Compressional origin of the Naxos metamorphic core complex, Greece: structure, petrography, and thermobarometry

The island of Naxos, Greece, has been previously considered to represent a Cordilleran-style metamorphic core complex that formed during Cenozoic extension of the Aegean Sea. Although lithospheric extension has undoubtedly occurred in the region since 10 Ma, the geodynamic history of older, regional-scale, kyanite- and sillimanite-grade metamorphic rocks exposed within the core of the Naxos dome is controversial. Specifically, little is known about the pre-extensional prograde evolution and the relative timing of peak metamorphism in relation to the onset of extension. In this work, new structural mapping is presented and integrated with petrographic analyses and phase equilibrium modeling of blueschists, kyanite gneisses, and anatectic sillimanite migmatites. The kyanite-sillimanite−grade rocks within the core complex record a complex history of burial and compression and did not form under crustal extension. Deformation and metamorphism were diachronous and advanced down the structural section, resulting in the juxtaposition of several distinct tectono-stratigraphic nappes that experienced contrasting metamorphic histories. The Cycladic Blueschists attained ∼14.5 kbar and 470 °C during attempted northeast-directed subduction of the continental margin. These were subsequently thrusted onto the more proximal continental margin, resulting in crustal thickening and regional metamorphism associated with kyanite-grade conditions of ∼10 kbar and 600−670 °C. With continued shortening, the deepest structural levels underwent kyanite-grade hydrous melting at ∼8−10 kbar and 680−750 °C, followed by isothermal decompression through the muscovite dehydration melting reaction to sillimanite-grade conditions of ∼5−6 kbar and 730 °C. This decompression process was associated with top-to-the-NNE shearing along passive-roof faults that formed because of SW-directed extrusion. These shear zones predated crustal extension, because they are folded around the migmatite dome and are crosscut by leucogranites and low-angle normal faults. The migmatite dome formed at lower-pressure conditions under horizontal constriction that caused vertical boudinage and upright isoclinal folds. The switch from compression to extension occurred immediately following doming and was associated with NNE-SSW horizontal boudinage and top-to-the-NNE brittle-ductile normal faults that truncate the internal shear zones and earlier collisional features. The Naxos metamorphic core complex is interpreted to have formed via crustal thickening, regional metamorphism, and partial melting in a compressional setting, here termed the Aegean orogeny, and it was exhumed from the midcrust due to the switch from compression to extension at ca. 15 Ma

The Cycladic Blueschist Unit on Tinos, Greece: Cold NE Subduction and SW Directed Extrusion of the Cycladic Continental Margin Under the Tsiknias Ophiolite

High pressure‐low temperature (HP‐LT) metamorphic rocks structurally beneath the Tsiknias Ophiolite make up the interior of Tinos Island, Greece, but their relationship with the overlying ophiolite is poorly understood. Here, new field observations are integrated with petrological modeling of eclogite and blueschists to provide new insight into their tectonothermal evolution. Pseudomorphed lawsonite‐, garnet‐, and glaucophane‐bearing schists exposed at the highest structural levels of Tinos (Kionnia and Pyrgos Subunits) reached ~22–26 kbar and 490–520°C under water‐saturated conditions, whereas pseudomorphed lawsonite‐ and aegirine‐omphacite bearing eclogite reached ~20–23 kbar and 530–570°C. These rocks are separated from rocks at deeper structural levels (Sostis Subunit) by a top‐to‐SW thrust. The Sostis Subunit records P‐T conditions of ~18.5 kbar and 480–510°C and is overprinted by pervasive top‐to‐NE shearing that developed during exhumation from (M1) blueschist to (M2) greenschist facies conditions of ~7.3 ± 0.7 kbar and 536 ± 16°C. These P‐T‐D relationships suggest that the Cycladic Blueschist Unit represents a discrete series of tectonometamorphic subunits that each experienced different tectonic and thermal histories. These subunits were buried to variable depths and sequentially extruded toward the SW from a NE dipping subduction zone. The difference in age and P‐T conditions between the HP‐LT rocks and the overlying metamorphic sole of the Tsiknias Ophiolite suggests that this NE dipping subduction zone was active between circa 74 and 46 Ma and cooled at a minimum rate of ~1.2–1.5°C/km/Myr prior to continent‐continent collision between Eurasia and Adria/Cyclades

