petrogenesis of hercynian leucogranites from the southern armorican massif contribution of ree and isotopic sr nd pb and o geochemical data to the study of source rock characteristics and ages abstract ree geochemistry and isotopic pb sr nd o compositions have been studied in up to nine separate leucogranite massifs from three structurally adjacent zones in south brittany ages decrease from 340 ma in the north to 300 ma in the south whereas initial 87 sr 86 sr ratios increase from 0 706 to 0 710 0 717 ree abundances are relatively low la n 20 80 chondrites with a strong enrichment of lree relative to hree la n lu n 13 4 26 6 pb isotope ratios are homogeneous for a given massif but heterogeneous among massifs and plot very close to a normal terrestrial lead growth curve at 300 ma ago 18 o 16 o ratios are high and relatively uniform at 10 7 to 12 8 mean 11 9 u pb studies on zircon indicate the presence of an inherited radiogenic pb component and that the sediment dominated source region had been metamorphosed during the siluro devonian ligerian negativee nd t values imply that the source region had been enriched in lree prior to the melting episode based on the combined data large scale partial melting of crustal material dominantly of sedimentary origin is proposed the model age of the source rocks is not very old 600 700 to 1200 ma the pb and sr isotopic variations observed among different massifs is probably the result of age differences in the source materials of the different leucogranites

mica liquid trace elements partitioning and the granite pegmatite connection the st sylvestre complex western french massif central abstract we constrain the genetic relation between granite and pegmatite parental melts from the variscan saint sylvestre leucogranite complex and associated pegmatite bodies massif central france through compositions of micas using mica trace element concentrations and available partition coefficients for li rb ba cs and f we calculated the trace element contents of granitic and pegmatitic melts at equilibrium with micas biotite in leucogranites and pegmatites ranges mostly from fe biotite to siderophyllite more evolved facies contain protolithionite and zinnwaldite and lepidolite occurs in the most fractionated pegmatite white micas have homogeneous compositions from muscovite to li phengite in granites biotite and muscovite trace element distributions are clustered in pegmatites mica trace element contents globally follow differentiation from the least to the most evolved body the reconstructed pegmatitic and granitic melts present strong compositional similarities such as enrichments in li rb cs and depletion in ba that suggest a similar origin however micas are shown to have selectively equilibrated with the last melt or fluid in contact and so trace element concentrations of early magmatic liquids are rarely preserved inversion of the mica data constrains the composition of parental melts and the trace element evolutions during crystallization leucogranite and pegmatite melts show mutual incompatible element evolutions inconsistent with a parent daughter genetic relation the data and the modelling suggest that they represent non cogenetic melts generated by discrete episodes of partial melting differentiation is thus inherited from source processes rather than being the consequence of fractional crystallization of a common parental melt magma we suggest that both the leucogranites and the pegmatites originate from partial melting of a heterogeneous source rather than pegmatites being the product of granite crystallization

age and cooling history of the manaslu granite implications for himalayan tectonics abstract the manaslu granite is one of the high himalayan leucogranites which are believed to be derived by partial melting of quartzofeldspathic gneissess of the high himalayan crystallines hhc and emplaced at the contact between the hhc and the tethyan sedimentary series we have analyzed a suite of muscovite 15 biotite 3 and alkali feldspar 10 by the 40 ar 39 ar method to help constrain the age and cooling history of the granite 40 ar 39 ar ages ranges are 18 4 to 13 3 ma 17 0 to 14 7 and 16 4 to 3 4 for muscovite biotite and k feldspar respectively based on the muscovite analyses and a re interpretation of a previously published u pb monazite age we conclude that the crystallization age of the manaslu granite is everywhere 20 ma the postcrystallization cooling history given by the micas and the feldspars suggests the presently exposed parts of the pluton were emplaced at depths of 8 to 15 km these data place a minimum age of movement on the mct in this area of 20 ma we estimate the time of magma segregation and transport to be no more than 5 ma

topographic inversion and changes in the sediment routing systems in the variscan orogenic belt as revealed by detrital zircon and monazite upb geochronology in post collisional continental basins abstract the basal alluvial and fluvial siliciclastic successions within the late carboniferous intracontinental basins of the west central bohemian massif provide an intriguing sedimentary record of changes in paleotopography and paleodrainage systems during and after orogenic collapse we analyze this record using the u pb laser ablation icp ms detrital zircon and monazite geochronology five distinct age groups have been identified across the examined stratigraphic succession i archean paleoproterozoic ii late neoproterozoic iii cambro ordovician iv late devonian and v mid to late carboniferous these age groups indicate mixing of both local and distal extra basinal sources and also point to a two stage post convergent geodynamic evolution of the variscan belt the first stage followed collapse of the central bohemian orogenic plateau at around 346 337 ma and involved rapid cooling at ca 340 320 ma and removal of ca 2 3 km of sedimentary overburden from the top of the plateau no sedimentary record of this erosional event suggests that the river systems transported detritus radially outwards from the inner part of the orogen to its forelands a paleorelief inversion and thus major reorganization of the sediment routing systems were then associated with uplift in the southerly and southwesterly peripheral domains of the orogen at ca 330 310 ma in turn these uplifted domains occupied by rapidly unroofed voluminous granite plutons shed detritus into the bohemian sink this was represented by the former plateau collapsed to relatively low elevations but still with significant internal paleorelief dominated by a system of tens of kilometers long nne ssw trending paleovalleys some of the material was further transported in extensive river systems crossing the former plateau to the northerly variscan foreland basin thus the radial sediment routing system changed into axial unidirectional finally we suggest that these major inversions of paleorelief and changes in the surface processes and paleodrainage systems may have been linked to distinct late orogenic lithospheric mantle delamination events first stage delamination occurred beneath the center of the bohemian massif to cause the plateau collapse denudation and radial sediment transport whereas the second stage delamination occurred along its periphery to cause uplift sourcing the intracontinental basins and unidirectional sediment transport end of deposition and magmatic shutdown at around 305 ma may then define the very cessation of late orogenic vertical movements and the transition to a post orogenic intra plate setting

