ALBERT

Notes: Abstract Six samples of a single carbonate-rich unit of the Swiss Préalpes, progressively metamorphosed from diagenesis to deep anchizone, yield 40Ar/39Ar spectra with variably developed staircase patterns, consistent with mixtures of detrital mica and neocrystallized mixed-layer illite/smectite. The lowest temperature heating steps for different size fractions (2–6 μm and 6–20 μm) converge to ∼40 Ma providing an imprecise, maximum age of regional metamorphism. A method is described for distinguishing and quantifying the amount of pre-existing detrital mica versus neoformed illite layer in the illite/smectite formed during Tertiary Alpine metamorphism by comparison of X-ray diffraction patterns with Newmod© simulations. In the least metamorphosed samples the illite/smectite contains ∼65% neoformed illite, and this illite accounts for approximately 17% of all dioctahedral phyllosilicate minerals in the rock (e.g., detrital mica and illite/smectite). In contrast, the illite/smectite from the more strongly metamorphosed samples contains 〉97% neoformed illite, which accounts for ∼70% to 〉90% of all dioctahedral phyllosilicate minerals. Phyllosilicate morphologies viewed by scanning electron microscopy are consistent with these estimates. A process of dissolution/reprecipitation is inferred as a mechanism for the growth of the neoformed phyllosilicates. A plot of neoformed illite content versus 40Ar/39Ar total fusion age yields a near-linear curve with an extrapolated age of 27 Ma for 100% neoformed dioctahedral phyllosilicates. This age is interpreted as the time of incipient metamorphism and is consistent with independent biostratigraphic constraints. Model 40Ar/39Ar age spectra constructed with the XRD simulation results correspond well to the experimental data and illustrate the changes in degassing properties of progressively metamorphosed mixtures of detrital mica and neoformed illite.

Notes: Abstract Twenty-two hornblendes separated from amphibolites and granulites of the Grenville Orogen of Ontario have been quantitatively analyzed for major and minor elements by electron microprobe, for FeO/Fe2O3 by wet chemistry, and for H2O by manometric measurement as H2. Hornblende formulae were calculated on the basis of 24O+OH+Cl+F. Most samples are magnesio-hornblendes, ferroan pargasitic hornblendes and ferroan hastingsitic hornblendes, with weight fractions of Fe3+/(Fe2++Fe3+) ranging from 0.15 to 0.50. An oxy-amphibole component of 0–25 mol%, with an average value of 17 mol%, is obtained for these complete analyses. When compared with structural formulae determined solely from microprobe data, normalization based on 13=Si+Ti+Al+Fe+Mn+Mg cations provides the best approximation to hornblende formulae calculated from the complete analyses. Less satisfactory agreement is obtained from a normalization scheme based on 15=Si+Ti+Al+Fe+Mn+Mg+Ca, while worst agreement is obtained from normalization to 23 oxygens assuming all Fe is Fe2+. No normalization scheme based on microprobe data alone consistently replicates the measured FeO, Fe2O3, and H2O; accurate determination of these values requires complete chemical analysies. Ionic solution models previously have been proposed to evaluate the activity of Ca2Mg5Si8 O22(OH)2(a Trem) in hornblende for use in equilibria that constrain the activity of H2O (a H 2O) in igneous and metamorphic rocks. Application of ionic models to typical hornblendes produces low a Trem (usually〈0.01), consequetly yielding extremely low a H 2O. If an oxy-amphibole component is present, the calculated a Trem and H2O is further reduced. An oxy-amphibole component of 25% reduces the calculated H2O activity and that of any hydroxyl-amphibole component by 50% below that calculated with simplified assumptions regarding X OH in the hydroxyl site (i.e., X OH=1, or X OH=1−X Cl−X f). Thus, methods of amphibole normalizations appear to have a substantial effect on calculated amphibole and H2O activites. Before quantitative hornblende thermobarometry can be calibrated and applied, the amounts of FeO, Fe2O3 and H2O must be measured in order to fully characterize hornblende solid solutions.

