3 results
A nested diapir model for the reversely zoned Turtle Pluton, southeastern California
- Charlotte M. Allen
-
- Journal:
- Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences / Volume 83 / Issue 1-2 / 1992
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 03 November 2011, pp. 179-190
- Print publication:
- 1992
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Most zoned plutons described in the geological literature have mafic rims and felsic cores and are referred to as “normally zoned”, whereas relatively few “reversely zoned” intrusions (felsic rims and mafic cores) have been described. That unusual zonation pattern has been variously attributed to in situ processes or to the reordering of an underlying, vertically stratified, magma chamber either by intrusion through an orifice or by emplacement of composite diapirs. The Turtle Pluton is an early Cretaceous, reversely zoned, intrusion that is divided into four facies: a Rim Sequence that is graditionally zoned from bt + ilm + muse monzogranite to hb + bt + mt + sph granodiorite; a Core Facies of more homogeneous hb + bt + mt + sph granodiorite to quartz monzodiorite; between these two facies, a structural discontinuity termed the Schlieren Zone; and an Eastern Facies of monzogranite to granodiorite. Field relationships, distribution of strain, and geochemical and isotopic studies (including a range of initial87Sr/86Sr from 0·7085–0·7065) suggest that the reverse zonation of the Turtle Pluton is the result of sequential emplacement of two diapirs each derived from the same underlying, vertically stratified, magma chamber, and that the Rim Sequence zonation is chiefly the result of mixing of intermediate and felsic magmas from distinct sources accompanied by minor fractional crystallisation.
I- and S-type granites in the Lachlan Fold Belt
- B. W. Chappell, A. J. R. White
-
- Journal:
- Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences / Volume 83 / Issue 1-2 / 1992
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 03 November 2011, pp. 1-26
- Print publication:
- 1992
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Granites and related volcanic rocks of the Lachlan Fold Belt can be grouped into suites using chemical and petrographic data. The distinctive characteristics of suites reflect source-rock features. The first-order subdivision within the suites is between those derived from igneous and from sedimentary source rocks, the I- and S-types. Differences between the two types of source rocks and their derived granites are due to the sedimentary source material having been previously weathered at the Earth's surface. Chemically, the S-type granites are lower in Na, Ca, Sr and Fe3+/Fe2+, and higher in Cr and Ni. As a consequence, the S-types are always peraluminous and contain Al-rich minerals. A little over 50% of the I-type granites are metaluminous and these more mafic rocks contain hornblende. In the absence of associated mafic rocks, the more felsic and slightly peraluminous I-type granites may be difficult to distinguish from felsic S-type granites. This overlap in composition is to be expected and results from the restricted chemical composition of the lowest temperature felsic melts. The compositions of more mafic I- and S-type granites diverge, as a result of the incorporation of more mafic components from the source, either as restite or a component of higher temperature melt. There is no overlap in composition between the most mafic I- and S-type granites, whose compositions are closest to those of their respective source rocks. Likewise, the enclaves present in the more mafic granites have compositions reflecting those of their host rocks, and probably in most cases, the source rocks.
S-type granites have higher δ18O values and more evolved Sr and Nd isotopic compositions, although the radiogenic isotope compositions overlap with I-types. Although the isotopic compositions lie close to a mixing curve, it is thought that the amount of mixing in the source rocks was restricted, and occurred prior to partial melting. I-type granites are thought to have been derived from deep crust formed by underplating and thus are infracrustal, in contrast to the supracrustal S-type source rocks.
Crystallisation of feldspars from felsic granite melts leads to distinctive changes in the trace element compositions of more evolved I- and S-type granites. Most notably, P increases in abundance with fractionation of crystals from the more strongly peraluminous S-type felsic melts, while it decreases in abundance in the analogous, but weakly peraluminous, I-type melts.
Origin of infracrustal (I-type) granite magmas
- B. W. Chappell, W. E. Stephens
-
- Journal:
- Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences / Volume 79 / Issue 2-3 / 1988
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 03 November 2011, pp. 71-86
- Print publication:
- 1988
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
I-type granites are produced by partial melting of older igneous rocks that are metaluminous and hence have not undergone any significant amount of chemical weathering. In the Lachlan Fold Belt of southeastern Australia and the Caledonian Fold Belt of Britain and Ireland there was a major magmatic event close to 400 Ma ago involving a massive introduction of heat into the crust. In both areas, that Caledonian-age event produced large volumes of I-type granite and related volcanic rocks. Granites of these two areas are not identical in character but they do show many similarities and are markedly different from many of the granites found in Mesozoic and younger fold belts. These younger, dominantly tonalitic, granites have compositions similar to those of the more felsic volcanic rocks forming at the present time above subduction zones. The Palaeozoic granites show little evidence of such a direct relationship to subduction. Within both the Caledonian and Lachlan belts there are some granites with a composition close to the younger tonalites. A particularly interesting case is that of the Tuross Head Tonalite of the Lachlan Fold Belt, which can be shown to have formed from slightly older source rocks by a process that we refer to as remagmatisation which has caused no significant change in composition. Since remagmatisation has reproduced the former source composition in the younger rocks, the wrong inference would result from the use of that composition to deduce the tectonic conditions at the time of formation of the tonalite. Granites, particularly the more mafic ones, will generally have compositions reflecting the compositions of their source rocks, and attempts to use granite compositions to reconstruct the tectonic environment at the time of formation of the granite may be looking instead at an older event. This is probably also the case for some andesites formed at continental margins.
Several arguments can be presented in favour of a general model for the production of I-type granite sources by underplating the crust, so that the source rocks are infracrustal. Such sources may contain a component of subducted sediments with the consequence that some of the compositional characteristics of sedimentary rocks may be present in I-type source rocks and in the granites derived from them. The small bodies of mafic granite and gabbro associated with island arc volcanism have an origin that can be related to the partial melting of subducted oceanic crust or of mantle material overlying such slabs and can be referred to as M-type. These rocks have compositions indistinguishable from those of the related volcanic rocks, except for a small component of cumulative material. The tonalitic I-type granites characteristic of the Cordillera are probably derived from such M-type rocks of basaltic to andesitic composition, which had been underplated beneath the crust. Some of the more mafic tonalites of the Caledonian-age fold belts may also have had a similar origin. More commonly, however, the plutonic rocks of the older belts are granodioritic and these probably represent the products of partial melting of older tonalitic I-type source rocks in the deep crust, these having compositions and origins analogous to the tonalites of the Cordillera. In this way, multiple episodes of partial melting, accompanied by fractionation of the magmas, can produce quite felsic rocks from original source rocks in the mantle or mantle wedge. These are essential processes in the evolution of the crust, since the first stages in this process produce new crust and the later magmatic events redistribute this material vertically without the addition of significant amounts of new crust.
![](/core/cambridge-core/public/images/lazy-loader.gif)