Paleozoic serpentinite-enclosed chromitites from Tehuitzingo (Acatlán Complex, southern Mexico): a petrological and mineralogical study

The serpentinites and associated chromitite bodies in Tehuitzingo (Acatlán Complex, southern Mexico) are in close relationship with eclogitic rocks enclosed within a metasedimentary sequence, suggesting that the serpentinites, chromitites and eclogitic rocks underwent a common metamorphic history.Primary chromites from the chromitite bodies at Tehuitzingo are of refractory-grade (Al-rich) and have a chemical composition similar to that expected to be found in an ophiolitic environment. The chromite grains in chromitites and serpentinites are systematically altered to ‘ferritchromite’. The alteration trend is usually characterized by a decrease in the Al, Mg and Cr contents coupled by an increase in Fe³⁺ and Fe²⁺.The Tehutizingo chromitites have low Platinum Group Elements (PGE) contents, ranging from 102 to 303 ppb. The chondrite-normalized PGE patterns are characterized by an enrichment in the Ir-subgroup elements (IPGE=Os, Ir, Ru) relative to the Pd-subgroup elements (PPGE=Rh, Pt, Pd). In addition, all chromitite samples display a negative slope from Ru to Pd [(Os+Ir+Ru)/(Pt+Pd)=4.78−14.13]. These patterns, coupled with absolute PGE abundances, are typical of ophiolitic chromitites elsewhere. Moreover, all the analyzed samples exhibit chondrite-normalized PGE patterns similar to those found for non-metamorphosed ophiolitic chromitites. Thus, the PGE distribution patterns found in the Tehuitzingo chromitites have not been significantly affected by any subsequent Paleozoic high-pressure (eclogite facies) metamorphic event.The chondrite-normalized PGE patterns of the enclosing serpentinites also indicate that the PGE distribution in the residual mantle peridotites exposed in Tehuitzingo was unaffected by high-pressure metamorphism, or subsequent hydrothermal alteration since the serpentinites show a similar pattern to that of partially serpentinized peridotites present in mantle sequences of non-metamorphosed ophiolites.Our main conclusion is that the chromitites and serpentinites from Tehuizingo experienced no significant redistribution (or concentration) of PGE during the serpentinization process or the high-pressure metamorphic path, or during subsequent alteration processes. If any PGE mobilization occurred, it was restricted to individual chromitite bodies without changing the bulk-rock PGE composition.Our data suggest that the Tehuitzingo serpentinites and associated chromitites are a fragment of oceanic lithosphere formed in an arc/back-arc environment, and represent an ophiolitic mantle sequence from a supra-subduction zone, the chemical composition of which remained essentially unchanged during the alteration and metamorphic events that affected the Acatlán Complex.     

北秦岭造山带西段早古生代榴辉岩相变质岩石的发现及其地质意义SCIEI北大核心CSCD

西秦岭地处中国中央造山系东西转换衔接部位,随着东秦岭以及祁连、柴北缘和东昆仑早古生代高压-超高压变质岩石的陆续发现和深入研究,西秦岭造山带变质作用研究吸引了大家的普遍关注。本文在大范围野外地质调查基础上,在北秦岭造山带西段天水南部的秦岭岩群长英质片麻岩中发现了一套石榴子石斜长角闪岩(榴闪岩),并开展了详细的锆石形貌和内部结构、微区微量元素和U-Th-Pb同位素研究。CL图像显示榴闪岩锆石普遍具有核-幔-边或核-边结构,部分存在原岩残留锆石。定年结果得到榴闪岩原岩残留锆石年龄为710±52Ma,同时得到497±3Ma、452±3Ma和423±7Ma三期变质年龄。其中497±3Ma变质年龄来自锆石核部并显示出轻稀土亏损、重稀土平坦且没有明显负Eu异常的稀土配分曲线特征,表明该时期的矿物组合中有石榴子石但没有斜长石,与榴辉岩相变质锆石特征一致;452±3Ma变质年龄来自锆石幔部或边部,对应测点重稀土元素的分异加大,并出现弱的负Eu异常,说明此时石榴子石被消耗且出现少量斜长石;423±7Ma变质年龄来自锆石的最边部,对应稀土配分曲线表现出更明显的负Eu异常和更大的重稀土元素分异特征,指示此时岩石中石榴子石含量更少,斜长石含量更多。上述结果表明该榴闪岩可能经历了~500Ma的榴辉岩相变质作用,并在~450Ma和~420Ma叠加了两期退变质改造。天水地区榴闪岩无论是其野外产状,还是变质锆石的形貌和内部结构、稀土配分曲线特征及其所记录的原岩和三期变质年龄都与北秦岭造山带东段大陆俯冲型高压-超高压变质榴辉岩近乎一致,指示早古生代时期,北秦岭造山带西段与东段经历了相似的大陆(深)俯冲和折返过程,它们共同构成一条统一的早古生代高压-超高压变质岩带。     

