ALBERT

Notes: Inclusion trails in garnet and albite porphyroblasts in the Fleur de Lys Supergroup preserve successive generations of microstructures, some of which correlate with equivalent microstructures in the matrix. Microstructure–porphyroblast relationships provide timing constraints on a succession of seven crenulation cleavages (S1–S7) and five stages of porphyroblast growth. Significant destruction and alteration of early fabrics has occurred during the microstructural development of the rock mass. Garnet porphyroblasts grew episodically through four growth stages (G1–G4) and preserve a succession of five fabrics (S1–S5) as inclusion trails. Garnet growth during each of the four growth phases did not occur on all pre-existing porphyroblasts, resulting in contrasting growth histories between individual garnet porphyroblasts from the same outcrop. Albite porphyroblasts grew during a single stage of growth and have overgrown microstructures continuous with the matrix. The garnet and albite porphyroblast inclusion trails record a succession of crenulation cleavages without any rotation of the porphyroblasts relative to other porphyroblasts in the population.Complex microstructural histories are best resolved by preparing multiple oriented thin sections from a large number of samples of different rock types within the area of study. The succession of matrix foliations must be understood, as it provides the most useful time-frame against which to measure the relative timing of phases of porphyroblast growth. Comparable microstructures must be identified in different porphyroblasts and in the rock matrix.

Notes: A second example of yoderite has been discovered in whiteschists from the Southern Chewore Hills of northern Zimbabwe. The mineral is pale green in colour and occurs in an equilibrium assemblage with talc+chlorite+kyanite+dravite+hematite. There is no quartz present. Recalculated microprobe analyses give a structural formula of Mg2Al5.7Fe0.3Si4O18(OH)2, similar to that obtained for the type locality at Mautia Hill, Tanzania, i.e. Mg2Al5.6Fe0.4Si4O18(OH)2. Textural relationships and relative proportions of minerals suggest that the yoderite was formed by reaction between talc, chlorite, kyanite and hematite. Experimental evidence suggests high-water-pressure metamorphic conditions at temperatures exceeding a reaction curve that extends between 13 kbar at 590 °C and 21 kbar at 650 °C. The yoderite-bearing whiteschist is associated with a 1.4 Ga dismembered ophiolite. It is proposed that this yoderite occurrence is associated with a relict subduction/suture zone.

Notes: Relict eclogites and associated high-pressure rocks are present in the Eastern Segment of the SW Swedish gneiss region (the tectonic counterpart of the Parautochthonous Belt of the Canadian Grenville). These rocks give evidence of Sveconorwegian eclogite facies metamorphism and subsequent pervasive reworking and deformation at granulite and amphibolite facies conditions. The best-preserved eclogite relics suggest a clockwise P–T –t history, beginning in the amphibolite facies, progressing through the eclogite facies, decompressing and partially reequilibrating through the high- and medium-pressure granulite facies, before cooling through the amphibolite facies. Textures demonstrate the former coexistence of the plagioclase-free assemblages garnet+clinopyroxene+quartz+rutile+ilmenite, garnet+clinopyroxene+ kyanite+rutile, and garnet+kyanite+quartz+rutile. The former existence of omphacite is evidenced by up to 45 vol.% plagioclase expelled as small grains within large clinopyroxene. Matrix plagioclase is secondary and occurs expelled from clinopyroxene or in fine-grained, granulite facies reaction domains formed during resorption of garnet and kyanite. Garnet shows preserved prograde growth zoning with rimward increasing pyrope content, decreasing spessartine content and decreasing Fe/(Fe+Mg) ratio, but is partly resorbed and reequilibrated at the rims. P–T estimates from microdomains with clinopyroxene+plagioclase+quartz+garnet indicate pressures of 9.5–12 kbar and temperatures of 705–795 °C for a stage of the granulite facies decompression. The preservation of the prograde zoning suggests that the rocks did not reside at these high temperatures for more than a few million years, and chemical disequilibrium and ‘frozen’ reaction textures indicate heterogeneous reaction progress and overstepping of reactions during the decompression through the granulite facies. Together these features suggest a rapid tectonic exhumation. The eclogite relics occur within a high-grade deformation zone with WNW–ESE stretching and associated oblique normal-sense, top-to-the-east (sensu lato) displacement, suggesting that extension was a main cause for the decompression and exhumation. Probable tectonic scenarios for this deformation are Sveconorwegian late-orogenic gravitational collapse or overall WNW–ESE extension.