The age, origin and emplacement of the Tsiknias Ophiolite, Tinos, Greece

The Tsiknias Ophiolite, exposed at the highest structural levels of Tinos, Greece, represents a thrust sheet of Tethyan oceanic crust and upper mantle emplaced onto the Attic‐Cycladic Massif. We present new field observations and a new geological map of Tinos, integrated with petrology, THERMOCALC phase diagram modelling, U–Pb geochronology and whole rock geochemistry, resulting in a tectono‐thermal model that describes the formation and emplacement of the Tsiknias Ophiolite and newly identified underlying metamorphic sole. The ophiolite comprises a succession of partially dismembered and structurally repeated ultramafic and gabbroic rocks that represent the Moho Transition Zone. A plagiogranite dated by U‐Pb zircon at 161.9 ± 2.8 Ma, reveals that the Tsiknias Ophiolite formed in a supra‐subduction zone setting, comparable to the “East‐Vardar Ophiolites”, and was intruded by gabbros at 144.4 ± 5.6 Ma. Strongly sheared metamorphic sole rocks show a condensed and inverted metamorphic gradient, from partially anatectic amphibolites at P–T conditions of ca. 8.5 kbar 850‐600 °C, down‐structural section to greenschist‐facies oceanic metasediments over ~250 m. Leucosomes generated by partial melting of the uppermost sole amphibolite, yielded a U–Pb zircon protolith age of ca. 190 Ma and a high‐grade metamorphic‐anatectic age of 74.0 ± 3.5 Ma associated with ophiolite emplacement. The Tsiknias Ophiolite was therefore obducted ~90 Myrs after it formed during initiation of a NE‐dipping intra‐oceanic subduction zone to the northeast of the Cyclades that coincides with Africa's plate motion changing from transcurrent to convergent. Continued subduction resulted in high‐pressure metamorphism of the Cycladic continental margin ~25 Myrs later

NBS K409: A potential reference material for sub-micron X-ray resolution by EPMA

With advances in electron beam instrumentation, there has been a trend toward higher resolution electron gun sources for electron microprobes. JEOL has been marketing field-emission gun (FEG) microprobes since 2003 (JXA 8500F), and CAMECA introduced their SX5FE microprobe in 2011. However, there remain questions about the full utilization of such tight beams as those afforded by the FEG applied to common rock-forming minerals (e.g. silicates, oxides, carbonates, phosphates, glasses), because the desired improvement in X-ray spatial resolution for quantitative determination of the compositions of sub-micron size objects necessitates operation at lower accelerating voltages and use of low-energy X-ray lines. The physics of electron scatter and ionization energies under such conditions is of primary concern regarding the spatial resolution of field-emission EPMA. In the 1970s, the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (now National Institute of Standards and Technology) developed a series of glass reference materials for microanalysis. The two glasses K411 and K412 were certified in 1982 (Marinenko, 1982) and contain SiO2, MgO, CaO and FeO/Fe2O3, with K412 additionally containing Al2O3. Both glasses were independently characterized and each found to be homogeneous. The composition of K411 is equivalent to stoichiometric pyroxene (augite). Decades later, with interest in microanalysis of particles, microspheres (2-40 um) of K411 composition were developed (Marinenko et al., 2000). Recently, a vial of NBS glass "K409" was unearthed at the University of Wisconsin; it was apparently a "failed experiment" for a sodium-rich microanalysis standard (D. Newbury, pers. comm.) with a nominal composition of SiO2 (55 wt%), Al2O3 (15 wt%), FeO (20 wt%) and Na2O (10 wt%). Close inspection of this sample by SEM reveals a plenitude of equant euhedral iron oxide microlites ≤ 1000 nm in diameter. This "failed experiment" fortuitously created a potential standard for higher resolution X-ray microanalysis, which we document here for the first time. Our investigations of the K409 material using a JEOL 8530F include Si Kα, Fe Kα and Fe Lα line profiles several microns in length across the sharp grain boundaries of the Fe-oxides and provide some initial results for X-ray spatial resolution based on the lateral distance over which the intensity shifts between ~10 and 90 % of maximum. Spatial resolution for Si Kα improves from >500 nm at 10 keV to ~200-300 nm between 5-8 keV; resolution for Fe Kα improves from ~300 nm to ~200 nm with a drop from 10 to 8 keV. The Fe Lα line profile acquired at 5-7 keV likewise yields resolution in the ~200 nm range. Results of further examination of K409 and other materials (e.g. a Fe-Si couple) that constrain both beam and X-ray spatial resolution will be presented. References: Marinenko, R.B., 1982. Natl. Bur. Stand. (U.S.) Spec. Pub. 260-74 Marinenko, R.B. et al., 2000. Microsc. Microanal. 6 (6), 542-50