International Journal of Earth Sciences

Zhai, M.; Kampunzu, A. B.; Modisi, M. P.; Bagai, Z.

doi: 10.1007/s00531-005-0054-6pmid: N/A

The Francistown plutonic rocks at the south-western margin of the Zimbabwe craton consist of three igneous suites: Sanukitoid, Tonalite–Trondhjemite–Granite (TTG) suites and High-K granites. The TTG suite is subdivided into High Aluminum-TTG (HA-TTG) and Low Aluminum-TTG (LA-TTG) sub-suites. Their Rb–Sr isotope systems were partially homogenized by post-crystallization thermo–tectonic events, in which hydrothermal solutions and migmatization played an important role. Therefore, the Rb–Sr isochron age of 2427±54 Ma can only be regarded as a lower limit to the Francistown plutonic rock age. The large errors in the Sm–Nd isochron dates of Francistown granitoids indicate that these dates are not really constrained. In this study we compared the rock types of Francistown and adjacent areas, adopting the precise U, Th–Pb single zircon SHRIMP ages from the Vumba area as references. For TTG and Sanukitoid suites, the age we adopted is ca. 2.7 Ga, which is close to their depleted-mantle Sm–Nd model ages (T DM). For High-K granites, the age adopted is ca. 2.65 Ga, which is also close to their Sm–Nd isochron age. The highest ε Nd t values of Sanukitoids and TTG are +2.1 and +2.3, respectively. The positive ε Nd t values and trace element geochemistry support partial melting of a depleted mantle and young oceanic crust for the genesis of Sanukitoid and the TTG suites respectively. The lowest ε Nd t values of Sanukitoids and TTGs are −1.0 and −1.1, respectively, indicating contamination by continental crust, up to 10 and 14%, respectively. The ε Nd t values of TTG decrease with decreasing Al2O3 and Sr contents and increasing Eu negative anomalies (Eu*–Eu), suggesting that the TTG magmas underwent a coupled fractionation crystallization and crustal contamination, and that the LA-TTG was the product of the fractionation and contamination of the HA-TTG sub-suite. In contrast, negative ε Nd t values for the High-K granites (from −0.4 to −3.5) indicate the involvement of LA-TTG and some materials from an old continental crust in their genesis. The products of partial melting of both oceanic and continental crusts at the south-western margin of the Zimbabwe craton occurred within a short time interval (from 2.7 to 2.65 Ga ago) suggesting that the Francistown plutonic rocks were formed in a active continental margin environment, where a young ocean plate (Limpopo oceanic plate) subducted underneath an old continental plate (Zimbabwe craton).

