Brent V. Miller

Neoproterozoic palaeogeography of the Cadomia and Avalon terranes: constraints from detrital zircon U–Pb ages

Detrital zircons from three Neoproterozoic sandstone units from the Cadomia terrane of northern France and the Channel Islands yield ages in three broad groups: late Neoproterozoic (650–600 Ma), early Palaeoproterozoic (2.4–2.0 Ga) and Archaean (>2.5 Ga). The lack of Mesoproterozoic zircon crystals, combined with the high abundance of grains between 2.20 and 2.00 Ga, corresponds closely to the ages of exposed rocks in the West Africa Craton, and thus it is suggested that Cadomia was in close proximity to West Africa by c. 580 Ma. In contrast, the main age groups of detrital zircon from the Neoproterozoic Avalon terrane are Mesoproterozoic and there is a distinct gap of ages between 2.40 and 2.05 Ga. These significant differences suggest that the two terranes were in different locations relative to major Gondwanan cratons in latest Neoproterozoic time.

Geology and geochemistry of mafic to felsic plutonic rocks in the Cretaceous intrusive suite of Yosemite Valley, California

The intrusive suite of Yosemite Valley provides an excellent example of coeval mafic and felsic magmatism in a continental- margin arc. Within the suite, hornblende gabbros and diorites associated with the Cretaceous El Capitan and Taft Granites occur as scattered mafic enclaves, enclave swarms, small pods, synplutonic dikes, and a 2 km 2 mafic complex known as the “diorite of the Rockslides.” Field evidence suggests that most of the mafic rocks are temporally related to the El Capitan Granite and that significantly less mafic magma accompanied the slightly later intrusion of the Taft Granite. Concordant zircon fractions from the diorite of the Rockslides yield an age of 103 ± 0.15 Ma, which is the same age as the El Capitan Granite. Initial isotopic compositions of the mafic and felsic rocks are similar; the mafic rocks exhibit only slightly higher 87 Sr/ 86 Sr, lower 143 Nd/ 144 Nd, and higher 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ratios than the granites. Because the mafic magmas are only slightly more isotopically evolved than the granites, geochemical variation within the granites is not easily explained in terms of contamination of a depleted-mantle component by partial melts of ancient, high-silica continental crust. Rather, these data are consistent with an interpretation that the El Capitan Granite was derived by partial melting of relatively young mafic sources broadly similar to the mafic rocks of the suite.

Geochemistry and U–Pb protolith ages of eclogitic rocks of the Asís Lithodeme, Piaxtla Suite, Acatlán Complex, southern Mexico: tectonothermal activity along the southern margin of the Rheic Ocean

Recent data indicating that the Piaxtla Suite (Acatlán Complex, southern Mexico) underwent eclogite-facies metamorphism and exhumation during the Devono-Carboniferous suggest an origin within the Rheic Ocean rather than the Iapetus Ocean. The Asís Lithodeme (Piaxtla Suite) consists of polydeformed metasediments and eclogitic amphibolites that are intruded by megacrystic granitoid rocks. U–Pb (zircon) data indicate that the metasediments were deposited after c. 700 Ma and before intrusion of c. 470–420 Ma quartz-augen granite. The metasedimentary rocks contain abundant Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons (c. 1050–1250 Ma) and a few zircons in the range of c. 900–992 and c. 1330–1662 Ma. Their geochemical and Sm–Nd isotopic signature is typical of rift-related, passive margin sediments derived from an ancient cratonic source, which is interpreted to be the adjacent Mesoproterozoic Oaxacan Complex. Megacrystic granites were derived by partial melting of a c. 1 Ga crustal source, similar to the Oaxacan Complex. Amphibolitic layers exhibit a continental tholeiitic geochemistry, with a c. 0.8–1.1 Ga source (TDM age), and are inferred to have originated in a rift-related environment by melting of lithospheric mantle in the Ordovician. This rifting may be related to the Early Ordovician drift of peri-Gondwanan terranes (e.g. Avalonia) from Gondwana and the origin of the Rheic Ocean.

