The metasedimentary and magmatic terranes in the southern part of the Ouessant Island (Western Brittany, France) are the offshore prolongation of the Léon Variscan metamorphic domain. They mainly consist of micaschists and subordinate amphibolitic lenses (meta-pillow lavas and volcaniclastic successions) cut by a swarm of trondhjemite sills, together with a large porphyritic monzogranite body, newly dated at 336 Ma, and later syeno-leucogranitic intrusions. A large spectrum of fluidal peperites, including spectacular “fiamme”-bearing breccias, is observable at the contact between metasediments and most of the intrusives. The coexistence of amphibolitized basalts, adakitic trondhjemites, and peraluminous granites in the inferred South Ouessant basin is assigned to a variety of deep subcontemporaneous processes, including asthenospheric partial melting, high-pressure fractionation in lithospheric reservoirs (or partial remelting of deep crystallized mafic intrusions), and continental crust melting. Implications of these new results are discussed in the Visean basinal framework of the Armorican Massif, formed at an early stage of the Variscan orogeny.
Magmatic segmentation of the northern Knipovich Ridge: Evidence for high-pressure fractionation at an ultraslow spreading ridge