Dokuz, Abdurrahman; Tanyolu, Erkan; Genç, Salim

doi: 10.1007/s00531-005-0046-6pmid: N/A

The Yusufeli area, in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey, contains a crystalline complex that intruded into the Carboniferous metamorphic basement and is composed of two intrusive bodies: a gabbro-diorite and a tonalite-trondhjemite. The mafic body (45–57 wt% SiO2) displays a broad lithological spectrum ranging from plagioclase-cumulate to quartz diorite. Primitive varieties of the body have Mg-number, MgO and Cr contents that are close to those expected for partial melts from mantle peridotite. Data are consistent with the magma generation in an underlying mantle wedge that was depleted in Zr, Nb and Ti, and enriched in large ion lithophile elements (K, Rb, Ba, Th). However, high Al2O3, CaO and generally low Ni (<65 ppm) contents are not in agreement with the unfractionated mantle-derived primitive magmas and require some Al2O3- and CaO-poor mafic phases, in particular, olivine and orthopyroxene. Absence of orthopyroxene in crystallization sequence, uralitization, and a common appearance of clinopyroxene surrounded by hornblende imply an anhydrous phase fractionated from highly hydrous (5–6%) parent. Geochemical modelling suggests derivation by 15–20% melting of a depleted-lherzolitic mantle. The tonalite-trondhjemite body (58–76 wt% SiO2) ranges in composition from quartz diorite to granodiorite with a low-K calc-alkaline trend. Although LILE- and LREE- enriched characteristics of the primitive samples imply a metasomatic sub-arc mantle for their source region, low MgO, Ni and Cr concentrations rule out direct derivation from the mantle wedge. Also, lack of negative Eu anomalies suggests an unfractionated magma and precludes a differentiation from the diorites of mafic body, which show negative Eu anomalies. Their Na enrichments relative to Ca and K are similar to those of Archean tonalites, trondhjemites and granodiorites and Cenozoic adakites. However, they exhibit important geochemical differences from them, including low-Al (<15 wt%) contents, unfractionated HREE patterns and evolution towards the higher Y concentrations and lower Sr/Y ratios within the body. All these features are obtained in experimentally produced melts from mafic rocks at low pressures (≤5 kbar) and also widespread in the rocks of arc where old (Upper Cretaceous or older) oceanic crust is being subducted. Major and REE modelling supports formation of the quartz dioritic parent to the felsic intrusive rocks by 70% partial melting of a primitive gabbroic sample (G694). Therefore, once taking into account the extensional conditions prevailing in the Pontian arc crust in Early Jurassic time, former basic products (gabbros) seem to be the most appropriate source for the tonalite-trondhjemite body. Magmatic emplacement of stratigraphically similar lithologies in the Pulur Massif, just southwest of the Yusufeli, was dated to be 184 Ma by the 40Ar/39Ar method on amphibole, and is compatible with the initiation of Early Jurassic rifting in the region.

Piana, F.; Tallone, S.; Cavagna, S.; Conti, A.

doi: 10.1007/s00531-005-0040-zpmid: N/A

In a sector placed in the SE part of the Alps–Apennine junction, a kilometre-scale shear zone has been identified as the Grognardo thrust zone (GTZ), which caused the NE-directed thrusting of metaophiolites (Voltri Group) and polymetamorphic continental crust slices (Valosio Unit) of Ligurian Alps onto Oligocene sediments of an episutural basin known as “Tertiary Piemonte Basin”. The structural setting of the GTZ is due to syn- to late-metamorphic deformation, followed by a brittle thrusting that occurred in the Late Aquitanian times and can thus be related to one of the main contractional tectonic events suffered by northern Apennines. The GTZ was then sealed by Lower Burdigalian carbonate platform sediments (Visone Formation). Transtensive faulting followed in post-Burdigalian times along NW–SE regional faults and displaced the previously coupled sedimentary and metamorphic units. The GTZ thus underwent a plastic-to-brittle evolution, during which carbonate-rich fluids largely sustained the deformation. In these stages, a complex vein network originated within both the metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. Field data and stable isotopic analyses (13C and 18O) of bulk rocks and veins show that fluid–rock interaction caused the carbonatisation of the rocks in the late-metamorphic stages and the cataclasis and recementation, by the action of isochemical cold carbonate groundwater during the thrusting events. Carbonate veins largely developed also during the transtensive faulting stages, with composition clearly different from that of the veins associated to thrust faults, as indicated by the strong depletion in 13C of carbonate fillings, suggesting the presence of exotic fluids, characterised by a high content of organic matter.

