出现在SiO2=62％左右。在L=27．5mm处，85～90％的基质岩浆已发生了结晶作用，导致残余熔体中SiO2含量达到69～70％，而且此处还新出现了一种富FeTi的氧化物。该玄武岩中残余熔体和基质矿物的成分及演化特征分别与Thingmuli火山岩系列中酸性端元的组成相似，在也佐证了Thingmuli火山岩系列是幔源岩浆结晶分异的产物.     

Li2O—B2O3功能材料体系研究概述

本文介绍了碱金属硼酸盐的一些基本知识，主要回顾了其中Ｌｉ２Ｏ—Ｂ２Ｏ３体系的研究历史，讨论了该体系结构与性质的关系并总结了Ｌｉ２Ｏ－Ｂ２Ｏ３晶态及非晶态物质作为新型功能材料的研究进展。     

金沙江下游白鹤滩水电站岩体结构的建造特征

拟建的白鹤滩水电站的坝基为峨眉山玄武岩。峨眉山玄武岩由火山熔岩类、火山碎屑熔岩类、火山碎屑岩类和沉积火山碎屑岩类所组成。火山熔岩又可划分为斜斑玄武岩、块状玄武岩和杏仁状玄武岩;火山碎屑岩包括集块岩、火山角砾岩以及凝灰岩;而沉积火山碎屑岩类则由沉火山角砾岩和沉凝灰岩所组成。不同类型岩石的结构构造、矿物成分和形成环境不同,导致它们的岩石力学性质和工程性能也不相同。块状玄武岩、斜斑玄武岩和沉积火山碎屑熔岩的抗压强度和抗风化能力都比较大,因而具有很好的工程地质稳定性;杏仁状玄武岩、火山碎屑熔岩的抗压强度稍低,但抗风化能力很好,因此也具有较好的工程地质稳定性;而火山碎屑岩包括火山角砾岩、凝灰岩的抗压强度和抗风化能力都很低,往往形成岩体中的软弱夹层,工程地质稳定性较差。     

云南北衙矿区富碱斑岩正长石和白云母的40Ar-39Ar年龄

云南北衙矿区石英正长斑岩岩体在空间上与金、铅锌矿体共生。红泥塘岩体地表岩石正长石的⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar坪年龄和等时线年龄为25.89±0.13Ma和25.72±0.7Ma,万洞山岩体地表以下382m钻孔中岩石的正长石坪年龄和等时线年龄为25.53±0.25Ma和25.50±0.07Ma,分别为两个岩体的形成年龄。但是,万洞山岩体地表团块状白云母的坪年龄和等时线年龄为32.50±0.09Ma和32.34±0.04Ma,为白云母的结晶年龄,也可能是主岩的结晶年龄     

Pliocene and Quaternary regional uplift in western Turkey: the Gediz River terrace staircase and the volcanism at Kula

Along the upper reaches of the Gediz River in western Turkey, in the eastern part of the Aegean extensional province, the land surface has uplifted by 400 m since the Middle Pliocene. This uplift is revealed by progressive gorge incision, and its rate can be established because river terraces are capped by basalt flows that have been K–Ar and Ar–Ar dated. At present, the local uplift rate is 0.2 mm a⁻¹. Uplift at this rate began around the start of the Middle Pleistocene, following a span of time when the uplift was much slower. This was itself preceded by an earlier uplift phase, apparently in the late Late Pliocene and early Early Pleistocene, when the uplift rate was comparable to the present. The resulting regional uplift history resembles what is observed in other regions and is analogously interpreted as the isostatic response to changing rates of surface processes linked to global environmental change. We suggest that this present phase of surface uplift, amounting so far to 150 m, is being caused by the nonsteady-state thermal and isostatic response of the crust to erosion, following an increase in erosion rates in the late Early Pleistocene, most likely as a result of the first large northern-hemisphere glaciation during oxygen isotope stage 22 at 870 ka. We suggest that the earlier uplift phase, responsible for the initial 250 m of uplift, resulted from a similar increase in erosion rates caused by the deterioration in local climate at 3.1 Ma. This uplift thus has no direct relationship to the crustal extension occurring in western Turkey, the rate and sense of which are thought not to have changed significantly on this time scale. Our results thus suggest that the present, often deeply incised, landscape of western Turkey has largely developed from the Middle Pleistocene onwards, for reasons not directly related to the active normal faulting that is also occurring. The local isostatic consequences of this active faulting are instead superimposed onto this “background” of regional surface uplift. Modelling of this surface uplift indicates that the effective viscosity of the lower continental crust beneath this part of Turkey is of the order of 10¹⁹ Pa s, similar to a recent estimate for beneath central Greece. The lower uplift rates observed in western Turkey, compared with central Greece, result from the longer typical distances of fluvial sediment transport, which cause weaker coupling by lower-crustal flow between offshore depocentres and eroding onshore regions that provide the sediment source.