Sjm Meffre

The Lüliang Massif: a key area for the understanding of the Palaeoproterozoic Trans-North China Belt, North China Craton

Abstract This paper documents the first detailed structural analysis of the Lüliang Massif in the Trans-North China Belt, North China Craton. A nappe, made up of a Terrigeneous and Mafic Unit (TMU) derived from an oceanic basin thrust over gneisses and volcanic-sedimentary rocks, is interpreted as a magmatic arc deposited upon a TTG basement. The nappe is rooted to the west in the Trans-North China Suture that separates the Fuping Block from the Western Block. Nappe stacking, coeval with a top-to-the-SE synmetamorphic D1 event, is dated around 1890–1870 Ma using chemical U–Th/Pb EPMA datings on monazite and U–Pb LA-ICP-MS dating on zircon. A second D2 ductile event, characterized by SE-verging folds, reworks the D1 structures. D2 is the first event recorded in the late-orogenic sedimentary series that unconformably covers the metamorphic units formed during D1. These lithological, structural and geochronological results are correlated with those described in the eastern massifs of Hengshan, Wutaishan and Fuping. The Trans-North China Belt resulted from the collision of the Fuping Block and the Western Block after a westward-directed subduction and subsequent closure of an oceanic basin where the TMU was deposited.

Geochronology of the Dovyren intrusive complex, northwestern Baikal area, Russia, in the Neoproterozoic

The paper reports newly obtained data on the geochronology of the Dovyren intrusive complex and associated metarhyolites of the Inyaptuk Formation in the Synnyr Range. The data were obtained by local LA-ICPMS analysis of zircons in samples. The U-Pb age of olivine-free gabbronorite from near the roof of the Yoko-Dovyren Massif is 730 ± 6 Ma (MSWD = 1.7, n = 33, three samples) is close to the estimated age of 731 ± 4 Ma (MSWD = 1.3, n = 56, five samples) of a 200-m-thick sill beneath the pluton. These data overlap the age of recrystallized hornfels found within the massif (“charnockitoid”, 723 ± 7 Ma, MSWD = 0.12, n = 10) and a dike of sulfidated gabbronorite below the bottom of the massif (725 ± 8 Ma, MSWD = 2.0, n = 15). The estimates are also consistent with the age of albite hornfels (721 ± 6 Ma, MSWD = 0.78, n = 12), which was produced in a low-temperature contact metamorphic facies of the host rocks. The average age of the Dovyren Complex is 728.4 ± 3.4 Ma (MSWD = 1.8, n = 99) based on data on the sill, near-roof gabbronorite, and “charnockitoid”) and is roughly 55 Ma older than the estimate of 673 ± 22 Ma (Sm-Nd; [13]). The U-Pb system of zircon in two quartz metaporphyre samples from the bottom portion of the Inyaptuk volcanic formation in the northeastern part of the Yoko-Dovyren Massif turns out to be disturbed. The scatter of the data points can be explained by the effect of two discrete events. The age of the first zircon population is then 729 ± 14 Ma (MSWD = 0.74, n = 8), and that of the second population is 667 ± 14 Ma (MSWD = 1.9, n = 13). The older value pertains to intrusive rocks of Dovyren, and the age of the “rejuvenated” zircon grains corresponds to the hydrothermal-metasomatic processes, which affected the whole volcano-plutonic sequence and involved the serpentinization of the hyperbasites. This is validated by the results of Rb-Sr isotopic studies with the partial acid leaching of two serpentinized peridotite samples from the Verblyud Sill. These studies date the overprinted processes at 659 ± 5 Ma (MSWD = 1.3, n = 3).

Geochemistry, geochronology and tectonic implications of Late Silurian – Early Devonian volcanic successions, Central Lachlan Orogen, New South Wales

The Ural Volcanics and Mt Hope Volcanics in the Central Lachlan Orogen, New South Wales, overlie non-volcanic, sedimentary, below-wave-base submarine facies in two intracontinental rift basins, the Rast and Mt Hope Troughs. The Ural Volcanics and Mt Hope Volcanics consist primarily of felsic (rhyolite to dacite), coherent facies and associated felsic monomictic breccia facies. These volcanic facies are interpreted to represent submarine lava-sill complexes, which define intrabasinal, effusive, volcanic and shallow intrusive centres. Small felsic intrusions and rare intermediate (monzodiorite) to mafic (gabbro) dykes also occur. The rocks experienced chlorite to biotite greenschist-facies metamorphism. LA-ICPMS U/Pb zircon dating indicates the Ural Volcanics and the Mt Hope Volcanics were broadly contemporaneous, but with mean ages of 421 ± 2 and 411 ± 5 Ma, respectively, the Ural Volcanics are slightly older. Given the differences in the degree of metamorphism, the different ages might represent greater Pb loss for the Mt Hope Volcanics. Major- and trace-element data (variably high K+, Zr, Nb, and Y, among others) is most consistent with A-type, within-plate origins for the igneous rocks, although some loss of immobile elements apparently accompanied metamorphism. The geologic setting, based on mapping, indicates that the Ural Volcanics and Mt Hope Volcanics were erupted and deposited in an intrabasinal environment, best described as an elongate, intracontinental submarine rift. This setting, and apparent absence of a proximal contemporaneous arc, supports contentions that A-type magmas are produced in rift settings.