u pb zircon and sm nd model ages of high grade moldanubian metasediments bohemian massif czechoslovakia we report single grain u pb ion microprobe as well as conventional bulk size fraction ages for zircons from 3 metasediment samples of the moldanubian complex bohemian massif one of the largest crystalline complexes of the hercynian foldbelt in europe these are complemented by whole rock sm nd model ages the metasediments are of upper amphibolite to granulite grade and come from the bory massif in moravia nw of brno sample aa 1 and from the varied group aa 2 and monotonous group aa 3 in the ceske budejovice region of sw bohemia

from magmatic to hydrothermal sn li nb ta w mineralization the argemela area central portugal abstract the argemela mineralized area ama central portugal exhibits a nearly continuous magmatic to hydrothermal ore forming sequence typical of variscan granite related rare metal deposits disseminated and vein type mineralization are distributed in two systems the argemela mine am and the cabeco da argemela ca disseminated mineralization includes montebrasite cassiterite and columbite tantalite dispersed in rare metal granites vein type mineralization occurs both in granites and country rocks the ca system exposes three generations of intragranitic veins with montebrasite in the two earliest and montebrasite wolframite cassiterite and columbite tantalite in the latest country rock veins include a swarm of cassiterite and montebrasite veins am and rare isolated wolframite veins ca disseminated cassiterites are enriched in ta2o5 and nb2o5 compared to vein cassiterites disseminated columbite tantalites evolve toward mn and ta rich chemistries that contrast with the more fe and nb rich compositions in intragranitic veins in the ca system both intragranitic and country rock veins crystallize early mn rich wolframites followed by late more fe rich compositions associated with nb ta poor cassiterite the later replaced by stannite field relations structural mineralogical and geochemical data suggest that the disseminated and vein type mineralization are expressions of a continuous metallogenic evolution initiated at the magmatic stage pursued during the magmatic hydrothermal transition and ended with hydrothermal circulations in country rock the two mineralized systems share similarities but they also show major differences structural analysis demonstrates that the intragranitic veins in the ca and the country rock veins in the am were emplaced under the same tectonic regime therefore the two systems are variants of the same local metallogenic evolution sn and w show markedly contrasted behaviors both have a magmatic source but only sn reaches concentrations leading to saturation of the melt with cassiterite w is deposited later and preferentially to sn in intragranitic veins at the hydrothermal stage cassiterite and wolframite deposition are disconnected and overall wolframite occurs only in minor amounts the metallogenic model proposed for the ama emphasizes magmatic rare metal concentration processes exsolution of magmatic fluids and selective deposition of metals during the magmatic hydrothermal and later hydrothermal stages the sn li nb ta dominated and w poor signature of the ama makes it similar to lct pegmatites of the central iberian zone but is distinctive from the world class w sn cu panasqueira deposit nearby

episyenitisation dans le gisement d uranium du bernardan marche comparaison avec des gisements similaires du nord ouest du massif central francais le gisement d uranium du bernardan exploite dans le granite a deux micas de la marche occidentale appartient au groupe des gisements d impregnation la mineralisation uranifere pechblende coffinite produits noirs autunite est disseminee dans une roche vacuolaire appelee episyenite cette derniere resulte d une alteration hydrothermale du granite par des solutions chaudes 370 260 c 2 5 7 poids equiv nacl le quartz est dissout les feldspaths principalement les plagioclases et les biotites sont partiellement transformes en phengites les muscovites et orthoses granitiques se reequilibrent avec perte de sodium cette alteration est guidee par un reseau de fractures a differentes echelles une alteration comparable a ete observee dans d autres gisements du nord ouest du massif central francais comme margnac et fanay dans le massif de st sylvestre et hyverneresse dans celui du millevaches les transformations mineralogiques a l exception de la quantite de phengites secondaires les changements chimiques lessivage de silice et metasomatisme potassique les conditions p t et le controle tectonique sont les memes dans tous ces gisements

the mont saint hilaire plutonic complex occurrence of excess 40ar and short intrusion history mont saint hilaire is an approximately 10 km2 alkaline plutonic complex in the monteregian petrographic province of quebec the complex consists of an older western half of alkali gabbros and an eastern portion of nepheline syenites and magmatic breccias the intrusives were emplaced at depths of no more than a few kilometres into paleozoic sedimentary rocks through the underlying grenville basement 40ar 39ar analyses of amphibole yield complex age spectra in which the apparent ages decrease with increasing heating temperature conventional k ar analyses of amphibole pyroxene and feldspar yield anomalously old dates these data indicate the presence of small yet significant amounts up to 8 10 11 mol g of excess 40ar the quantities of excess argon are variable between rocks and minerals from the same rock in contrast biotites yield concordant plateaus and consistent ages ranging only from 124 1 to 124 6 ma these data define the age of the complex 124 4 1 2 ma and imply a short time span of

