Significance of the late Archaean granulite facies terrain boundaries, Southern West Greenland

Abstract

Three distinct episodes and occurrences of granulite metamorphism in West Greenland are described: (1) the oldest fragmentary granulites occur within the 3.6-Ga Amitsoq gneisses and appear to have formed 200 Ma after the continental crust in which they lie (Spatially associated rapakivi granites have zircon cores as old as 3.8 Ga, but Rb-Sr, whole-rock Pb-Pb, and all other systems give 3.6 Ga, so these granulites apparently represent a later metamorphic event); (2) 3.0-Ga granulites of the Nordlandet Peninsula NW of Godthaab, developed immediately after crustal formation in hot, dry conditions, are carbonate-free, associated with voluminous tonalite, and formed at peak metamorphic conditions of 800 C and 7 to 8 kbar (Synmetamorphic trondhjemite abounds and the activity of H2O has been indicated by Pilar to have varied greatly); and (3) 2.8-Ga granulites south of Godthaab, lie to the south of retrogressed amphibolite terranes. Prograde amphibolite-granulite transitions are clearly preserved only locally at the southern end of this block, near Bjornesund, south of Fiskenaesset. Progressively deeper parts of the crust are exposed from south to north as a major thrust fault is approached. Characteristic big hornblende pegmatites, which outcrop close to the thrust in the east, have been formed by replacement of orthopyroxene. Comparable features were not seen in South Indian granulites. It was concluded that no one mechanism accounts for the origin of all granulites in West Greenland. Various processes have interacted in different ways, and what happened in individual areas must be worked out by considering all possible processes