Frank, Wolfgang; Schlager, Wolfgang

doi: 10.1007/s00531-005-0045-7pmid: N/A

Late Jurassic formations of the Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA) contain ample evidence of synsedimentary tectonics in the form of elongate basins filled with turbidites, debris flows and slumps. Clasts are derived from the Mesozoic of the NCA; they commonly measure tens of metres in diameter and occasionally form kilometre-size bodies. These sedimentologic observations and the presumed evidence of Late Jurassic high-pressure metamorphism recently led to the hypothesis of a south-dipping Jurassic subduction zone with accretionary wedge in the southern parts of the NCA. We present new 40Ar/39Ar dates from the location of the postulated high-pressure metamorphism that bracket the age of this crystallization not earlier than 114–120 Ma. The event is therefore part of the well-documented mid-Cretaceous metamorphism of the Austro-alpine domain. Thus, there is currently no evidence of Late Jurassic high-pressure metamorphism to support the subduction hypothesis. The sediment record of the Late Jurassic deformation in the NCA, including the formation of local thrust sheets, is no conclusive evidence for subduction. All these phenomena are perfectly compatible with synsedimentary strike-slip tectonics. Large strike-slip fault zones with restraining and releasing bends and associated flower structures and pull-apart basins are a perfectly viable alternative to the subduction model for the Late Jurassic history of the NCA. However, in contrast to the Eastern Alps transect, where arguments for a Jurassic subduction are missing, a glaucophane bearing Jurassic high-pressure metamorphism in the Meliatic realm of the West Carpathians is well documented. There, the high-pressure/low-temperature slices occur between the Gemeric unit and the Silica nappe system (including the Aggtelek-Rudabanya units), which corresponds in facies with the Juvavic units in the southern part of the NCA. To solve the contrasting palaeogeographic reconstructions we propose that the upper Jurassic left lateral strike-slip system proposed here for the Eastern Alps continued eastwards and caused the eastward displacement of the Silica units into the Meliatic accretionary wedge.

Hinsbergen, D.; Meer, D.; Zachariasse, W.; Meulenkamp, J.

doi: 10.1007/s00531-005-0047-5pmid: N/A

Following an Early Miocene phase of N–S extension affecting the entire Hellenides, 50° clockwise rotation affected western Greece. Modern GPS analyses show rapid southwestward motion in southwestern Greece over subducting oceanic lithosphere and no motion in the northwest, where Greece collided with Apulia. We aim to identify the deformation history of western Greece associated with the rotation and the collision with Apulia. The timing of the various phases of deformation is constrained via detailed analysis of vertical motions based on paleobathymetry evolution of sedimentary sequences overlying the evolving structures. The results show that accompanying the onset of rotation, compression was re-established in western Greece in the early Langhian, around 15 Ma. Subsequently, western Greece collided with the Apulian platform, leading in the Late Miocene to a right-lateral strike-slip system running from the Aliakmon Fault Zone in northern Greece via the Kastaniotikos Fault and the Thesprotiko Shear Zone to the Kefallonia Fault Zone, offshore western Greece. NE–SW compression and uplift of the Ionian Islands was accompanied by NE–SW extension in southwestern Greece, associated with faster southwestward motion in the south than in the north. This led in the middle Pliocene (around 3.5 Ma) to collision without further shortening in northwestern Greece. From then onward, NW–SE to N–S extension east of Apulia, and gradually increasing influence of E–W extension in the south accommodated motion of the Hellenides around the Apulian platform. As a result, curved extensional basin systems evolved, including the Gulf of Amvrakikos-Sperchios Basin–Gulf of Evia system and the Gulf of Corinth–Saronic Gulf system.

Ph. Münch, ; Cornée, J.-J.; Féraud, G.; Martin, J.-P.; Ferrandini, M.; Garcia, F.; Conesa, G.; Roger, S.; Moullade, M.

doi: 10.1007/s00531-005-0038-6pmid: N/A

The Melilla carbonate complex (NE Morocco) is the only area of the Paleo-Mediterranean Sea where volcanic activity was present throughout most of the Messinian. 40Ar/39Ar dating of volcanic tuffs interbedded within the upper Messinian sedimentary deposits, known as the Terminal Carbonate Complex (TCC), yields accurate ages of paleoenvironmental and sea-level changes related to the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The new chronologic data (1) provide an average of 5.95–5.99 Ma for the base of the TCC, thus being synchronous with the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis, (2) demonstrate for the first time that the basal unconformity of the TCC does not represent a hiatus of long duration, (3) define a precise time line at 5.87±0.02 Ma (2σ) corresponding to sedimentary rocks exhibiting a lateral transition between continental and marine deposits typical of the TCC and (4) yield evidence that emersion of the Melilla platform during deposition of the TCC is partly related to tectono-magmatic activity. An erosional surface, capping the TCC deposits in the Melilla basin, is related to the major Messinian Mediterranean drawdown. The duration of the hiatus, associated with this surface, is estimated to be at most 450 kyr, but is probably shorter.