excess argon in amphiboles from fluid interaction and short intrusion interval at the epizonal marangudzi complex zimbabwe the epizonal marangudzi complex of the karoo associated nuanetsi igneous province in southern zimbabwe was emplaced into precambrian gneisses and consists of a gabbro mass intruded in turn by ring dikes of quartz and nepheline syenites amphibole and biotite from various lithologies have been examined using 40ar 39ar techniques in order to investigate the temporal distribution of intrusions and the possible occurrence of excess ar with one important exception samples give internally concordant incremental release spectra average 40ar 39ar dates range from 177 6 to 181 3 ma three amphiboles give dates which are significantly older than the other samples and contain small yet discernible quantities of excess 40ar excess ar is restricted to amphiboles displaying substantial fe mg zoning which is interpreted as reflecting late magmatic or early sub solidus reaction with fluid phases argon was apparently acquired from the fluid during alteration and ultimately could have been magmatic or could have come from degassing of the country rocks the remaining samples both amphibole and biotite show only a restricted range 1 m y in apparent age and are essentially analytically indistinguishable implying rapid cooling of the complex the average for these analyses 178 1 ma reflects the mean age of emplacement of cogenetic intrusions within a short interval 1 m y in duration this revised age of the marangudzi complex fits well within the temporal framework of karoo province magmatism in the region

39ar recoil artifacts in chloritized biotite biotite separates from the metamorphosed granitic rocks of eastern taiwan yield disturbed 40ar39ar age spectra their disturbed profiles become more pronounced with increasing degree of chloritization and are attributed to mixed release of argon from sub micron scale biotite and chlorite intercalations 39ar internal recoil best explains the discordance of the age spectra chlorite is randomly intercalated with biotite at scales ranging from 10 a to several tens of microns both 40ar and k were evidently lost during the chloritization reaction during the neutron irradiation 39ar atoms recoil into the chlorite from the adjacent biotite intercalations the recoil and chloritization combine to produce a variable 40ar39ar spatial distribution in the intercalated biotite chlorite during 40ar39ar step heating analyses argon in biotite is released in two pulses centered at 650 c and 950 1050 c which represent two stages of dehydroxylation of the biotite chlorite out gasses in two pulses centered at 550 c and 700 900 c during dehydroxylation and then decomposes this differential thermal release of argon from each mineral phase with variable 40ar39ar ratios yields discordant incremental heating age spectra

single zircon dating constraining the maximum age of the barberton greenstone belt southern africa one of the central issues in early precambrian crustal evolution is the age and genetic relationship between greenstone belt supracrustal assemblages and nearby high grade gneiss terranes the crucial question in most cases is which of the two is older we report zircon ages using the new single grain evaporation technique from a metaquartzite and a felsic volcanic flow of the onverwacht group in the barberton greenstone belt bgb south africa and swaziland that constrain the age of this basal part of the greenstone sequence between 3451 15 and 3438 6 ma this is almost 100 ma younger than previous age estimates assigned to the onverwacht and agrees well with recent sm nd pb pb and zircon ion microprobe dating tonalitic orthogneisses of the ancient gneiss complex agc adjacent to the bgb have ages up to 3644 4 ma and are thus demonstrably older than the greenstones also they cannot be derived from them by partial melting as has been proposed previously this age relationship as well as the presence of metaquartzites and thrust slices of pregreenstone tonalite in the onverwacht tectonic sequence rule out an entirely oceanic evolution for the early history of the bgb and suggest that continental crust was either below or nearby

control of granite emplacement by regional deformation abstract a combination of structural measurements and gravity data is used to investigate the mode of granite emplacement in various tectonic settings the deepest zones revealed by gravity data provided those zones also show vertical lineations in outcrop are interpreted as magma feeder channels these structures or root zones reflect the flow pattern of the upwelling magma while being emplaced they can be interpreted within the regional stress field active during that time granites intruded during transcurrent shearing have only a few feeder channels these roots are not connected to the main shear zone all of them lie within locally extensional areas of the regional stress field this situation is also observed in granites emplaced during a compressional phase of deformation when emplaced during a regionally extensional phase the granitic plutons are very thin with many small deeper zones in which variously evolved granite types may be intrusive these regions vertically differentiated are also interpreted as feeder channels the different morphology at depth as well as the difference in the number of root zones suggest that deformation controls the emplacement of granitic plutons the root zones are oriented at a high angle to the direction of maximum compression when magma is emplaced in a plastic crust if the pluton is emplaced higher in a brittle crust then the roots are aligned with the maximum compression according to the andersonian theory of fracture the orientation of the root zone along the direction of extension in a plastic crust may be explained by shearing which acts as a valve mechanism for segregating magma in all the examples the geometry of the root zone relative to the major fault plane implies that the shear zone does not induce magma generation and that it does not serve as a guide for magma emplacement

new insights into thermal history from single grain 40ar 39ar analysis of biotite single grains of biotite extracted from two hand samples of two granitoid rocks from the red lake greenstone belt of northwestern ontario were examined using a high sensitivity 40ar 39ar laser dating system for variations in age for small grains a striking correlation is seen between the ages and the grain sizes as measured by the cylindrical radii with smaller samples yielding younger ages this effect saturates at a radius of about 225 m above which the integrated age is independent of grain size by combining this grain size effect with biotite diffusion parameters taken from the literature continuous cooling curves were derived for the region these curves suggest the region cooled at a rate of about 0 3 c myr between 2635 and 2570 ma with its ability to define a grain size effect the laser probe mass spectrometer system provides new insight into thermal history

