The chemistry and origin of the Lewisian gneisses of the Scottish mainland: The Scourie and Inver Assemblages and sub-crustal accretion

New chemical data for 21 elements with appropriate factor analyses and new Sr isotope data, together with previously published chemical, geochronological and Pb isotope data are used to re-examine the origin and history of the garnet-pyroxene granulites of the Scottish Mainland Lewisian and their amphibolised equivalents. The quartz-dioritic average composition is allied to chemical variations which bear resemblances to a calc-alkalic differentiation trend, but the behaviour of Na, K, Sr, Zr, Zn and Cr differ from a standard volcanic pattern. The arguments used hitherto in favour of a volcanic or sedimentary origin or both, are rejected in favour of a modified plutonic igneous hypothesis in which magma was accreted to a primitive crust from below in an underplating process, with crystallisation occurring under granulite-facies conditions accompanied by synchronous deformation. As a result, the primitive andesitic magma crystallised directly to rock singularly devoid of some incompatible elements, especially K, Rb, Nb, Y, Th and U. The garnet-pyroxene granulites of the Scourie assemblage have exceptionally high K/Rb and Ca/Y ratios, and low K/Ba and K/Sr ratios to a degree unusual even in the granulite facies elsewhere. The extreme deficiency in Rb and U has led to a ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio today of only 0.7021 ± 0.0004 and to equally primitive Pb isotope ratios. These latter may indicate an age-stratified crust with older isotopic ages at the top, compatible with an underplating process occurring over a considerable period, which we name slow sub-crustal accretion.Subsequent to the development of the Scourie assemblage, release of stored stresses led to near-isochemical metamorphism in a succession of shear zones with the formation of the amphibolite-facies Inver assemblage. On its northern margin, adjacent to the more alkaline Laxford assemblage, enrichment in Li, K and Rb occurred in Inver assemblage rocks, a phenomenon not seen elsewhere.