Eclogites in peridotite massifs in the Western Gneiss Region, Scandinavian Caledonides: Petrogenesis and comparison with those in the Variscan Moldanubian Zone

Eclogite lenses and boudins are volumetrically minor, but petrologically important, features of peridotite massifs worldwide. In the Western Gneiss Region of the Scandinavian Caledonides, eclogites in the Almklovdalen and Raubergvik peridotites originated as basaltic to picrobasaltic dikes, comprising both olivine–normative and nepheline–normative types, with a wide variation in Mg–number from 34 to 65. Positive anomalies for Pb and Sr and negative anomalies for Zr and Hf reflect a subduction signature in the basic melts, and rare–earth element modelling requires 20% to 70% fractional crystallization, combined with 20% to 70% assimilation of peridotite. Clinopyroxenes in eclogites have a wide variation in εNd(0) from +68 to −26, which is comparable to that for associated garnet peridotites and pyroxenites, +55 to −38, and a range in 87Sr/86Sr from 0.7021 to 0.7099, which is much larger than that in peridotites and pyroxenites, 0.7014 to 0.7033. Plagioclase and amphibole inclusions in eclogite garnet provide evidence for prograde metamorphism, which attained a maximum temperature of ~775 °C and pressure of ~25 kb. Such conditions are allofacial with those of associated garnet peridotites and pyroxenites, which equilibrated at ~825 °C and ~37 kb. Eclogites yield mixed Sm-Nd isochron ages, as do the peridotites and pyroxenites, but ages in eclogites are 1000 Ma. Three eclogites yield Ordovician U-Pb ages for rutile at 440 ± 12, 445 ± 51, and 480 ± 29 Ma, which are coeval with the Taconic Orogeny and are consistent with a Laurentian provenance for the host peridotites. Eclogites in both Norwegian and Czech peridotites originated from melts passing through a mantle wedge above a subduction zone, and both suites exhibit subduction geochemical signatures, although they differ dramatically in petrogenesis. Eclogites in Norwegian peridotites initially crystallized as relatively low–pressure, plagioclase–bearing basaltic or gabbroic dikes and subsequently recrystallized to high–pressure eclogite, whereas most eclogites in Variscan Moldanubian peridotites crystallized directly from magmas at high pressure to produce eclogite facies assemblages

Mechanical Mixing of Garnet Peridotite and Pyroxenite in the Orogenic Peridotite Lenses of the Tvaerdal Complex, Liverpool Land, Greenland Caledonides

The Tvaerdal Complex is an eclogite-bearing metamorphic terrane in Liverpool Land at the southern tip of the Greenland Caledonides. It is a Baltic terrane that was transferred to Laurentia during the Scandian orogeny. It exposes a few small garnet dunite and harzburgite lenses, some containing parallel layers of garnet pyroxenite and peridotite (including lherzolite). Sm–Nd mineral ages from the pyroxenites indicate recrystallization occurred at the same time (≈405 Ma) as eclogite recrystallization in the enclosing gneiss. Geothermobarometry indicates these eclogites and pyroxenites shared a similar pressure-temperature history. This congruent evolution suggests pyroxenite-bearing peridotite lenses were introduced from a mantle wedge into subducted Baltic continental crust and subsequently shared a common history with this crust and its eclogites during the Scandian orogeny. Some garnet peridotite samples contain two garnet populations: one Cr-rich (3·5–6·2 wt % Cr2O3) and the other Cr-poor (0·2–1·4 wt %). Sm–Nd analyses of two such garnet peridotites define two sets of apparent ages: one older (>800 Ma) for Cr-rich garnets and the other younger (<650 Ma) for Cr-poor garnets. We propose that the younger Cr-poor garnets were derived from fractured and disaggregated garnet pyroxenite layers (i.e. are M2) and were mixed mechanically with older (i.e. M1) garnets of the host peridotite during intense Scandian shearing. Mechanical mixing may be an important mantle process

High- and ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism from microscopic to orogenic scale