geochronology of the porgera gold deposit papua new guinea resolving the effects of excess argon on k ar and age estimates for magmatism and mineralization abstract mesothermal epithermal gold mineralization at porgera in the highlands of papua new guinea png occurs in structurally controlled veins and disseminations which overprint and cross cut a suite of shallow level comagmatic mafic alkaline stocks and dykes the porgera intrusive complex pic and their sedimentary host rocks conventional k ar apparent ages of twelve hornblende separates from eight different intrusions scatter between 7 and 14 ma but four biotite separates are concordant at 6 02 0 29 ma 2 40 ar 39 ar step heating experiments on six of the hornblende separates reveal saddleshaped age spectra which indicate the presence of excess 40ar one of these samples yields a well defined plateau with an apparent age of 5 96 0 25 ma 2 this age is identical to that of the biotites and suggests an age of 6 0 0 3 ma 2 for emplacement of the pic older apparent ages obtained from conventional k ar and 40 ar 39 ar analyses are explained by excess 40ar contamination conventional k ar analyses of six separates of hydrothermal illite and roscoelite associated with gold mineralization yield apparent ages of between 5 1 and 6 1 ma and indicate that ore deposition occurred within 1 ma of magmatism at porgera evidence for the evolution of a magmatic volatile phase and the presence of excess 40ar both in the intrusives and in hydrothermal fluids associated with the orebody suggest that magmatic fluids may have had some involvement in metallogenesis but the exact nature of this involvement is not yet clear late miocene magmatism and mineralization at porgera are thought to have occurred shortly prior to or during the initiation of continent arc collision and to pre date associated pliocene uplift and foreland deformation in the highlands

thermochronology of isotopically zoned micas insights from the southwestern usa proterozoic orogen abstract we have used three different 40 ar 39 ar laser microprobe methods to explore the distribution of radiogenic 40 ar in 1 0 1 5 mm biotite crystals from the ca 1680 ma horse mountain monzogranite of central arizona incremental heating of two single crystals with a defocused laser beam produced flat age spectra with near plateau ages of 1190 ma showing no indication of intracrystalline 40 ar inhomogeneity in contrast total fusion of twenty five biotite fragments 100 pm yielded apparent ages ranging from 1006 7 to 1212 0 ma detailed age mapping in the 001 plane of two crystals with the laser focused to a minimum spot size confirms that the age dispersion in the fragment data reflects the existence of 200 m y age gradients in single crystals the two mapped crystals display very different age distribution patterns that suggest radiogenic 40 ar loss through two mechanisms volume diffusion on a scale comparable to that of the grain radius and more rapid diffusion along discrete zones of high crystal defect density simple inverse modeling of the overall age dispersion in the two mapped crystals and the fragment population is consistent with the development of the observed age gradients by slow cooling at an average rate of 0 5 k m y the horse mountain results as well as previously published studies indicate that conventional incremental heating of hydrous phases can homogenize intracrystalline gradients in 40 ar thereby masking important details of the thermal history of analyzed samples in contrast detailed isotopic mapping studies offer a wealth of information and will become more powerful with continued improvement in the spatial resolution of 40 ar 39 ar laser microprobes total fusion studies of crystal fragment populations can be readily automated making them less labor intensive than mapping studies our preliminary experiment on a limited horse mountain fragment population suggests that this procedure has great potential as a reconnaissance tool for thermal history research

tectonics and plate tectonics model for the variscan belt of europe abstract a plate tectonics model is presented to explain the tectonometamorphic characteristics of the european variscides after the closing of two oceanic domains by two sided subduction 500 420 ma and obduction 420 380 ma collision of the european and african continental plates occurred we propose that the subsequent complex intracontinental deformation 380 290 ma is the result of a double subduction of the continental lithosphere accompanied by crust mantle decollement this mechanism explains the progressive crustal thickening and migration of the deformation through time from the sutures toward the external parts of the variscan belt accounting for this model and for the relationships between the european variscides and the other paleozoic peri atlantic belts caledonides appalachian mauritanides and morocco we infer the relative positions of africa america and europe between the silurian and the permian

crustal thinning recorded by the shape of the namurian westphalian leucogranite in the variscan belt of the northwest massif central france in the western part of the variscan belt of the french massif central the gueret massif is an extensional allochthon emplaced to the southeast during namurian westphalian time the internal structure of the coeval leucogranites surrounding the western edge of the gueret massif consists of the plateau d9aigurande brame st sylvestre and st goussaud massifs these plutons are asymmetric diapirs rooted in the marche bussiere madeleine and arrenes faults respectively the plutons indicate diverging extravasation from the gueret massif whatever their shapes the plutons have a northwest trending stretching lineation that is also marked in the granite host rocks by retrograde metamorphic minerals the same extension direction is also inferred from namurian westphalian leucogranites and dikes intruding the gueret massif extension related granitoids present typical structural patterns such as asymmetric shapes extravasation from the collapsing area and persistence of a stretching lineation parallel to the regional extension direction these features may be used to diagnose crustal thinning

eocene age for ag pb zn au vein and replacement deposits of the kokanee range southeastern british columbia the ag pb zn au vein and replacement deposits of the kokanee range southeastern british columbia are hosted by the middle jurassic nelson batholith and surrounding cambrian to triassic metasedimentary rocks in the hanging wall of the transcrustal slocan lake fault field relations indicate that mineralization is younger than the nelson batholith and a middle jurassic foliation in the ainsworth area but coeval or older than eocene unroofing of the valhalla metamorphic core complex in the footwall of the slocan lake fault lamprophyre and gabbro dykes are broadly coeval with mineralization and have biotite and hornblende k ar ages defining a short lived middle eocene alkaline magmatic event between 52 and 40 ma an older early cretaceous alkaline magmatic event 141 129 ma is possible but incompletely documented k ar and step heating 40ar 39ar analyses on hydrothermal vein and alteration muscovite indicate that hydrothermal fluids were precipitating vein and replacement deposits 58 59 ma ago crosscut

