Does the British Isles Paleocene dike swarm reflect the former location of the Iceland hotspot?

ABSTRACT The original location and tectonic setting of the prominent Paleocene dike swarm in the British Isles are reconstructed for a “tight fit” of the North Atlantic region prior to any Cenozoic opening of the ocean basin between Greenland and Europe. The present-day northwest-southeast–oriented swarm originally trended toward southern Greenland and the locations of magmatic rocks of comparable age along the eastern and western margins of Greenland and approximately the position of the Iceland hotspot at 70–60 Ma in a “fixed hotspot” model. This raises the possibility that the northeast-southwest–oriented extensional stress field in which the dikes and associated central igneous complexes were emplaced may have been generated by impingement on the base of the lithosphere by a rising plume beneath present-day West Greenland. It is speculated, on the basis of seismic tomography and three-dimensional modeling, that the Paleocene igneous activity in the British Isles may have resulted from flow of a hot “finger” of upper mantle outward from the plume, perhaps controlled by preexisting lithospheric structures and the distant location of a second Paleocene volcanic province in central Europe.

Age of the Eastern Iranian oroclinal Buckling inferred from a U235/Pb207 dating on radial dikes in the Qayen Area

<p>The Eastern Iranian Orocline provides us several opportunities to study magmatism in relation to tectonic events. The buckling of this orocline is accompanied by an extreme extension in its Khorasan outer arc during which a calc-alkaline dike swarm, generally andesite to dacite, intruded in a radial pattern into the Paleocene-Eocene volcano-sedimentary units, belonging to the platform of the Lut block. The azimuth of these dikes shows a declination of 30 degrees, from N300<sup>o</sup> to N330<sup>o</sup>. The U<sup>235</sup>/Pb<sup>207</sup> age of ~41±74 Ma from zircon crystals taken from the dikes represents a considerable buckling with an extension occurred during the middle-upper Eocene. In fact, this time refers to the buckling in the boundary of the inner- and outer-arc of the orocline. This could be a noticeable document of syn-orocline magmatism in the Tethyan realm in the east of the Iranian plateau. The dikes and their host rocks are also sampled for AMS analysis and paleomagnetic measurements to test the amount of the oroclinal buckling in the Qayen area.</p>

Structural Evolution of Extended Continental Crust Deciphered From the Cretaceous Batholith in SE China, a Kinmen Island Perspective

<p>The continental crust of southeast Asia underwent from thickening, thinning to almost rifting during the Mesozoic era as the active continental margin transformed into a passive one. Such crustal thinning history is well-preserved in the Kinmen Island, as the lower crustal granitoids retrograded and rapidly exhumed to surface that were crosscutted by mafic dike swarm. Kinmen Island is situated on the SE coast of Asia, featured by the widespread Cretaceous magmatism as the Paleo-Pacific plate subducted and rollbacked underneath the South China block. Although these complex magmatism are well reported and studied, their associated structural evolution and plate kinematics have not been clearly deciphered. Detailed field mapping, structural measurement, and petrographic analysis of the Kinmen Island were conducted. Up to five deformation events accompanied with five relevant magmatic episodes as well as their corresponding kinematic setting are reconstructed. The ∼129 Ma Chenggong Tonalite (G<sub>1</sub>) preserved all deformation events identified in this study, which marks the lower bound timing of all reported events. D<sub>1</sub> formed a gneiss dome with the Taiwushan Granite (∼139 Ma) at the core bounded by moderately dipping gneissic foliation (S<sub>1</sub>) as crust extended. D<sub>2</sub> formed subhorizontal S-tectonite (S<sub>2</sub>) with further exhumation of D<sub>1</sub> gneiss dome due to middle-to-lower crustal flow associated with further crustal thinning. D<sub>3</sub> formed a sinistral ENE-WSW striking steeply S dipping shear belts with well-developed S/C/C’ fabrics. The moderately E-plunging lineation on C surface indicates its transtensional nature. Widespread garnet-bearing leucogranite (G<sub>2</sub>) associated with decompressional melting showed long lasting intrusion prior to D<sub>2</sub> until post D<sub>3</sub>. D<sub>4</sub> was the intrusion of biotite-bearing Tienpu Granite (∼100 Ma; G<sub>3</sub>) that truncated G<sub>1</sub>, G<sub>2</sub>, and all fabrics, which was followed by the intrusion of E-W striking, steeply dipping biotite-bearing pegmatite (G<sub>4</sub>) as the crust further extended. The youngest deformation event (D<sub>5</sub>) was NE-SW striking subvertical mafic dike swarm (G<sub>5</sub>; 90–76 Ma) due to mantle upwelling through significantly thinned crust. By integrating the structural evolution and the previously reported strain pattern, we delineate the slab rollback direction of the Paleo-Pacific plate, which changed from northeastward (129∼114 Ma) to southeastward (107∼76 Ma). This plate kinematic movement switched during 114–107 Ma.</p>

Main Dike Swarm of the Northern Part of the Chakylkalyan Megablock and Their Potential Ore Content (On the Example of the Yakhton Dike Swarm, Southern Uzbekistan)

The study of mineralogical and geochemical properties of gold deposits is an urgent task for the geological industry, especially in the new areas under study. Without reliable information about the geological factors that lead to the formation of ore deposits and the mechanisms of deposit accumulation, it is impossible to ensure reliable scientific forecasting of the mineral potential of the regions, the effective creation of mineral resources of enterprises and mining, the stable operation of the mining industry. Our study of gold deposits was aimed at understanding these important issues of the ore formation problem. This is the urgency of the case. The role of the dictators of the Yakhton ore deposit as important structural material and mineral components of the leading types of ore-magmatic systems is being assessed. A peculiar feature of the geological structure of the ore area is the close paragenetic relationship of mineralization by rocks of the dike kids complex. Mineralization is localized in two stages and has bimetallic properties (gold, tungsten). The mineralization in the upper layer is localized in the corpus carbonate rocks of Yakhton (mainly garnet-pyroxene content). In the lower stage, mineralization is governed by a northeastern tectonic attenuation zone, which includes area concentrations of Au and W and areal mineralized zones that are part of the dike of the Yakhton region. Determining the spatial, age, and genetic relationships of mineralization with magmatism is a major problem of metallogeny.