Mid-Jurassic Tectonothermal Event Superposed on a Paleozoic Geological Record in the Acatlán Complex of Southern Mexico: Hotspot Activity During the Breakup of Pangea

U-Pb isotopic analyses of zircon from the lowest structural units of the Acatlan Complex of southern Mexico indicate that Paleozoic tectonothermal events are overprinted by mid-Jurassic (175±3 to 171±1 Ma), low pressure migmatization (5–6 kb), polyphase deformation, and intrusion of felsic and mafic magmas. Ensuing rapid cooling recorded by 40Ar/39Ar muscovite, biotite and K-feldspar ages is estimated to have taken place at 21±3°C/my at exhumation rates of 0.6 mm/yr. Such rapid exhumation requires a combination of erosion and tectonic unroofing that is recorded by top-to-the-west kinematic data. Synchronous tectonic unroofing is also recorded 100 km to the east in the adjacent Oaxaca terrane, where top-to-the-north, extensional shear zones occur in Paleozoic strata. This pattern of extension suggests tectonic unroofing in response to domal uplift (radius >100 km) like that associated with core complexes, slab windows, and hotspots. Most tectonic analyses for the Jurassic place the Acatlan Complex in the forearc region of an arc in Colombia lying 600–800 km inboard of the subduction zone, presumably in response to flat-slab subduction. Modern analogues suggest that flat-slab subduction reflects subduction of young buoyant oceanic lithosphere adjacent to either a mid-oceanic ridge, or a plume. Since core complexes are typical of arc-backarc regions, and slab windows generally produce metamorphic belts, the forearc setting and associated domal uplift suggest a plume to be the most likely cause of this Jurassic tectonothermal pulse in southern Mexico. This plume activity is synchronous with the opening of the Gulf of Mexico during the breakup of Pangea, to which it may have contributed.

Acatlán Complex, southern Mexico : Record spanning the assembly and breakup of Pangea

New structural, geochronological, and geochemical data from the Acatlan Complex of southern Mexico show that it preserves a complete history of Pangea, from assembly to breakup. Previously interpreted to be a vestige of the Iapetus suture, the Acatlan Complex records a history that can be sequentially linked to the Rheic Ocean, the paleo-Pacific, and the Gulf of Mexico. This record is interpreted to reflect: (1) the development of a rift-passive margin on the southern flank of the Rheic Ocean in the Cambrian–Ordovician; (2) the formation of an extensional regime along the formerly active northern margin of Gondwana throughout the Ordovician; (3) closure of the Rheic Ocean documented by subduction-related eclogite facies metamorphism and exhumation during the Late Devonian–Mississippian; (4) Permian–Triassic convergent tectonics on the paleo-Pacific margin of Pangea; and (5) interaction with a Jurassic mantle plume coeval with the opening of the Gulf of Mexico.

Plutonism in three orogenic pulses, Eastern Blue Ridge Province, southern Appalachians

Department of Geological Sciences University of North Carolina, Mitchell Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3315

Implications of Latest Pennsylvanian to Middle Permian Paleontological and U-Pb SHRIMP Data from the Tecomate Formation to Re-dating Tectonothermal Events in the Acatlán Complex, Southern Mexico

Limestones in the highly deformed Tecomate Formation, uppermost unit of the Acatlán Complex, are latest Pennsylvanian—earliest Middle Permian in age rather than Devonian, the latter based on less diagnostic fossils. Conodont collections from two marble horizons now constrain its age to range from latest Pennsylvanian to latest Early Permian or early Middle Permian. The older collection contains Gondolella sp., Neostreptognathodus sp., and Streptognathodus sp., suggesting an oldest age limit close to the Pennsylvanian—Permian time boundary. The other collection contains Sweetognathus subsymmetricus, a short-lived species ranging only from Kungurian (latest Leonardian) to Wordian (earliest Guadelupian: 272 ± 4 to 264 ± 2 Ma). A fusilinid, Parafusulina c.f. P. antimonioensis Dunbar, in a third Tecomate marble horizon is probably Wordian (early Guadelupian, early Middle Permian). Furthermore, granite pebbles in a Tecomate conglomerate have yielded ~320-264 Ma U-Pb SHRIMP ages probably derived from the ~288 Ma, arc-related Totoltepec pluton. Collectively, these data suggest a correlation with two nearby units: (1) the Missourian—Leonardian carbonate horizons separated by a Wolfcampian(?) conglomerate in the upper part of the less deformed San Salvador Patlanoaya Formation; and (2) the clastic, Westphalian—Leonardian Matzitzi Formation. This requires that deformation in the Tecomate Formation be of Early—Middle Permian age rather than Devonian. These three formations are re-interpreted as periarc deposits with deformation related to oblique subduction. The revised dating of the Tecomate Formation is consistent with new data, which indicates that the unconformity between the Tecomate and the Piaxtla Group is mid-Carboniferous and corresponds to a tectonothermal event.

