The nature and geological history of the deep crust under the Eifel, Germany

The crust ≈ 10–20 km under the Eifel is composed of amphibolite-facies metasediments and meta-igneous rocks of tonalitic to granodioritic composition; mafic granulites occupy the base of the crust down to a Moho depth between about 29 and 34 km. The meta-granodiorites and meta-tonalites have I-type chemical characteristics and appear to have formed approximately 400 Myr ago by partial melting of a lower crustal source. Amphibolite-facies metamorphism probably followed within the same orogeny. During the Quaternary, many amphibolite-facies rocks were subjected to contact heating in crustal magma chambers and/or during transport to the earth's surface. Contact heating is also recorded in radiogenic isotope compositions of minerals from one xenolith. A genetic link between meta-igneous amphibolites and the deeper crustal mafic granulites can neither be proven nor discounted by the isotope data. If there is a genetic relationship, it requires fractionation of a mafic magma in the lower crust and assimilation of metasediments and separation of a highly evolved melt.