40ar 39ar laser probe dating by step heating and spot fusion of phengites from the dora maira nappe of the western alps italy 40ar 39ar laser probe dating of phengitic micas has been carried out by step heating and spot fusion procedures these micas represent successive deformation stages in the structural evolution of the internal dora maira nappe western alps single phengites from a gneiss affected by a single ductile strain under retrogressive conditions sample 99 1 display complete isotopic resetting with nearly homogeneous intracrystalline ar distribution and yield plateau ages of about 40 ma small clusters of phengites from an earlier foliation were selected from a polydeformed mica schist sample ptx3 they show a partial isotopic resetting in response to overprinting during the retrogressive deformation stage with a concentric age zoning from 68 ma on the rim to 87 ma in the core on one cleavage plane this zonation is fully consistent with the laser derived discordant age spectrum which ranges from 40 to 90 ma from low to high temperatures according to the deformation history of both samples these preliminary data suggest a deformation control on ar migration during recrystallization processes and they are consistent with the timing of the collisional evolution previously reported for southern dora maira units this study shows that the 40ar 39 ar continuous laser probe dating technique produces data accurate enough to discriminate several tectonometamorphic episodes recorded in single hand samples

constraining long term denudation and faulting history in intraplate regions by multisystem thermochronology an example of the sudetic marginal fault bohemian massif central europe 1 the rychlebske hory mountain region in the sudetes ne bohemian massif provides a natural laboratory for studies of postorogenic landscape evolution this work reveals both the exhumation history of the region and the paleoactivity along the sudetic marginal fault smf using zircon u th he zhe apatite fission track aft and apatite u th he ahe dating of crystalline basement and postorogenic sedimentary samples most significantly and in direct contradiction of traditional paleogeographic reconstructions this work has found evidence of a large cretaceous sea and regional burial to 6 5 km of the carboniferous permian basement in the late cretaceous 95 80 ma during the burial by sediments of the bohemian cretaceous basin system the smf acted as a normal fault as documented by offset zhe ages across the fault at 85 70 ma the basin was inverted cretaceous strata eroded and basement blocks were exhumed to the near surface at a rate of 300 m ma as evidenced by late cretaceous paleocene aft ages and thermal modeling results there is no appreciable difference in aft and ahe ages across the fault suggesting that the smf acted as a reverse fault during exhumation in the late eocene oligocene the basement was locally heated to 70 c by magmatic activity related to opening of the eger rift system neogene or younger thermal activity was not recorded in the thermochronological data confirming that late cenozoic uplift and erosion of the basement blocks was limited to less than 1 5 km in the study area

and mg fe si al2 compositional control on argon behaviour in high pressure white micas a continuous laser probe study from the dora maira nappe of the internal western alps italy abstract high pressure white micas from a restricted area in the dora maira nappe of the western alps italy were analyzed by the conventional 40 ar 39 ar bulk sample step heating method and by the step heating and the spot fusion 40 ar 39 ar continuous laser probe techniques on single grains high si ferich phengites from fine grained gneisses display homogeneous 35 40 ma plateau and spot fusion ages consistent with the upper eocene 40 ar 39 ar phengite ages documented over the whole internal western alps in contrast phengite separates and single grains of high si and mg rich to intermediate composition selected from metapelitic and mg rich mica schist samples yield older discordant apparent ages even when sampled in the same outcrop as the fine grained gneisses these local age variations are interpreted to reflect primarily an increasing ar retentivity with increasing mg content in phengites in metapelite derived white micas the isotopic discordance is marked by 1 1 a characteristic bulk sample upward convex spectrum shape 2 2 single grain disturbed age spectra 3 3 a systematic radially outward decrease in spot ages across individual mica cleavage planes and 4 4 strong grain to grain spot age variations in rock sections 1 1 in mg rich mica schists the isotopic discordance is observed as a reproducible upward convex bulk sample age spectrum with high 140 ma intermediate apparent ages 2 2 upward convex single grain age spectra and 3 3 irregular intra and intergrain age gradients on geochemical grounds it is argued that the isotopic discordance occurring in the metapelites is mainly controlled by the compositional changes introduced by the mg fe si al2 celadonitic re equilibration of the high pressure phengites during greenschist overprinting in mg rich phengites this chemical re equilibration may induce ar loss below their presumed higher blocking temperature a model of ar behaviour in high pressure white micas is proposed which explains the age variations recorded throughout the different lithologies in terms of a simple interaction between the mg fe compositional control on ar retentivity and the mg fe si al2 modifications occurring in phengites during progressive overprinting