International audienceThis volume includes contributions presented during the 10th International Eclogite Conference held in Courmayeur, Italy, September 2nd-10th, 201

Tourmaline-bearing quartz veins in the Baraboo quartzite, Wisconsin: Occurrence and significance of foitite and oxy-foitite

The alkali-deficient tourmaline, foitite [□(Fe2+2Al Al6Si6O18(BO3)3(OH 3(OH)], and associated hematite occur in quartz veins that cut the geon 17 Baraboo Quartzite in south-central Wisconsin. The bluish green prismatic crystals of tourmaline are chemically zoned from core to rim, with the cores being very aluminous, highly alkali-deficient and, in one sample, relatively magnesian. Electron-microprobe analyses demonstrate that the tourmaline has a prevailing alkali-deficient in the X site, which ranges from 49 to 87%, with a mean of 73%, making this the most alkali-deficient tourmaline reported to date. In one sample, high contents of Al (up to 7.7 Al apfu) and high cation-charge excess demonstrate the likely existence of a dominant oxy-foitite component [□ (Fe2+ Al2) Al6Si6O18(BO33(OH)3(OH)3(O)], which is the first recognition of such in a natural occurrence. The wide range of chemical zoning in the tourmaline is most consistent with substitutions represented by the □Al(NaR)-1. AlO[R(OH)]-1, FeAl-1 and MgFe-1 exchanges, where R symbolizes Fe + Mg. The alkali-deficient character of the Baraboo tourmaline largely reflects the alkali-depleted and chemically mature composition of the host Baraboo Quartzite, but core-to-rim compositional variation in the tourmaline records the evolving nature of the attendant hydrothermal fluid, from a Na-poor, relatively alkaline early stage to a more sodic, acidic later stage

Mantle and crustal metasomatism of garnet-bearing peridotite in the Western Gneiss Region of the Norwegian Caledonides

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The mantle and crustal evolution of two garnet peridotite suites from the Western Gneiss Region, Norwegian Caledonides: An isotopic investigation

A compilation of published and unpublished geochronological and isotopic data from garnet-bearing orogenic peridotites in the HP/UHP Western Gneiss Region (WGR) of the Norwegian Caledonides indicate a common origin for all WGR peridotites, followed by different, though related, Proterozoic and Phanerozoic histories for those in the northwestern WGR (NW peridotites) compared to those in the central and western WGR (CW peridotites). All peridotites are refractory fragments of the subcontinental lithosphere generated by Archean melt extraction, which produced strongly depleted dunites and harzburgites with relict orthopyroxene and majoritic garnet megacrysts (M1NW) within the NW peridotites. The Archean history is preserved by Re-Os sulfide and whole-rock ages from several WGR bodies and by Sm-Nd ages from the M1NW megacrysts. Subsequently the CW peridotites were re-fertilized within the lithospheric mantle by mid-Proterozoic or older silicate melts that generated M2CW garnet pyroxenites and adjacent garnet peridotites. Clinopyroxenes from these bodies show large variation in 143Nd/144Nd, but nearly constant 87Sr/86Sr, suggesting autometasomatism of depleted mantle by LREE-enriched, Rb-poor melts derived from equally depleted mantle. NW peridotites lack mid-Proterozoic garnet pyroxenite intrusions, but M2NW garnet-rich assemblages that exsolved from relict M1 megacrysts may have equilibrated at the same time as the M2CW refertilization. Sm-Nd and Lu-Hf mineral apparent isochron ages from both suites range from 1.75 to ca. 0.87Ga. The age spectrum suggests continuous diffusion among M2 minerals that formed ≥ 1.75Ga ago punctuated by partial re-equilibration during a 1.0Ga thermal event. Much later the NW peridotites were transferred from the mantle wedge into the crust as the WGR was subducted into the mantle during the ca 400Ma Scandian Orogeny. Further subduction heterogeneously metasomatized and recrystallized the NW peridotites to form M3NW garnet, clinopyroxene and, where metasomatism was pervasive, new M3NW radiogenic (87Sr/86Sr>0.715), LIL-enriched minerals (phlogopite, amphibole) and microdiamond consistent with invasion by hydrous fluids from the enclosing Proterozoic gneisses. Nine young apparent ages (672 to 424Ma), all from exsolved or recrystallized garnets within NW peridotites, represent mixed (M2NW and M3NW) apparent ages. The three youngest ages (weighted mean of 429.5±3.1Ma; 2σ) may date M3NW prograde re-equilibration during earliest Scandian subduction. The CW peridotites show no evidence of prograde M3 re-equilibration, suggesting derivation from a different part of the Laurentian mantle wedge during the exhumation of the WGR from the mantle.19 page(s