Notes: Abstract A combined 40Ar/39Ar, K/Ar, Rb/Sr and stable isotope study has been made of white micas from the Gummfluh klippe (Briançonnais domain of the Préalpes), Switzerland. The klippe consists mainly of Mesozoic to early Tertiary carbonate rocks metamorphosed from anchizonal to epizonal conditions. At the base of the klippe is a 10–50 m thick, ductilely deformed marble mylonite containing deformed authigenic quartz segregations. Stable isotope measurements of the coexisting calcite (δ18OSMOW=24.5) and quartz (δ18OSMOW=28.4) from the mylonite indicate relatively low temperatures (〈300°C) during mylonitization. Analyses of white mica separates of varying size fractions from the mylonitic rocks by K/Ar and Rb/Sr techniques yield ages between 57 and 103 Ma. This variation is correlated with two parameters, the size of the mineral fraction, and the proportion of 2M1 (more phengitic) to 1M (more muscovitic) polytype in the sample. The K/Ar and Rb/Sr ages are generally younger in the smaller size fractions, which also containless 2M1 phengite. High precision 40Ar/39Ar age spectra from different size fractions of these micas record three distinct components, a small Hercynian component (ca. 200–300 Ma), a significant Eoalpine component (64–80 Ma) forming 40Ar/39Ar age plateaus, and a very minor Tertiary component (ca. 20–40 Ma). Characterization of the samples by SEM indicates the presence of two white mica populations, a coarser grained, deformed, detrital mica that probably corresponds to the 2M1 phengite and a finer grained neoformed 1M mica. Collectively these observations suggest that the Gummfluh samples contain a mixture of detrital phengites of Hercynian age together with neocrystallized muscovites grown during the late Eoalpine metamorphic event followed by minor argon loss during the Tertiary. The main geologic episode recorded in the 40Ar/39Ar age spectra of white micas in the mylonite is of Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary age (64–80 Ma), representing the first reliable Eoalpine ages ever to be reported from the Préalpes. Contrary to tectonic models, the marble mylonite at the base of the Gummfluh klippe appears to be a Cretaceous thrust plane and not the thrust surface formed during transport of the klippe into its present position from the Penninic Alps during the Tertiary. The late Cretaceous thrust developed during marine sedimentation at a depth of 800 m below the seafloor at temperatures of ≈280°C, facilitated by warm fluids along the tectonic discontinuity.

Notes: Abstract An 40Ar/39Ar thermochronological investigation of upper greenschist to granulite facies gneiss, amphibolite and marble was conducted in the Central Metasedimentary Belt (CMB), Ontario, to constrain its cooling history. Incremental 40Ar/39Ar release spectra indicate that substantial differential unroofing occurred in the CMB between ∼ 1000 and ∼ 600 Ma. A consistent pattern of significantly older hornblende and phlogopite 40Ar/3Ar cooling ages on the southeast sides of major northeast striking shear zones is interpreted to reflect late displacement due to extensional deformation. Variations in hornblende 40Ar/39Ar age plateaus exceeding 200 Ma occur over distances less than 50 km with major age discontinuities occurring across the Robertson Lake shear zone and the Sharbot Lake mylonite zone which separate the Sharbot Lake terrane from the Elzevir and Frontenac terranes. Extensional displacements of up to 14 km are inferred between the Frontenac and Elzevir terranes of the CMB. No evidence for significant post argon-closure vertical displacement is indicated in the vicinity of the Perth Road mylonite within the Frontenac terrane. Variations of nearly 100 Ma in phlogopite 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages occur in undeformed marble on either side of the Bancroft Shear Zone. Phlogopites from sheared and mylonitized marble within the shear zone yield 40Ar/39Ar diffusional loss profiles, but have older geologically meaningless ages thought to reflect incorporation of excess argon. By ∼ 900 Ma, southeast directed extension was occurring throughout the CMB, possibly initiated along previous zones of compressional shearing. An easterly migration of active zones of extension is inferred, possibly related to an earlier, overall easterly migration of active zones of regional thrusting and easterly migration of an ancient subduction zone. The duration of extensional shearing is not well constrained, but must have ceased before ∼ 600 Ma as required by the deposition of overlying undeformed Cambrian and/or Ordovician sedimentary rocks.