the crystal chemical basis for ar retention in micas inferences from interlayer partitioning and implications for geochronology cation partitioning data for coexisting muscovite and biotite are shown to be useful indicators of relative interlayer bond length strength in these minerals these data therefore provide a useful crystal chemical perspective on relative mass transfer kinetics of radiogenic isotopes and account for the observation that biotite is generally less retentive of 40ar and 87sr than coexisting muscovite partitioning behavior of trace elements underscores three reasons why overall interlayer bonding in biotite is weaker than in muscovite first the preferences of large rb cs in biotite and of small la3 and na in muscovite indicate a relatively spacious interlayer volume in biotite suggesting a longer mean k o bond second the preference of interlayer vacancies in biotite with some all possibly h2o h3o filled suggests that its adjacent 2 1 sheets are connected by fewer interlayer bonds per unit cell than those of muscovite third the relative exclusion of large ba2 from biotite despite its large interlayer sites is attributed to o h bonds pointing into the interlayer cavity sub normal to 001 k ba2 h repulsion thereby induced by the bare proton both destabilizes ba2 and weakens k o bonds in contrast muscovite offers a more favorable electrostatic environment for ba2 substitution since its o h bonds are directed into the vacant m1 octahedral site sub parallel to 001 this hypothesis is supported by the observation that progressive f oh 1 exchange enhances ba2 partitioning into biotite phlogopite relative to coexisting muscovite these crystal chemical differences between biotite and muscovite are mirrored in calculated values of ionic porosity z i defined here as the percentage of their interlayer unit cell volume not occupied by ions a monitor of ionic packing density and geometry z i is inversely correlated with k o bond strength which appears to be the rate determining kinetic common denominator for a variety of processes affecting micas including those responsible for loss of radiogenic isotopes in biotite and muscovite accordingly the relatively longer weaker k o bonds of biotite are envisioned as being more easily stretched during volume diffusion or broken during recrystallization or retrograde alteration this in turn accounts for common observations of enhanced radiogenic ar sr loss and younger 40ar 39ar and rb sr ages in natural biotite high z i relative to coexisting muscovite lower z i significantly this pattern may arise irrespective of isotopic loss mechanism diffusion or recrystallization etc and it follows that any age discordance observed between muscovite and biotite cannot be ascribed uniquely to one mechanism or the other without appropriate field petrographic and petrologic constraints extension of this partitioning porosity based synthesis leads to prediction of corollary age retentivity composition effects among chemically diverse trioctahedral and dioctahedral micas which are best field tested in terranes that cooled slowly under dry static conditions pressure effects on argon retention are also inferred from the porosity model

40ar 39ar age gradients in micas from a high temperature low pressure metamorphic terrain evidence for very slow cooling and implications for the interpretation of age spectra estimates of the time temperature history of geologic samples are often based on 40 ar 39 ar ages obtained through incremental heating experiments on minerals with different ar retentivities laser incre mental heating of single crystals of muscovite and biotite from an 1700 ma monzogranite from a low pressure high temperature metamorphic terrain in central arizona suggested an essentially uniform distribution of radiogenic 40 ar in each crystal and yielded ages of 1412 5 ma for the muscovite and 1410 10 ma for the biotite the similarity in these ages implies rapid 25 k m y cooling of the monzogranite after a reheating episode slightly before 1412 ma in contrast detailed age mapping of single crystals from the same samples with the laser microprobe revealed large radiogenic 40 ar gradients indicative of very slow 400 m y evidence for such low cooling rates has important implications for the longevity of high thermal gradients in the early middle proterozoic lithosphere in addition inconsistency between the laser mapping and incremental heating results for these micas suggests caution when interpreting incremental heating data for slowly cooled samples

the saxonian granulite massif new aspects from geochronological studies geochronological and geochemical analyses were carried out to determine the age of protolith formation and the timing of eclogite and granulite metamorphism of the saxonian granulite massif sgm the age of the ultramafic protoliths of the garnet pyroxenites from the rim of the sgm has been determined to be late riphean 828 ma which together with geochemical and isotope data implies the extraction of the melt from an enriched mantle reservoir with an initial nd value of 3 4 the minimum emplacement age of the mafic to felsic granulites has been dated at 470 ma the source material of these granulites reflects an enriched mantle reservoir with an nd value of 2 6 470 ma

resolving the relationship between high p t rocks and gneisses in collisional terranes an example from the gfohl gneiss granulite association in the moldanubian zone austria the increasing recognition of high p t metamorphic conditions in crustal rocks has lead to a major reappraisal of the processes inherent to continental collision within high grade regions in orogenic belts a particular problem is that bodies of high p t rocks are often found preserved within an apparently lower grade gneissose matrix resolving the true extent of high p t conditions in such situations requires a detailed examination of the mineral assemblage and compositional evolution in spatially related lithologies so that realistic geothermobarometric comparisons can be made within the gfohl unit in austria an integral part of the moldanubian zone of the variscan orogen of europe granulites containing the high p assemblage garnet clinopyroxene plagioclase quartz are found intercalated within the voluminous gfohl gneiss calculated p t conditions for the granulites indicate peak metamorphic equilibration at 14 16 kbar 950 1050 c post peak close to isothermal decompression to a medium p orthopyroxene bearing overprint at 7 8 kbar 800 870 c was followed by cooling at 950 c whilst temperature estimates for a widespread biotite sillimanite retrograde overprint range from 700 to 500 c at a minimum pressure of ca 4 kbar the coherence in metamorphic conditions and derived p t paths from both rock types indicates that the granulite gneiss association represents a coherent high p t unit with the felsic gneisses being a retrogressive product of former leucocratic granulites the lack of preservation of high p t assemblages in many parts of the gneiss is considered to be a function of pervasive deformation and associated fluid influx together with the effects of syn deformational migmatisation along basal parts of the unit during consolidation of the moldanubian nappe pile

an 40 ar 39 ar investigation of the contact effects of a dyke intrusion kapuskasing structural zone ontario an 40ar 39ar study on biotite and hornblende from baked tonalite gneiss adjacent to a 14 m wide kapuskasing dyke in the chapleau block of the kapuskasing structural zone employed resistance furnace step heating of bulk mineral separates single grain laser step heating and laser spot dating of individual grains in thick section all three methods yielded concordant results for the biotite indicating that it has been uniformly overprinted at ca 2 05 ga this date is probably a close estimate of the age of the dyke intrusion the argon data from the hornblende are more difficult to interpret all three methods suggest that the hornblende was partially overprinted and then affected by a later influx of excess argon from the external environment laser spot dates record an apparent age gradient extending radially outward from 2 25 ga in the grain cores to 2 4 2 7 ga in the grain rims corresponding 37ar 39ar values show no systematic variation across the hornblende although 38ar 39ar ratios display a similar pattern to the age distribution with lower values in the cores than in the rims the bulk separate and single grain step heating spectra mimic a volume diffusion ar loss profile that would appear to be inconsistent with the laser spot dates three possible interpretations to explain this apparent discrepancy may involve either experimental difficulties an effective radius of diffusion which is much smaller than the actual grain radius or an effective radius of diffusion that is of the order of the grain radius it is clear that for the 40ar 39ar dating of samples that have experienced complex geologic histories it is important to utilize both resistance furnace and laser techniques

