Lithostratigraphy of the Mesoproterozoic Yas-Schuitdrift Batholith, South Africa and Namibia

The granitic and leucogranitic Yas and Schuitdrift Gneisses occur together as a large ovoid pre-tectonic batholith that crosses the Orange River border between South Africa and Namibia. They occur in the central parts of the Kakamas Domain in the Namaqua Sector of the Namaqua-Natal Metamorphic Province where they intrude, and are deformed together with, slightly older (~1.21 Ga) orthogneisses and granulite-facies metapelitic gneisses. The Yas Gneiss occurs mainly on the outer perimeter and northern parts of the batholith and comprises equigranular leucogranite gneiss and biotite granite augen orthogneiss, whereas the Schuitdrift biotite-hornblende augen gneiss is located at the centre and southern parts of the batholith. The batholith is strongly deformed with penetrative Namaqua-aged gneissic fabrics defined by grain-flattening of quartz and feldspar in the equigranular leucogneisses and aligned K-feldspar megacrysts in the augen gneisses. The gneissic fabric is refolded during a large-scale folding event that results in the dome-shape of the batholith and controls the present outcrop pattern of its various components. Flexure along the margins of the batholith refoliated the gneisses into a zone of mylonitic rocks. The Yas and Schuitdrift Gneisses have similar geochemistry and classify as alkali granites and alkali leucogranites. They are felsic (mean SiO2: 74.5 wt%) and potassic (mean K2O: 5.8 wt%) but have low MgO, CaO and Na2O, reflecting their low mafic mineral and plagioclase contents. The Schuitdrift Gneiss yielded U-Pb zircon ages of 1 191 ± 7 and 1 187 ± 6 Ma.

Provenance signals in metaturbidites of the Paleoproterozoic greenstone belt of the Guiana Shield in Suriname

The sedimentological, metamorphic, petrographic and geochemical characteristics of the Armina Formation, part of the Paleoproterozoic Greenstone Belt of Suriname in South America, are described, based on field, geochemical and petrographic evidence obtained through fieldwork along the Marowijne River and study of diamond drill cores from Rosebel Gold Mine (RGM). The metagreywackes show characteristic features of deposition by turbidity currents: coarse-grained, poorly sorted graded greywackes, covered by fine-grained, parallel-laminated phyllitic beds, often with convolute structures and climbing ripples. Their immature character and composition suggest deposition in an arc-trench environment. In the Marowijne River three different facies of metagreywackes are distinguished: (1) the greyish Bonnidoro Falls facies, characterised by common red millimetre-sized pseudomorphs after siderite in the finer beds, (2) the green Paroe Tabiki metagreywacke facies, with decimetre-sized calcsilicate nodules, both metamorphosed in the lower greenschist facies with chlorite as the main mafic mineral, and (3) the grey Armina Falls metagreywacke facies, geochemically similar to the Bonnidoro type but of higher metamorphic grade with biotite as the main mafic mineral. The metagreywackes from the Marowijne River show a predominance of quartz, plagioclase and lithic (tonalitic) clasts, suggesting exhumation of tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite plutons before deposition of the turbidites. There is a slight increase in maturity from (1) to (3), suggesting increasing weathering in the source areas. The metagreywackes of the RGM (JZone) have a predominantly metavolcanic origin, suggesting that they have a different provenance area than the Marowijne metagreywackes. Geochemically the spread in composition within each facies is larger than between the facies because of the wide range in grain sizes in each turbidite sequence. A large part of the rocks from the RGM, classified by previous authors as arenites, are geochemically and petrographically metagreywackes. Only a few RGM samples are real arenites, and plot as a separate cluster in geochemical factor score plots because of their low Fe and Na contents.

Contamination in mafic mineral-rich calc-alkaline granites: a geochemical and Sr-Nd isotope study of the Neoproterozoic Piedade Granite, SE Brazil

The Piedade Granite (~600 Ma) was emplaced shortly after the main phase of granite magmatism in the Agudos Grandes batholith, Apiaí-Guaxupé Terrane, SE Brazil. Its main units are: mafic mineral-rich porphyritic granites forming the border (peraluminous muscovite-biotite granodiorite-monzogranite MBmg unit) and core (metaluminous titanite-bearing biotite monzogranite BmgT unit) and felsic pink inequigranular granite (Bmg unit) between them. Bmg has high LaN/YbN (up to 100), Th/U (>10) and low Rb, Nb and Ta, and can be a crustal melt derived from deep-seated sources with residual garnet and biotite. The core BmgT unit derived from oxidized magmas with high Mg# (~45), Ba and Sr, fractionated REE patterns (LaN/YbN= 45), 87Sr/86Sr(t)~ 0.710, epsilonNd(t) ~ -12 to -14, interpreted as being high-K calc-alkaline magmas contaminated with metasedimentary rocks that had upper-crust signature (high U, Cs, Ta). The mafic-rich peraluminous granites show a more evolved isotope signature (87Sr/86Sr(t) = 0.713-0.714; epsilonNd(t)= -14 to -16), similar to Bmg, and Mg# and incompatible trace-element concentrations intermediate between Bmg and BmgT. A model is presented in whichMBmgis envisaged as the product of contamination between a mafic mineral-rich magma consanguineous with BmgT and pure crustal melts akin to Bmg.