Prograde metamorphic evolution and development of chloritoid-bearing eclogitic assemblages in subcontinental metagabbro (Sesia–Lanzo zone, Italy)

In the coronitic metagabbroic rocks of the Corio and Monastero metagabbro bodies in the continental Sesia–Lanzo zone of the western Italian Alps, a variety of mineral reactions that testify to prograde conditions from greenschist to eclogite-facies can be recognised. A microstructural and microchemical study of a series of samples characterized by coronitic textures and pseudomorphic replacement of the original igneous minerals has allowed the prograde reactions undergone by the rocks to be established.

In completely eclogitized coronitic samples, paragonite, blue amphibole, garnet, epidote, fine grained jadeite and chloritoid occur in plagioclase microdomains (former igneous plagioclase). The mafic mineral microdomains consist of glaucophane and garnet. Complexly-zoned amphiboles constrain changing metamorphic conditions: cores of pre-Alpine brown hornblende and/or tremolite are preserved inside rims of a sodic–calcic amphibole that are in turn surrounded by a sodic amphibole. The main high-pressure mineral assemblage, as seen in mylonites, involves glaucophane, chloritoid, epidote, garnet ± phengite, ± paragonite. Some layers within the gabbro contain garnet, omphacite, ± glaucophane, and acid dykes crosscutting the gabbro body contain jadeite, quartz, garnet, epidote and paragonite.

The presence of chloritoid-bearing high-pressure assemblages reflects hydration of the gabbros during their pre-Alpine exhumation prior to subduction, as well as the composition of the microdomains operating during subduction. The pressure and temperature conditions of gabbro transformation during subduction are inferred to be 450–550 °C at up to 2 GPa on the basis of the chloritoid-bearing assemblages. The factors controlling the reaction pathway to form chloritoid-bearing high-pressure assemblages in mafic rocks are inferred from these observations.     

High pressure garnet amphibolites in ophiolitic mélange from the Changning-Menglian suture zone,southeast Tibetan Plateau: P-T-t path and tectonic implication

The garnet amphibolites from the newly identified Wanhe ophiolitic mélange in the Changning-Menglian suture zone (CMSZ) provide a probe to elucidate the evolution of the Triassic Palaeo-Tethys. An integrated petrologic, phase equilibria modeling and geochronological study of the garnet amphibolites, southeast Tibetan Plateau, shows that the garnet amphibolites have a peak mineral assemblage of garnet, glaucophane, lawsonite, chlorite, rutile, phengite and quartz, and a clockwise P-T path with a prograde segment from blueschist-facies to eclogite-facies with a peak-metamorphic P-T conditions of 2000–2100 MPa and 495 –515°C, indicating a cold geothermal gradient of about 240 –260°C/GPa. Theretrograde metamorphic P-T path is characterized by nearly isothermal decompression to lower amphibolite-facies and subsequent cooling to greenschist-facies. The metamorphic zircons have fractionated HREE patterns and significant negative Eu anomalies, and therefore the obtained zircon U-Pb age of 231 ± 1.5 Ma is interpreted to be the timing of the amphibolite facies metamorphism occurrence. The present study probably indicates that the garnet amphibolites in the Wanhe ophiolitic mélange was the retrograded high-pressure eclogite-facies blueschist, instead of the previously proposed eclogites, and the garnet amphibolites recorded the subduction and exhumation process of the Palaeo-Tethys Oceanic crust in the Triassic.©2021 China Geology Editorial Office.