Adriasola, A.; Thomson, S.; Brix, M.; Hervé, F.; Stöckhert, B.

doi: 10.1007/s00531-005-0027-9pmid: N/A

Zircon and apatite fission track (FT) thermochronology was applied to investigate the history of cooling and denudation of the Southern Andes between 41° and 42°15′S in relation to the late Cenozoic activity of the Liquiñe-Ofqui fault zone (LOFZ) and the northward migration of the Chile Triple Junction (CTJ). Fifty-six zircon and 51 apatite FT ages, plus 37 apatite confined track-length distributions were obtained mainly from plutonic rocks of the North Patagonian Batholith (NPB) in the main Andean Cordillera. Apatite FT ages and track lengths indicate a stage of rapid cooling at ∼5--3 Ma along both sides of the LOFZ, whereas older Miocene ages with monotonous cooling histories were obtained further away from the fault. Zircon FT ages range from Cretaceous to Pliocene, with marked differences observed along and across the LOFZ. Three different types of temperature-time histories characterise the post-magmatic cooling of the NPB in the region: deep intrusions with moderate and steady cooling rates, intrusions in the upper crust with very slow cooling rates following a stage of initial rapid cooling, and rapidly cooled and exhumed shallow intrusions, the latter with younger ages towards the fault zone. The most prominent denudation episode along the LOFZ is late Miocene to Pliocene, coeval with plate tectonic reconstructions for the arrival and subduction of the Chile Rise beneath the Taitao Peninsula.

Ramelow, Juliane; Riller, Ulrich; Romer, Rolf; Oncken, Onno

doi: 10.1007/s00531-005-0042-xpmid: N/A

A combined geochronological and structural analysis of the Miocene Negra Muerta Caldera was designed to better understand caldera formation associated with prominent faults on the central Andean plateau. Rb–Sr ages of the caldera outflow facies indicate that caldera formation occurred in two volcano-tectonic episodes. The first episode commenced with explosive eruption of the 9.0±0.1 Ma andesitic Acay Ignimbrite followed by a period of volcanic quiescence and moderate tectonic activity. Dominant volcanic and tectonic activity occurred during the second episode, which is bracketed by eruption of the 7.6±0.1 Ma rhyolitic Toba 1 Ignimbrite and effusive discharge of the 7.3±0.1 Ma rhyodacitic to andesitic lava flows. Structural relationships between rocks of the Negra Muerta Volcanic Complex and collapse-induced normal faults, notably NE-striking normal faults, agree with simultaneous volcanic activity and floor subsidence of the caldera during the second episode. Floor subsidence was achieved by tilting on an outward dipping reverse fault to the northwest of the caldera floor around a hinge zone located south of the caldera floor. This induced horizontal extension of the caldera floor and was accomplished by fragmentation of, and intrusion of dikes into, the floor. Collapse-induced and post-collapse fault populations of the caldera do not differ significantly in the directions of their axes of maximum extension and are in this respect kinematically compatible with left-lateral slip on the nearby Olacapato-El Toro Fault Zone. This furnishes evidence for a kinematic control by prominent faults on the formation of collapse calderas in the central Andes. The structural analysis of the Negra Muerta Caldera shows that collapse calderas can serve as deformation markers that contribute in elucidating the regional kinematic regime and the time of activity of prominent dislocations genetically related to collapse calderas.