isotopic systematics o h c sr nd of superimposed barren and u bearing hydrothermal systems in a hercynian granite massif central france abstract the hercynian 325 ma granitic complex of saint sylvestre experienced two hydrothermal episodes the first one leading to the formation of a typical alteration facies called episyenite mainly characterized by the dissolution of granitic quartz the second one leading to the deposition at 280 ma of a major u deposit the present study documents the isotopic characteristics of these hydrothermal events 18 o 16 o d h and 13 c 12 c systematics demonstrate that barren episyenites were generated during hydrothermal interaction of large amounts of mainly meteoric water with the granite the ore depositing fluid equilibrated in a sedimentary formation before entering the granite episyenitization was dated at 301 2 ma which is 25 ma later than the granite emplacement the rb sr isochron relationship implies isotopic equilibrium within the fluid phase and between the fluid and the host rocks which confirms the high water rock ratio inferred from o h isotope systematics a coupled nd and sr isotope investigation demonstrates that at least nd was reworked from the granite in the episyenite genesis but sr and possibly nd had an exotic origin consistent with the inferred sedimentary origin during the ore forming stage the present study emphasizes the fact that spatially superimposed hydrothermal events in a granitic environment can be 1 disconnected from the magmatic history of the granite itself and 2 mutually disconnected from chronological and chemical points of view

dating of archean auriferous quartz vein deposits in the abitibi greenstone belt canada 40 ar 39 ar evidence for a 70 to 100 m y time gap between plutonism metamorphism and mineralization the sigma mine at val d9or quebec in the abitibi belt is typical of vein type gold deposits in archcan greenstone belts although the relative timing of gold mineralization with respect to magmatism metamorphism deformation and hydrothermal events in the mine is well documented precise isotopic age constraints have until recently been lacking this paper presents the results of a 40 ar 39 ar dating study of the sigma mine and of the davidson tisdale deposit in the abitibi belt in the sigma mine dates on metamorphic amphibole indicate that the regional metamorphism which predates the vein formation occurred at ca 2 68 ga muscovite from the gold bearing quartz veins yields a plateau date of 2579 or 9 ma 2sigma whereas biotite from the veins shows disturbed saddle shaped age spectra the mild disturbance of the biotite is attributed to later diabase dike emplacement and a 40 ar 39 ar date on a dike indicates that this event is younger than 2 3 ga thermal effects of the grenville orogeny 1 2 1 0 ga may also be present a muscovite separate from a gold bearing quartz vein at the davidson tisdale deposit yields a 2607 or 10 ma 2sigma plateau date although the amphibole and muscovite dates at the sigma mine bracket the gold mineralization event at between ca 2 68 and 2 58 ga a number of tectonothermal histories are possible for this time interval it is concluded based on all evidence that the muscovite plateau dates are the time of vein and gold formation which thus occurred in the sigma mine ca 100 m y and in the davidson tisdale deposit ca 70 m y after syn to post tectonic magmatism and regional metamorphism

crustal generation of the himalayan leucogranites abstract detailed studies of the himalayan two mica leucogranites such as the manaslu pluton indicate that they have very uniform mineralogical petrological and structural characteristics one can relate their occurrence to the thickest zones of the underlying tibetan slab in these zones migmatization attains its greatest development and vertical extension the granite is emplaced at first along the main disharmonic plane above the main central thrust mct at the top of the tibetan slab infrastructure ductile deformation of the granite is variable the granite being syn to late kinematic with regard to the functioning of the mct major elements are very homogeneous except for na and k implying that p t conditions of melting were relatively uniform the melted material was of a similar composition over a vast volume and the percentage of melting was small 10 15 trace elements are highly variable some are characteristic for very evolved material ta rb cs u or show the link with the tibetan slab ba sr whilst others are problematic th ree ree and th abundances being much less in the granite than in the tibetan slab imply that they have been extracted during one of the main stages of formation possibly by monazite radiogenic pb sr nd and stable o isotopes are consistent with the origin of the granite from the tibetan slab however the heterogeneous sr isotopic ratios make age dating difficult and imply poor mixing or little fluid interaction during its evolution h isotope data indicate that magmatic compositions of the main body of the manaslu granite have been preserved late or post magmatic alterations are extremely local in the main pluton to the north another belt of two mica granites occurs whose characteristics are very similar to the high himalaya belt they were probably generated in a similar way during this recent intracontinental evolution

