Crystallization Pressure and Cooling History of the Giles Layered Igneous Complex, Central Australia

The Giles Complex, central Australia, consists of a series oflarge layered gabbroic/ultramafic intrusions emplaced in acidicand intermediate granulites of the Middle Proterozoic Musgraveblock. Lithologies range from well-layered dunite, wehrlite,and pyroxenite in the lower primitive series, to massive olivinegabbro, gabbronorite, and anorthosite in the main units, andferrodiorites, vanadife-rous magnetite layers, and granophyresin the upper, most fractionated parts. Unlike many layered intrusions,the Giles Complex is tectonically dismembered to an extent thata reconstruction of the original morphology is difficult. The Complex is believed to be a type example for medium- tohigh-pressure differentiation. (1) Chilled margin samples (wherepreserved) are orthopyroxene-phyric, and liquidus olivine isreplaced by liquidus orthopyroxene at an mg-number of 0.77,suggesting a pressure-related expansion of the orthopyroxenestability field (Goode & Moore, 1975). (2) Tschermaks substitutioninto pyroxene and plagioclase-orthoclase solid solution areextensive, indicating unusually high crystallization temperaturerelated to high pressure; antiperthites in the Giles Complexare amongst the most calcic reported for terrestrial rocks.(3) The lower primitive cumulate units of the Complex are coroniticand feature a variety of subsolidus high-pressure reaction textures;olivine and cumulus chromite have reacted with calcic plagioclaseto orthopyroxene-clinopyroxene-spinel, olivine-spinel, and clinopyroxene-spinelsymplectites. The principal reaction mechanism for the symplectites was continuousmass transfer of alumina from plagioclase toward spinel, asthe Complex passed from the olivine-plagioclase stability fieldinto the pyroxene-spinel field during cooling. Geothermometersapplicable to the cumulates record a wide range of equilibrationtemperatures from late-magmatic to granulite-metamorphic conditions.FeMg₁ exchange gives closure temperatures around 600–700?C,whereas Al₂Mg₁Si₁ net-transfer equilibria have preserved highertemperatures around 750–900 ?C. Defocused beam bulk analysesof exsolved cumulus clinopyroxenes and intercumulus plagioclasesrecover magmatic compositions; i. e., two-pyroxene solvus CaMg_-1temperatures plot around 1120?50?C, whereas two-feldspar thermometersgive 1200?C. Pressures are calculated from thermochemical data with the heterogeneousequilibria 2 fo + an = en + di + sp, fo + an = di + Mg-Ts, andfo + an = en + Ca-Ts, after correcting spinel activities forselective retrograde FeMg_-1 exchange during cooling. These equilibria,combined with orthopyroxene-spinel Al₂Mg_-1Si_-1 temperaturesfor metamorphic assemblages and two-pyroxene temperatures forcumulus phases define a medium-pressure cooling path extendingfrom 1150 ?C (at 6?5 kb) to 750 ?C (at 6?2 kb). The resultssuggest an isobaric cooling path for the Giles Complex, withno evidence for a post-intrusive metamorphic overprint. Themagmas intruded at lower to middle crustal levels after thepervasive deformation in the Musgrave block, and probably afterthe peak metamorphic event.