The Kingston terrane, southern New Brunswick, Canada: Evidence for an Early Silurian volcanic arc

The fault-bounded Kingston terrane of southern New Brunswick consists of felsic and less abundant mafic volcaniclastic rocks and flows and minor interbedded sedimentary rocks of the Kingston Group intruded by mainly granitic plutons and abundant younger mafic sheets. The granitic plutons form about half of the terrane and are characterized by fine grain size and typically granophyric and porphyritic textures, indicative of high-level emplacement. Mafic sheets were emplaced in the granitic plutons and parallel to primary layering in the Kingston Group, which is typically steeply dipping and trends northeast to north-northeast. Hence, in contrast to some earlier interpretations, the Kingston terrane does not consist of a bimodal dike complex. The Kingston Group, granitic rocks, and mafic sheets contain mineral assemblages consistent with metamorphism to upper greenschist–lower amphibolite facies. New U-Pb (zircon) ages of 442 ± 6 Ma from a dacitic tuff unit and 437 ± 10 Ma from a granitic pluton corroborate previous U-Pb dates that had suggested that the volcanic and granitic rocks in the Kingston terrane are Early Silurian, rather than Precambrian, as had been earlier assumed. The felsic volcanic and granitic rocks are interpreted to be comagmatic on the basis of their field relationships and similar U-Pb ages and chemical character. Compositions of both the felsic rocks and less abundant mafic and intermediate and mafic rocks are consistent with calc-alkalic affinity and emplacement in a continental-margin volcanic arc, herein termed the Kingston arc. A U-Pb date of 435 ± 5 Ma was also obtained from compositionally similar granite that forms a dike in an adjacent fault-bounded amphibolite-facies metasedimentary unit. The similarity in age and composition of the granite dike suggests a link between these metasedimentary rocks and the Kingston terrane, possibly as part of an accretionary complex. If so, its location southeast of the Kingston terrane indicates that subduction was to the present northwest. Mafic sheets in the Kingston terrane are tholeiitic but have some arc-like characteristics, consistent with their origin in a former arc setting, but the sheets were likely emplaced in a subsequent extensional setting. The compositional similarity of the mafic sheets to Late Silurian mafic volcanic rocks and plutons of the Coastal Maine magmatic province suggests that they may be related. A possible model for evolution of the Kingston terrane is proposed, wherein the Kingston Group and related granite formed in an Early Silurian arc on the margin of Ganderia, as represented by the New River terrane of late Precambrian and early Paleozoic age. Northwestward subduction culminated in collision between the Kingston arc and a continental block now represented by the Brookville terrane to the southeast. Subsequent transpressive mo tions in the Late Silurian may have been responsible for the crustal- scale extensional environment in which the Coastal Maine magmatic province was formed, including emplacement of mafic dikes into the deformed former Kingston arc. Transpressive motions—related to juxtaposition of the Avalon and Meguma terranes with the previously accreted, more inboard terranes—continued through the Devonian and into the Carboniferous.

Rifting and strike-slip shear in central Tibet and the geometry, age and kinematics of upper crustal extension in Tibet