Notes: The Strona-Ceneri Zone (Southern Alps) contains folds with moderately to steeply inclined axial planes and fold axes, and amplitudes of up to several kilometres (so-called ‘Schlingen’). These amphibolite facies folds deform the main schistosity of Late Ordovician metagranitoids and are discordantly overlain by unmetamorphic Permian sedimentary rocks. Mutually cross-cutting relationships between these folds and garnet-bearing leucotonalitic dykes indicate that these dykes were emplaced during folding. Sm–Nd systematics and the strongly peraluminous composition of these dykes point to an anatectic origin. Pb step leaching of magmatic garnet from a leucotonalitic dyke yielded a 321.3±2.3 Ma intrusive age. Rb–Sr ages on muscovites from leucotonalitic dykes range from 307 to 298 Ma, interpreted as cooling ages during retrograde amphibolite facies metamorphism. Conventional U–Pb data of zircons from an older granodioritic dyke that pre-dates the Schlingen folds yielded discordant U–Pb ages ranging from 371 to 294 Ma. These ages reflect a more complicated multi-episodic growth history which is consistent with the observed polyphase structural overprint of this dyke. Schlingen folding was accompanied by prograde amphibolite facies metamorphism, during the thermal peak of which the leucotonalitic dyke material was generated by partial melting in a deeper source region from where these S-type magmas intruded the presently exposed level. Because partial melting may occur in a relatively late stage of a clockwise P–T–t path, or even during decompression on the retrograde path, we do not exclude the possibility that Schlingen folding had already started in Early Carboniferous time. Schlingen folds also occur in Penninic and Austroalpine basement units with a very similar pre-Alpine history, indicating that Variscan folding affected large segments of the future Alpine realm.

Notes: To constrain the tectonic history of the Pan-African belt in Tanzania, we have studied the P–T  evolution of granulites from northern and eastern Tanzania representative for a large part of the southern Pan-African belt of East Africa (e.g. Pare, Usambara, Ukaguru and Uluguru Mountains). Thermobarometry (conventional and multireaction equilibria) on enderbites and metapelites gives 9.5–11 kbar and 810±40 °C during peak metamorphism at 650–620 Ma. This is consistent with the occurrence of both sillimanite and kyanite in metapelites and of the high-P granulite facies assemblage garnet–clinopyroxene–quartz in mafic rocks. Peak metamorphic conditions are surprisingly similar over a very large area with N-S and E-W extents of about 700 and 200 km respectively. The prograde metamorphic evolution in the entire area started in the kyanite field but evolved mainly within the sillimanite stability field. The retrograde P–T  evolution is characterized by late-stage kyanite in metapelites and garnet–clinopyroxene coronas around orthopyroxene in meta-igneous rocks. This is in agreement with thermobarometric results and isotopic dating, indicating a period of nearly isobaric and slow cooling prior to tectonic uplift. The anticlockwise P–T  path could have resulted from magmatic underplating and loading of the lower continental crust which caused heating and thickening of the crust. Substantial postmetamorphic crustal thickening of yet unknown age (presumably after 550 Ma) led subsequently to the exhumation of high-P granulites over a large area. The results are consistent with formation of the Pan-African granulites at an active continental margin where tonalitic intrusions caused crustal growth and heating 70–100 Ma prior to continental collision. The P–T–t path contradicts recent geodynamic models which proposed tectonic crustal thickening due to continental collision between East and West Gondwana as the cause of granulite formation in the southern part of the Pan-African belt.