Axial‐type olivine crystallographic preferred orientations: the effect of strain geometry on mantle texture

The effect of finite strain geometry on crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) is poorly constrained in the upper mantle. Specifically, the relationship between shape preferred orientation (SPO) and CPO in the mantle rocks remains unclear. We analyzed a suite of 40 spinel peridotite xenoliths from Marie Byrd Land, west Antarctica. X-ray computed tomography allows for quantification of spinel SPO, which ranges from prolate to oblate shape. Electron backscatter diffraction analysis reveals a range of olivine CPO patterns, including A-type, axial-[010], axial-[100], and B-type patterns. Until now, these CPO types were associated with different deformation conditions, deformation mechanisms, or strain magnitudes. Microstructures and deformation mechanism maps suggest that deformation in all studied xenoliths is dominated by dislocation-accommodated grain boundary sliding. For the range of temperatures (779–1198 ºC), extraction depths (39–72 km), differential stresses (2–60 MPa), and water content (up to 500 H/106Si) of the xenolith suite, variations in olivine CPO do not correlate with changes in deformation conditions. Here we establish for the first time in naturally deformed mantle rocks that finite strain geometry controls the development of axial-type olivine CPOs; axial-[010] and axial-[100] CPOs form in relation to oblate and prolate fabric ellipsoids, respectively. Girdling of olivine crystal axes results from intracrystalline slip with activation of multiple slip systems, and grain boundary sliding. Our results demonstrate that mantle deformation may deviate from simple shear. Olivine texture in field studies and seismic anisotropy in geophysical investigations can provide critical constraints for the 3D strain in the upper mantle

Early Mesoproterozoic evolution of midcontinental Laurentia: Defining the geon 14 Baraboo orogeny

New geochronologic data from midcontinental Laurentia demonstrate that emplacement of the 1476–1470 Ma Wolf River granitic batholith was not an isolated igneous event, but was accompanied by regional metamorphism, deformation, and sedimentation. Evidence for such metamorphism and deformation is best seen in siliciclastic sedimentary rocks of the Baraboo Interval, which were deposited closely following the 1.65–1.63 Ga Mazatzal orogeny. In Baraboo Interval strata, muscovite parallel to slatey cleavage, in hydrothermal veins, in quartzite breccia, and in metamorphosed paleosol yielded 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages of 1493–1465 Ma. In addition, U–Th–total Pb dating of neoblastic overgrowths on detrital monazite gave an age of 1488 ± 20 Ma, and recrystallized hematite in folded metapelite gave a mean U/Th–He age of 1411 ± 39 Ma. Post-Baraboo, arkosic polymictic conglomerate, which contains detrital zircon with a minimum peak age of 1493 Ma, was intruded by a 1470 Ma granite porphyry at the northeastern margin of the Wolf River batholith. This episode of magmatism, regional deformation and metamorphism, and sedimentation, which is designated herein as the Baraboo orogeny, provides a midcontinental link between the Picuris orogeny to the southwest and the Pinware orogeny to the northeast, completing the extent of early Mesoproterozoic (Calymmian) orogenesis for 5000 km along the southern margin of Laurentia. This transcontinental orogen is unique among Precambrian orogenies for its great width (~1600 km), the predominance of ferroan granites derived from partial melting of lower continental crust, and the prevalence of regional high T-P metamorphism related to advective heating by granitic magmas emplaced in the middle to upper crust