The Hope Valley Shear Zone - A Major Late Paleozoic Ductile Shear Zone in Southeastern New England

Guidebook for field trips in Connecticut and adjacent areas of New York and Rhode Island: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference 77th annual meeting, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, October 4-6, 1985: Trip B

Rare Earths Abundances and Fractionations and their Implications for Batholithic Petrogenesis in the Peninsular Ranges Batholith, California, USA, and Baja California, Mexico

Rare Earth Element (REE) patterns of plutonic rocks across the Peninsular Ranges batholith vary systematically west to east, transverse to the long axis and structural trends of the batholith. Three major parallel elongate geographic regions are each defined by distinct REE pattern types. Rocks from the western region display slight light REE enrichment, flat heavy REE, and negative Eu anomalies. An abrupt transition to rocks with middle and heavy REE fractionated and depleted REE patterns with no or positive Eu anomalies occurs in the central region of the batholith. Further to the east a second transition to strongly light REE enriched rocks some of which have positive or negative Eu anomalies occurs. Some gabbros may show divergent patterns. These large variations are observed even in similar lithologies across the three regions and notably in tonalites, the major rock type of the batholith. The slopes of the REE patterns within rocks of each region are largely independent of rock type, and no consistent variations in REE abundances and Eu anomalies with lithology are noted with the exception of some gabbros. Most of the leucogranodiorites of the western region have larger negative Eu anomalies than nearby tonalites. Granodioritic rocks of the central and eastern regions may have positive, negative, or no Eu anomalies. These results are the first report of systematic variations in REE characteristics across a granitic batholith whose geologic setting at a convergent plate boundary has been established. Some similarities and contrasts to REE variations across modern volcanic arcs are noted. Along the westernmost margin of the batholith in northern Baja California, Mexico, leucotonalitic rocks of the San Telmo pluton display essentially flat REE patterns strongly resembling those observed for near-trench volcanic rocks. The REE patterns of quartz gabbros and tonalites of the western region correspond closely to those of circum-Pacific high-alumina basalts. The heavy REE depleted and fractionated patterns observed in the rocks of the central and eastern regions of the batholith do not have counterparts in oceanic island volcanic arcs, and few counterparts in continental margin volcanic arcs. The REE variations generally correlate with other transverse asymmetries in major petrologic and geochemical characteristics. The abrupt depletion and fractionation in the middle to heavy REE and elimination of negative Eu anomalies appear coupled to an increase in Sr concentration and a marked restriction in lithologic diversity. This transition occurs over a range of initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios. The light REE enriched rocks of the eastern region are distinguished from the central and western regions by higher initial ratios. Geographic discontinuities in δ18O and age distributions in the batholith correlate approximately with the REE discontinuities, but locally diverge by the dimensions of one or two plutons. Determinations of REE abundances in major and trace phases of a representative eastern region granodiorite indicate accessory sphene and allanite are the major reservoirs of REE in this rock. Hornblende is the only significant REE site in the major minerals, and in some batholithic lithologies it may be the dominant site. High-level crystal fractionations involving hornblende and accessory phases do not appear capable of producing the observed geographic characteristics. Contamination processes including upper crustal material also seem ruled out. The REE and other geochemical variations across the batholith appear to originate in deep-seated sources. Partial melting in source rocks in which assemblages rich in plagioclase give way laterally to garnet-bearing assemblages in source regions of broadly basaltic composition which are already zoned in light REE abundances, 87Sr/86Sr, δ18O, and possibly Sr content appears to account for most of the observed features. The geologic context of the source material remains largely undefined and may include mantle and crustal components. However, the source regions for all parts of the batholith must have bulk compositions and phase assemblages capable of producing the dominant tonalite and low-K2O granodiorite lithologies. This major constraint appears to strongly limit the amount of sialic crustal material permitted to be present in the source regions. The geometry of the convergent boundary appears to have determined the elongate form of the batholith, and, probably, the general alignment of all the geochemical variations along its length. The results of this study may be useful in comparing possibly related crust-forming processes and products in other orogenic-plutonic terrains.</p

REE Variations Across the Peninsular Ranges Batholith: Implications for Batholithic Petrogenesis and Crustal Growth in Magmatic Arcs