Notes: Highly magnesian and aluminous migmatitic gneisses from Mather Peninsula in the Rauer Group, Eastern Antarctica, preserve ultrahigh temperature (UHT) metamorphic assemblages that include orthopyroxene+sillimanite±quartz, garnet+sillimanite±quartz and garnet+orthopyroxene±sillimanite. Garnet that ranges up to XMg of 71.5 coexists with aluminous orthopyroxene that shows zoning from cores with 7.5–8.5 wt% Al2O3 to rims with up to 10.6 wt% Al2O3 adjacent to garnet. Peak P–T  conditions of 1050 °C and 12 kbar are retrieved from Fe–Mg–Al thermobarometry involving garnet and orthopyroxene, in very good agreement with independent constraints from petrogenetic grids in FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2 and related chemical systems. Sapphirine, orthopyroxene and cordierite form extensive symplectites and coronas on the early phases. The specific reaction textures and assemblages involving these secondary phases correlate with initial garnet XMg , with apparent higher-pressure reaction products occurring on the more magnesian garnet, and are interpreted to result from an initial phase of ultrahigh temperature near-isothermal decompression (UHT-ITD) from 12 to 8 kbar at temperatures in excess of 950 °C. Later textures that involved biotite formation and then partial breakdown, along with garnet relics, to symplectites of orthopyroxene+cordierite or cordierite+spinel may reflect hydration through back-reaction with crystallizing melts on cooling below 900–850 °C, followed by ITD from 7 to 8 kbar to c. 5 kbar at temperatures of 750–850 °C. The tectonic significance of this P–T  history is ambiguous as the Rauer Group records the effects of Archean tectonothermal events as well as high-grade events at 1000 and 530 Ma. Late-stage biotite formation and subsequent ITD can be correlated with the P–T  history preserved in the Proterozoic components of the Rauer Group and hence with either 1000 or 530 Ma collisional orogenesis. However, whether the preceding UHT-ITD history reflects a temporally unrelated event (e.g. Archean) or is simply an early stage of either the late-Proterozoic or Pan-African tectonism, as recently deduced for similar UHT rocks from other areas of the East Antarctica, remains uncertain.

Notes: Coronal reaction textures occur in metanorite and related intrusions in the Pan-African Dahomeyide orogen of West Africa; they apparently formed by retrograde subsolidus reactions during cooling of the intrusions from 900 to 700 °C at c. 9±1 kbar. The coronas that formed around orthopyroxene (Opx) consist of sequential layers of diopside (Dio), hornblende (Hbl), garnet (Grt) and plagioclase (Pl) with inclusions of kyanite (Ky) or sillimanite (Sil). Three well-organized mineral assemblage sequences have been identified and modelled using steady-state diffusion theory for closed and open systems. The mineral sequence Opx|Hbl+Qtz|Hbl|Pl+Ky, formed by diffusion-controlled reactions in a closed system as layer thicknesses are very sensitive to relative component mobilities defined by Onsager diffusion coefficient (Lii). Models of this corona (type i) that satisfy modes require LCaCa≥LMgMg≥LFeFe〉LAlAl∼LSiSi ; however, small open-system fluxes involving loss of Al and gain of Ca are required to obtain the best fit between model and observed mineral proportions. Under steady-state diffusion, the monomineralic hornblende layer grew by replacing plagioclase whereas the |Hbl+Qtz| grew by Opx replacement. The type ii corona, which consists of the sequence Opx|Dio|Grt+Dio|Pl+Sil, is also stable under steady-state diffusion in a closed system. Modelling results show that the diopside grew by replacing Opx whereas most of Grt+Dio grew by replacing plagioclase. Stable solutions to the closed-system diffusion model that approximate the mode are restricted to the L-ratio regions where Fe, Mg and Ca are more mobile than Si and Al but are unstable when LAlAl〉100 LSiSi . However, type ii corona mineral proportions were only closely matched when open-system loss of Al and gain of small amounts of Fewere considered in the diffusion models and relative mobilities were LFeFe≥LCaCa≥LMgMg〉LAlAl∼LSiSi . The modelling results indicate that Ca and Mg were the most mobile elements in the formation of type i corona whereas Fe and Ca were the most mobile components in the growth of type ii coronas. A third corona type, consisting of the mineral sequence Act|Hbl|Grt|Pl+Sil, is only stable in open systems and requires large external fluxes involving gain of Fe, Al, Mg and Na and loss of Ca to obtain a solution of the diffusion model that approximates the estimated mineral proportions. Extensive recrystallization of plagioclase to produce sillimanite or kyanite inclusions accompanying corona formation may explain the open-system behaviour indicated by the diffusion models.