Abstract The youngest deformation structures on the Tibet Plateau are about NNE-trending grabens. We first combine remote-sensing structural and geomorphological studies with structural field observations and literature seismological data to study the Muga Purou rift that stretches at c. 86°E across central Tibet and highlight a complex deformation field. ENE-striking faults are dominated by sinistral strike–slip motion; NNE-striking faults have normal kinematics and outline a right-stepping en-echelon array of grabens, also suggesting sinistral strike–slip; along NW-striking fault sets, the arrangement of grabens may indicate a dextral strike–slip component. Thus, in central Tibet, rifts comprise mostly grabens connected to strike–slip fault zones or are arranged en-echelon to accommodate sinistral wrenching; overall strain geometry is constrictional, in which NNE–SSW and subvertical shortening is balanced by WNW–ESE extension. The overwhelmingly shallow earthquakes only locally outline active faults; clusters seem to trace linkage or propagation zones of know structures. The earthquake pattern, the neotectonic mapping, and the local fault–slip analyses emphasize a distributed, heterogeneous pattern of deformation within a developing regional structure and indicate that strain concentration is weak in the uppermost crust of central Tibet. Thus, the geometry of neotectonic deformation is different from that in southern Tibet. Next, we use structural and palaeomagnetic data along the Zagaya section of southern central Tibet to outline significant block rotation and sinistral strike–slip SE of the Muga Purou rift. Our analysis supports earlier interpretations of reactivation of the Bangong–Nujiang suture as a neotectonic strike–slip belt. Then, we review the existing and provide new geochronology on the onset of neotectonic deformation in Tibet and suggest that the currently active neotectonic deformation started c. 5 Ma ago. It was preceded by c. north–south shortening and c. east–west lengthening within a regime that comprises strike–slip and low-angle normal faults; these were active at c. 18–7 Ma. The c. east-striking, sinistral Damxung shear zone and the c. NE-trending Nyainqentanghla sinistral-normal detachment allow speculations about the nature of this deformation: the ductile, low-angle detachments may be part of or connect to a mid-crustal décollement layer in which the strike–slip zones root; they may be unrelated to crustal extension. Finally, we propose a kinematic model that traces neotectonic particle flow across Tibet and speculate on the origin of structural differences in southern and central Tibet. Particles accelerate and move eastwards from western Tibet. Flow lines first diverge as the plateau is widening. At c. 92°E, the flow lines start to converge and particles accelerate; this area is characterized by the appearance of the major though-going strike–slip faults of eastern-central Tibet. The flow lines turn southeastward and converge most between the Assam–Namche Barwa and Gongha syntaxes; here the particles reach their highest velocity. The flow lines diverge south of the cord between the syntaxes. This neotectonic kinematic pattern correlates well with the decade-long velocity field derived from GPS-geodesy. The difference between the structural geometries of the rifts in central and southern Tibet may be an effect of the basal shear associated with the subduction of the Indian plate. The boundary between the nearly pure extensional province of the southern Tibet and the strike–slip and normal faulting one of central Tibet runs obliquely across the Lhasa block. Published P-wave tomographic imaging showed that the distance over which Indian lithosphere has thrust under Tibet decreases from west to east; this suggests that the distinct spatial variation in the mantle structure along the collision zone is responsible for the surface distribution of rift structures in Tibet. Supplementary material: Containing supporting data is available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18446.

Time span of plutonism, fabric development, and cooling in a Neoproterozoic magmatic arc segment: U–Pb age constraints from syn-tectonic plutons, Sark, Channel Islands, UK

Abstract New U–Pb zircon and titanite dates from syn-tectonic plutons on the British Channel Island of Sark constrain the time span of plutonism, fabric development, and cooling in this part of the Neoproterozoic Cadomian magmatic arc. The Tintageu leucogneiss is a mylonitic unit that was dated previously at 615.6 +4.2 −2.3 Ma. The Port du Moulin quartz diorite, which intruded the Tintageu unit, contains a high-strain solid-state deformation fabric that is less intense than, but parallel to, fabrics in the leucogneiss and yields a U–Pb zircon date of 613.5 +2.3 −1.5 Ma. The Little Sark quartz diorite also displays solid-state deformation fabrics in addition to relict magmatic textures, and yields a U–Pb zircon date of 611.4 +2.1 −1.3 Ma. The North Sark granodiorite is largely penetratively undeformed, exhibits mainly magmatic fabrics and textures and has a U–Pb zircon date of 608.7 +1.1 −1.0 Ma. Two fractions of titanite from each intrusion are essentially concordant and are identical within error, with mean dates of 606.5±0.4 Ma (Port du Moulin quartz diorite), 606.2±0.6 Ma (Little Sark quartz diorite), 606.4±0.6 Ma (North Sark granodiorite). The new U–Pb data, in combination with previous U–Pb and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar data and previous field studies, confirm the syn-tectonic nature of the Sark plutons and quantify the time span (ca. 7 m.y.) required for intrusion and sufficient crystallization of each body to record incremental strain during waning deformation. Titanite U–Pb and hornblende 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dates mark final cooling about 2 m.y. after intrusion of the last pluton.