40Ar/39Ar ages from blueschists of the Jambaló region, Central Cordillera of Colombia : implications on the styles of accretion in the Northern Andes

This paper presents the first argon dating of blueschists from the Jambaló area (Cauca Department) in the Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. Step-heating 40Ar/39Ar spectra were obtained for mica from several lenses of blueschists including greenschist facies rocks. The blueschists are mainly constituted of preserved lenticular cores in strongly mylonitic rocks, which resulted from retrometamorphic processes that affected the high pressure rocks during their exhumation. The majority of 40Ar/39Ar data points to metamorphic ages close to 63±3Ma, but some ages are older than 71Ma. These Maastritchtian-Danian ages correspond to the timing of exhumation of the blueschists near metamorphic peak conditions, because the dated paragonite and phengite crystallized during development of the mylonitic foliation. The continuous exhumation of this blueschist belt between 71-63Ma reflects the flow on an accretionary system/subduction channel environment that was interrupted by the collision of an intra-oceanic arc with the continental margin. Regional geological correlations suggest that this arc-continent collision also took place in Ecuador. This collisional event, although synchronous with other arc-continent collisions in the Northern Andes, was apparently not related to the formation of the great Caribbean arc, but to an arc built in the southeastern margin of the Caribbean plate

LP/HT metamorphism as a temporal marker of change of deformation style within the Late Palaeozoic accretionary wedge of central Chile

A Late Palaeozoic accretionary prism, formed at the southwestern margin of Gondwana from Early Carboniferous to Late Triassic, comprises the Coastal Accretionary Complex of central Chile (34–41°S). This fossil accretionary system is made up of two parallel contemporaneous metamorphic belts: a high‐pressure/low temperature belt (HP/LT – Western Series) and a low pressure/high temperature belt (LP/HT – Eastern Series). However, the timing of deformation events associated with the growth of the accretionary prism (successive frontal accretion and basal underplating) and the development of the LP/HT metamorphism in the shallower levels of the wedge are not continuously observed along this paired metamorphic belt, suggesting the former existence of local perturbations in the subduction regime. In the Pichilemu region, a well‐preserved segment of the paired metamorphic belt allows a first order correlation between the metamorphic and deformational evolution of the deep accreted slices of oceanic crust (blueschists and HP greenschists from the Western Series) and deformation at the shallower levels of the wedge (the Eastern Series). LP/HT mineral assemblages grew in response to arc‐related granitic intrusions, and porphyroblasts constitute time markers recording the evolution of deformation within shallow wedge material. Integrated P–T–t–d analysis reveals that the LP/HT belt is formed between the stages of frontal accretion (D1) and basal underplating of basic rocks (D2) forming blueschists at c. 300 Ma. A timeline evolution relating the formation of blueschists and the formation and deformation of LP/HT mineral assemblages at shallower levels, combined with published geochronological/thermobarometric/geochemistry data suggests a cause–effect relation between the basal accretion of basic rocks and the deformation of the shallower LP/HT belt. The S2 foliation that formed during basal accretion initiated near the base of the accretionary wedge at ~30 km depth at c. 308 Ma. Later, the S2 foliation developed at c. 300 Ma and ~15 km depth shortly after the emplacement of the granitoids and formation of the (LP/HT) peak metamorphic mineral assemblages. This shallow deformation may reflect a perturbation in the long‐term subduction dynamics (e.g. entrance of a seamount), which would in turn have contributed to the coeval exhumation of the nearby blueschists at c. 300 Ma. Finally, 40Ar–39Ar cooling ages reveal that foliated LP/HT rocks were already at ~350 °C at c. 292 Ma, indicating a rapid cooling for this metamorphic system.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115992/1/jmg12166-sup-0001-FigS1-S5.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115992/2/jmg12166_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115992/3/jmg12166.pd

Performance of the reconstruction algorithms of the FIRST experiment pixel sensors vertex detector

Hadrontherapy treatments use charged particles (e.g. protons and carbon ions) to treat tumors. During a therapeutic treatment with carbon ions, the beam undergoes nuclear fragmentation processes giving rise to significant yields of secondary charged particles. An accurate prediction of these production rates is necessary to estimate precisely the dose deposited into the tumours and the surrounding healthy tissues. Nowadays, a limited set of double differential carbon fragmentation cross-section is available. Experimental data are necessary to benchmark Monte Carlo simulations for their use in hadrontherapy. The purpose of the FIRST experiment is to study nuclear fragmentation processes of ions with kinetic energy in the range from 100 to 1000 MeV/u. Tracks are reconstructed using information from a pixel silicon detector based on the CMOS technology. The performances achieved using this device for hadrontherapy purpose are discussed. For each reconstruction step (clustering, tracking and vertexing), different methods are implemented. The algorithm performances and the accuracy on reconstructed observables are evaluated on the basis of simulated and experimental data

Double di ffential fragmentation cross sections measurements of 95 MeV/u 12C on thin targets for hadrontherapy

During therapeutic treatment with heavy ions like carbon, the beam undergoes nuclear fragmentation and secondary light charged particles, in particular protons and alpha particles, are produced. To estimate the dose deposited into the tumors and the surrounding healthy tissues, an accurate prediction on the fluences of these secondary fragments is necessary. Nowadays, a very limited set of double di ffential carbon fragmentation cross sections are being measured in the energy range used in hadrontherapy (40 to 400 MeV/u). Therefore, new measurements are performed to determine the double di ffential cross section of carbon on di erent thin targets. This work describes the experimental results of an experiment performed on May 2011 at GANIL. The double di ffential cross sections and the angular distributions of secondary fragments produced in the 12C fragmentation at 95 MeV/u on thin targets (C, CH2, Al, Al2O3, Ti and PMMA) have been measured. The experimental setup will be precisely described, the systematic error study will be explained and all the experimental data will be presented.Comment: Submitted to PR

Geochemistry of tourmalines associated with iron formation and quartz veins of the Morro da Pedra Preta Formation, Serra do Itaberaba Group (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Tourmalines of intermediate schorl-dravite composition occur in iron formation (including metachert and tourmalinites), metasediments, calc-silicate and metabasic/intermediate rocks of the Morro da Pedra Preta Formation, a volcanic-sedimentary sequence of the Serra do Itaberaba Group (northeast of Sao Paulo City, southeastern Brazil). The Morro da Pedra Preta Formation is crosscut by quartz veins that contain both intermediate schorl-dravite and an alkali-deficient, Cr-(V-)bearing tourmaline, in which the occupancy of the X-site is rectangle(0.51)Ca(0.33)Na(0.15), characterizing it as intermediate to foitite and magnesiofoitite end-members. Mg# values for this tourmaline are higher than those for intermediate schorl-dravite. Raman spectroscopy also confirms the presence of two groups of tourmalines. Stable isotope data indicate sediment waters as fluid sources, rather than fluids from magmatic/post-magmatic sources. Delta(18)O compositions for tourmalines, host metachert, and quartz veins are similar, showing that fluid equilibration occurred during crystallization of both quartz and tourmaline. Syngenetic, intermediate schorl-dravite tourmalines were formed under submarine, sedimentary-exhalative conditions; amphibolite-grade metamorphism did not strongly affect their compositions. Younger tourmalines of compositions intermediate to foitite and magnesiofoitite reflect the composition of the host rocks of quartz veins, due to fluid percolation along faults and fractures that caused leaching of Cr (and V) and the crystallization of these alkali-deficient, Cr-(V-)bearing tourmalines.75220923