Notes: Deformed rocks of the Itabira Iron Formation (itabirites) in Brazil show microstructural evidence of pressure solution of quartz and iron oxides; it appears that magnetite was dissolved and hematite precipitated. The dissolution of magnetite seems to be related to its transformation to hematite by oxidation of Fe2+ to Fe3+. The transformation of magnetite to hematite occurs along {111} planes, and results in the development of hematite domains along {111} that are parallel to the foliation. The difference in volume created by the transformation of magnetite to hematite and the shear stress acting on the interphase boundaries allow fluids to migrate along these planes. The dissolution of magnetite involves the hydrolyzation of the Fe2+—O bonds at interphase boundaries of high normal stress. The high fugacity of oxygen in the fluid phase promotes the reaction of Fe2+ (in solution) with oxygen. Fe2+ ions oxidize to Fe3+ and precipitate as hematite platelets with their longest axes oriented parallel to the direction of maximum stretching. The transformation of magnetite to hematite during deformation plays an important role in the fabric evolution of the iron formation rocks. The transformation along {111} creates planes of weakness that facilitate fracturing. The fracturing plus the dissolution result in a reduction of magnetite grain size, and the oriented precipitation results in layers of hematite platelets. These processes produce a new fabric characterized by a penetrative foliation and lineation.

Notes: The development of 10–30 m wide mylonite zones at mid-crustal depths in late Proterozoic granitoids on King Island, Tasmania, was associated with pervasive infiltration of low δ18O-fluids (+5 to +7) on the scale of the shear zones. Syndeformational fluid–rock interaction produced substantial differences in mineral composition and bulk rock chemistry among several adjacent shear zones which are hosted by the same granite. In a shear zone at Cape Wickham with a normal slip component, changes in whole-rock chemistry between granite and mylonites indicate a gain of Ca, and losses of K and Na during deformation, which was nearly isovolumetric. Notable losses of K, Rb and Si occurred during partial retrograde alteration of mylonites near the western margin of this shear zone. The alteration suggests a component of up-temperature fluid flow. In contrast, 3 km to the south east, in a strike-slip shear zone at Disappointment Bay, complete albitization of plagioclase was associated with Na-gain and Ca-loss. Deformation also involved losses of Mg and Fe. Up to 60% volume gain occurred during the formation of closely spaced mesoscopic to microscopic quartz veins during mylonitization. The substantial silica-gain in this, as well as in two mylonite zones further south east, is interpreted to have been associated with upward flow of aqueous fluids along these shear zones. On the basis of a gradient reaction model, minimum time-integrated fluid-fluxes of 106 m3/m2 are estimated for the Disappointment Bay (West) Shear Zone.

Notes: A study of the metamorphic and tectonic evolution of the Bündnerschiefer of the Engadine window shows that the individual nappes have been thinned by a large amount and that extension was active during and soon after nappe stacking.Based on contrasting P–T  histories the Penninic Bündnerschiefer can be divided in two major units bounded by a horizontal contact. The lower (Mundin) unit shows typical high-P/low-T  parageneses in metapelites (Mg-carpholite) and in metabasites (glaucophane); metamorphic conditions are estimated around 12 kbar, 375 °C. The upper (Arina) unit contains no specific high-P minerals; metamorphic conditions are estimated around 7 kbar, 325 °C. A minimum pressure gap of 5 kbar is thus observed. The contact between the two units is marked by a mappable normal shear zone with top-to-the-north-west sense of shear. Near the shear zone, fresh carpholite fibres trend parallel to the regional stretching lineation, implying that the detachment is an early structure active from the depth of stability of the carpholite and persisting during subsequent exhumation. The good preservation of carpholite and the absence of retrograde chloritoid below the shear zone show that exhumation occurred along a cooling path, whereas the deeper units are exhumed along an isothermal path. Exhumation probably occurred during convergence and further nappe stacking during the earlier Eocene. These results suggest that pre-collisional tectonic thinning of the Penninic oceanic units may be more widespread and significant than generally recognized.