Rare earth element (REE) patterns of plutonic rocks across the Cretaceous Peninsular Ranges batholith vary systematically west to east, transverse to its long axis and structural trends and generally parallel to asymmetries in petrologic, geochronologic and isotopic properties. The batholith can be divided into three distinct parallel longitudinal regions, each defined by distinct REE pattern types. An abrupt transition occurs between rocks with slightly fractionated REE patterns in the western (coastal) region and rocks with middle to heavy REE fractionated and depleted patterns in the central region. Further to the east a second transition to strongly light REE enriched rocks occurs. The slopes of the REE patterns within each of these regions are largely independent of rock type. The first REE transition is closely coupled to regional discontinuities in other parameters: elimination of negative Eu anomalies, an increase in Sr content, and a marked restriction in petrologic diversity. This transition occurs over a range of initial ^(87)Sr/^(86)Sr ratios and δ^(18)O values, but approximately correlates to a major shift in the emplacement style of the batholith from a stationary arc to a rapidly eastward-migrating (cratonward) arc. The sense of the regionally consistent REE trends cannot be explained by crystallization, assimilation, combined crystallization-assimilation, or mixing processes. The consequences of assimilation and high-level differentiation are not observed generally, despite the sensitivity of the REE to these processes. Geochemical and petrological features argue that the partial melting of mafic source rocks in which plagioclase-rich (gabbroic) residual assemblages abruptly gave way laterally and downward to garnet-bearing (eclogitic) residual assemblages produced all the changes associated with the first REE transition. The change in residual assemblages from gabbroic to eclogitic was superimposed on source regions already zoned in light REE abundances, ^(87)Sr/^(86)Sr and ^(18)O. Temperature and pressure constraints on the source regions place them in a subcrustal location. The calcic nature of the batholith and the dominance of tonalite and low-K_2O granodiorite in all its regions argue that the source materials are broadly basaltic in composition. Experimental studies are consistent with the generation of the abundant tonalitic magmas by the partial melting of basalt under both low and high pressure conditions. Arc basalts such as those commonly erupted in modern island arcs and continental margins are inferred to have provided much of the source material and the heat. Additional high-^(18)O components are needed in the more easterly source regions. These materials must be distributed so as to contribute equally to the range of magmas that occur in a given local region, and must preserve the calcic nature of batholithic sources. Altered basalts of ancient oceanic crust and possibly their associated metasediments, previously incorporated into the lithosphere beneath the continental margin during earlier cycles of subduction, most readily satisfy these constraints. The REE geochemistry of the central and eastern regions of the batholith differs from that of oceanic island arcs in the presence of strongly heavy REE depleted and fractionated magmas. A model is proposed in which arc basalts accumulate beneath a crustal layer. Melting of accumulated material at low pressure produces magmas of the western region. Where thickening of the basaltic underplate is sufficient to form eclogitic assemblages, eclogite-derived magmas of the central and eastern region are produced. The abrupt transition to eclogite-derived magmas that suggests a process driven by a density instability is responsible for their origin. The Peninsular Ranges batholith appears to be representative of a major differentiation process in which mantle-derived basalt is remelted, contributing its more sialic fractions to the continental crust and leaving its mafic to ultramafic residues in the mantle. This process preserves the sialic character of the continental crust and may play a significant role in its growth and evolution. The batholith and the processes that produced it may be a more appropriate basis than immature oceanic island arcs on which to construct models of continental growth and evolution

(Table 1) Strontium isotope ratios of ODP Hole 121-758A

The 87Sr/86Sr ratio of sea water has increased gradually over the past 40 Myr, suggesting a concomitant increase in global chemical weathering rates (Raymo et al., 1988, doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1988)0162.3.CO;2; Capo and DePaolo, 1990, doi:10.1126/science.249.4964.51; Hodell et al., 1990, doi:10.1016/0168-9622(90)90011-Z; Raymo and Ruddiman, 1992, doi:10.1038/359117a0; Caldeira, 1992, doi:10.1038/357578a0; Palmer and Edmons, 1992, doi:10.1016/0016-7037(92)90332-D). Recently, Dia et al. (1992, doi:10.1038/356786a0) analysed a 250-kyr 87Sr/86Sr record, and found superimposed on this gradual increase higher-frequency 87Sr/86Sr variations which appeared to follow a 100-kyr cycle; this periodicity corresponds to one of the prominent cycles in the Earth's orbital parameters, which are known to modulate the patterns of solar insolation and hence climate (Berger, 1978, doi:10.1016/0033-5894(78)90064-9; 1989, doi:10.1016/1040-6182(89)90016-5; Imbrie et al., 1992, doi:10.1029/92PA02253). The resolution of this record was, however, insufficient to establish the phase relationship between the 87Sr/86Sr variations and global climate cycles. Here we present a high-resolution seawater 87Sr/86Sr record spanning the past 450 kyr. We find that maxima and minima in 87Sr/86Sr coincide with minima and maxima, respectively, in continental ice volume (from the SPECMAP oxygen isotope record (Imbrie et al., 1984)), apparently suggesting that there was less chemical weathering in arid glacial periods than in the more humid interglacials. During glacial-interglacial transitions, however, seawater 87Sr/86Sr changes at a rate of ~1 p.p.m./kyr, approximately three times that evaluated by Dia et al. (1992, doi:10.1038/356786a0). Mass-balance calculations illustrate that simple changes in modern chemical weathering regimes cannot fully account for such rapid changes, suggesting that we need to revise current ideas about strontium reservoirs and the mechanisms for exchange between them