Oxidation-induced postmagmatic modifications of primary ilmenite, NYG-related aplite dyke, Tibchi complex, Kalato, Nigeria

We describe an ilmenite-bearing aplitic syenite dyke in the roof zone of the Tibchi granite, exposed at Kalato, in the Tibchi ring-complex, northern Nigeria. Inclusions of ferrocolumbite, rutile and ixiolite in the ilmenite are inferred to have been trapped at the magmatic stage. The main mafic mineral is annite. Compositionally, the ilmenite, rutile and ferrocolumbite have near-end-member compositions. A positive correlation between Sc and Ta/(Ta+Nb) indicates that Sc behaved incompatibly as ferrocolumbite grew. Such entrapped accessory minerals may well have formed by local saturation at the ilmenite-melt and annite-melt interface. During and after their crystallization, the melt reached saturation in H2O and degassed. A second generation of ilmenite enriched in Mn and Zn replaced the primary ilmenite along fractures and grain margins. AsfO2began to increase, composite blebs and rinds of ‘ferropseudobrookite’, rutile and hematite began to develop by oxidation-induced exsolution in the primary ilmenite. Incorporation of Nb, Ta, Sc and Si in the ‘ferropseudobrookite’ may well have stabilized it at Kalato. Ultimately, it is transformed to hematite + rutile. The IMA-sanctioned view that the solid solution between pseudobrookite and Ti3O5is complete, and thus that ‘ferropseudobrookite’, as an intermediate member of the series, does not merit species status, needs to be re-evaluated.

Chapter 2 The Early Stages - Scourian and Inverian

Archaean gneisses occupy large areas on each side of the central NW-SE-trending belt formed by the outcrop of the Loch Maree Group (Fig. 2.1). They are cut by numerous amphibolite dykes of the 'Scourie dyke' swarm (see Chapter 3). The gneisses are predominantly granodioritic to tonalitic, quartzo-feldspathic biotite gneisses but large areas of more mafic hornblende gneiss occur in the NE, and small bodies of amphibolite are enclosed within the gneisses in all parts of the area.The gneisses have undergone a long and complex history, having experienced Scourian, Inverian, and Laxfordian thermotectonic events. Although Scourian structures have been preserved locally, little of the original Scourian mineral assemblage remains, and the mineral assemblages mainly reflect Inverian and Laxfordian recrystallizations (see Section 2.4).The quartzo-feldspathic biotite gneisses are pale grey to pinkish-weathering, banded or massive, granodioritic (or less commonly tonalitic) gneisses containing biotite as their main mafic mineral. The banded varieties show partial or complete segregation of micas into seperate layers or lenses (Fig. 2.2). Typical examoles contain oligoclase, quartz, microcline and a dark brown biotite, in varying proportions. Muscovite, chlorite or epidote may be present in addition, together with traces of opaque ore and apatite. The gneisses within several kilometres of the outcrop of the Loch Maree Group exhibit evidence of partial recrystallization from a coarsergrained assemblage, the larger feldspar grains being surrounded by granular aggregates of smaller grains feldspar and quartz. Chlorite and epidote are clearly replacive.Retrogressive recrystallization to an epidote-bearing assemblage is particularly marked on the SW

Pétrologie du granite peralcalin du lac Brisson, Labrador central, Nouveau-Québec. II. Minéralogie et modalités de cristallisation

Mineral zonation in the Québec–Labrador Brisson Lake peralkaline granite displays quartzose and feldspathic lithofacies arranged concentrically, the latter occupying the centre of the intrusion. The zonation is the result of successive magmatic pulses. In the feldspathic facies, agpaitic crystallization began under hypersolvus conditions around 720 °C with PF = 0.1 GPa. Subsolvus crystallization involving enrichment of the residual liquid in F continued to below 500 °C. The quartzose facies is more differentiated and its composition was controlled by feldspar fractionation. Early quartz crystallization is partly explained by the high content of F in the magma. The mafic mineral succession is, in both facies: Li- and Zn-rich arfvedsonite with an important ferrorichtérite component, which crystallized along with alkali feldspar under low [Formula: see text]; aenigmatite contemporary of amphibole or anterior, destabilized to form neptunite, astrophyllite, aegirine, or arfvedsonite; primary titaniferous aegyrine, contemporary with the amphibole and replaced by secondary aegyrine; neptunite and astrophyllite replacing aenigmatite. This succession is in accordance with the increase of Na and F in the fluid phase, and the increase of [Formula: see text] near the end of crystallization. Among the accessory minerals, euhedral zircon is indicative of the initial richness of the magma in Zr. Magmatic vlasovite, and elpidite formed from late fluid, are evidence that residual system entered the zirconium silicate stability field. Zircon with a fibrous, radiating texture, and gittinsite are indicative of the postmagmatic evolution of the pluton and the presence of a late stage residual fluid which was enriched in Ca and Sr.