Texas Transportation Researcher

Quarterly magazine of the Texas Transportation Institute discussing the research, professional, and service activities of the organization as well as general research and innovations related to transportation in Texas

Texas Transportation Researcher

Quarterly magazine of the Texas Transportation Institute discussing the research, professional, and service activities of the organization as well as general research and innovations related to transportation in Texas

Texas Transportation Researcher

Quarterly magazine of the Texas Transportation Institute discussing the research, professional, and service activities of the organization as well as general research and innovations related to transportation in Texas

Texas Transportation Researcher

Quarterly newsletter of the Texas Transportation Institute discussing the research, professional, and service activities of the organization as well as general research and innovations related to transportation in Texas

Lu-Hf geochronology on cm-sized garnets using microsampling: New constraints on garnet growth rates and duration of metamorphism during continental collision (Menderes Massif, Turkey)

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. This study shows Lu-Hf geochronology of zoned garnet crystals contained in mica schists from the southern Menderes Massif, Turkey. Selected samples are four 3-5 cm large garnet megacrysts of which several consecutive garnet shells have been sampled with a micro-saw and analyzed for dating. The results are used to extract growth rates of garnet, and also to improve the time constraint for Alpine-aged overprint of the Pan-African basement in the Menderes Massif.Lu-Hf ages of the sampled garnet shells are determined by two-point garnet-only isochrons using the garnets' Lu-depleted rim compositions. This yields a consistent decrease of age information from core to rim segments of individual garnet crystals and the calculated isochron ages propose a time frame of growth between 42.6. ±. 1.9 and 34.8. ±. 3.1 Ma. Major element profiles in the investigated garnets characterize zoning patterns indicative of prograde conditions: Rayleigh fractionated bell-shaped Mn and decreasing Fe/(Fe + Mg) are recorded by the garnets' core to rim compositions. Therefore the obtained Lu-Hf ages record timing of early prograde growth for the cores of the garnets. Two of the large garnet crystals also yield isochron ages of 58.83. ±. 0.69 and 50.16. ±. 0.84 Ma in their innermost cores, which appear to record an early nucleation event. This view, however, is not in concordance with the observed major element profiles of these garnets, and therefore is interpreted with caution. Termination of the garnet growth period is determined through the calculation of radial growth rates based on the size of the garnets and the Lu-Hf ages obtained for consecutive shells. Extrapolation of these rates potentially constrains the total duration for garnet growth terminating at 31. ±. 6 Ma. Comparison of the growth rates calculated for individual crystals shows a variety of slow and fast growing garnets, and similar results have been previously obtained with the Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd isotope systems.The new data provides a precise age determination for prograde Barrovian metamorphism in the southern Menderes Massif, which so far was placed between 63 and 27 Ma on the basis of mica Rb-Sr and Ar-Ar dating. This study provides new constraints crucial to the understanding of the tectonic evolution of southwest Anatolia and the Aegean realm, as it yields a shorter outline for Alpine aged continental collision

Accretion, underplating and exhumation along a subduction interface: From subduction initiation to continental subduction (Tavsanli zone, W. Turkey)

© 2015 Elsevier B.V.. We herein reappraise the pressure-temperature (PT) evolution of the high-pressure and low-temperature (HP-LT) Tavsanli zone (western Turkey) in order to (i) better characterize rock units exhumed along a cooling subduction interface, from birth to steady state and (ii) constrain exhumation and detachment dynamics, as well as mechanical coupling between plates. Based on PT estimates and field observations three oceanic complexes are recognized between the HP-LT continental margin and the obducted ophiolite, with PT estimates ranging from incipient metamorphism to blueschist-facies conditions. PT conditions for the continental unit are reappraised to 24 kbar and ~ 500 °C on the basis of pseudosection modelling and Raman spectroscopy on carbonaceous material. A tentative reconstruction of the subduction zone evolution is proposed using available radiometric and palaeogeographic data and recent thermomechanical modelling. Both PT conditions and field observations point out to the slicing of km-sized units at different preferred depths along the subduction interface, thus providing constraints on the dynamics of accretion and underplating. In particular, the comparison of PT estimates for the Tavsanli zone and for other broadly similar fossil subduction settings (i.e., Oman, Corsica, New Caledonia, Franciscan, Schistes Lustrés) suggests that units are detached preferentially from the slab at specific depths of 30-40 km (i.e., downdip of the seismogenic zone) and ~ 80 km. We propose that these depths are controlled by major changes in mechanical coupling along the plate interface, whereas exhumation through time would rather be controlled by large-scale geodynamic boundary conditions