the timing of w sn rare metals mineral deposit formation in the western variscan chain in their orogenic setting the case of the limousin area massif central france new 40ar 39ar dating performed on rare metal granites and w sn deposits in the northern limousin has provided evidence of two metallogenic episodes an early namurian episode c 325 ma was contemporaneous with the emplacement of the large peraluminous leucogranite bodies which are associated with small w sn deposits but also with some larger deposits at puy les vignes 323 4 0 9 ma and moulin barret 323 7 0 8 ma formed at a shallower level above cryptic granite plutons these new data indicate that the metallogenic potential of the namurian leucogranites might have been underestimated most other w sn deposits in the northern limousin area are attributed to a mid westphalian episode c 310 ma and are contemporaneous with the emplacement of all the rare metal granites both episodes were related to leucogranite emplacement and associated fluid circulations but in two different geodynamic contexts the early namurian episode may be related to syncollisional extension of the variscan belt whereas the mid westphalian one occurs during generalized extension and rapid exhumation of the belt associated with the granulite facies metamorphism of the lower lithosphere probably related to the delamination of the lower lithosphere thus w sn and rare metals ta nb be li deposits are clearly temporally and probably genetically related to leucogranitic magmatism

detection of inherited monazite in the manaslu leucogranite by 208pb232th ion microprobe dating crystallization age and tectonic implications abstract although leucogranites are among the least petrologically variable of all igneous rocks ironically they are among the most difficult to reliably date the high himalayan leucogranites have been the subject of numerous geochronological investigations because of their interrelationship with the most significant tectonic features of that mountain belt for a variety of reasons linked to the minimum melt composition of these leucogranites these dating studies have not been entirely successful we report results of a new ion microprobe dating method based on the decay of 232 th to 208 pb in monazite that has directly revealed the presence of inherited pb in monazite from the manalsu granite casting doubt on its previously accepted age monazite ages obtained from this leucogranite yield two distinct populations a large number of ages with a normal distribution and mean age of 22 4 0 5 ma 2 s e that we interpret to be the crystallization age and a smaller inherited fraction with an age of ca 600 ma because formation of the granite is thought to be related to slip on the main central thrust both this date and a second less precise result from a structurally similar pluton near mt everest indicate that the main central thrust was active in the interval 24 22 ma but do not constrain its initiation together with crosscutting relationships these data require that movement on the north himalayan fault occurred prior to 22 ma at both locations

40ar 39ar thermochronometry of the imataca complex venezuela the imataca complex of venezuela an archean metamorphic belt located on the northern margin of the amazonian craton underwent upper amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism during the 2 0 ga trans amazonian orogeny 40ar 39ar plateau dates on hornblende separates from the imataca complex vary from 1972 to 1760 ma and record post trans amazonian orogeny cooling biotite and feldspar pairs which were separated from the same samples or from samples collected at the same exposure and should record identical thermal histories yield distinct results the biotite 40ar 39ar spectra are primarily plateau profiles with dates ranging from 2044 to 1254 ma whereas perthitic potassium feldspar yield stair step 40ar 39ar spectra and integrated dates ranging from 1395 to 1166 ma the internally discordant perthite spectra appear to reflect cooling at rates of 0 1 0 2 c ma 1 consistent with the cooling rates estimated from the blocking temperature and age differences between biotite feldspar pairs from the same sample two plagioclase samples yield saddle shaped 40ar 39ar spectra with 1235 and 1221 ma minimum dates these internally discordant spectra are caused by degassing of non atmospheric trapped ar from the plagioclase and of radiogenic ar sited in k rich inclusion phases the 2 0 1 7 ga biotite dates are confined to the margins of the imataca complex and record the waning stages of trans amazonian orogeny uplift and cooling the 1 4 1 2 ga biotite dates which are confined to the center of the imataca complex are correlated with their 200 350 c ar blocking temperatures as estimated from their average grain size and fe fe mg composition the 1 3 1 1 ga feldspar ages are correlated with their 200 300 c ar blocking temperatures as determined from analysis of the 40ar 39ar step heating data the extremely slow cooling rates implied by the biotite feldspar pairs suggest that between 1 7 and 1 1 ga the imataca complex cooled isobarically at intermediate crustal levels all ar mineral systems closed by 1 1 ga perhaps reflecting a renewed phase of uplift associated with the mild tectonism of the nickorie episode

tibetan tectonics from 40ar 39ar analysis of a single k feldspar sample ar 39ar data on an alkali feldspar sample from the quxu pluton gangdese batholith southern tibet allow a detailed assessment of unroofing and uplift history between 35 and 18 ma the 39ar arrhenius plot for this sample shows departures from a linear relationship between the effective diffusion parameter log d r2 and reciprocal temperature which we interpret to be the result of a distribution of distinct diffusion domain sizes we use an alternative way of plotting the arrhenius data that exhibits domain size versus cumulative 39ar released during step heating the 4 ar 39ar age spectrum of the sample has features such as local age plateaus that are most easily explained in terms of the distinctive closure age of particular domains the fact that the same distribution of diffusion domain sizes explains both the arrhenius data and the age spectrum is an indication that the diffusion properties operating in the laboratory are those of the sample while it was in its natural environment modelling of the age spectrum with a distribution of domain sizes results in the recovery of a continuous cooling history segment rather than a single time temperature datum we demonstrate the robustness of the cooling curve determination by showing the large misfits to the age spectrum that arise from relatively small changes in the cooling history the best fit cooling curve for the quxu sample shows a decreasing rate of cooling in the time interval 35 18 ma followed by a very rapid cooling beginning at about 18 ma we have used a thermal model for the conductive cooling of an unroofing pluton to estimate the rate of unroofing required to explain the quxu cooling curve and find that in the 35 20 ma time interval the primary control of the thermal evolution is the conductive loss of magmatic heat with little or no unroofing unroofing rates of approximately 0 05 mm yr followed by a brief period 5 ma of very rapid unroofing with rates of order 2 mm yr

fluid evolution and uranium mo f mineralization at the maureen deposit queensland australia unconformity related hydrothermal ore formation with a source in the volcanic cover sequence maureen is the largest among several u mo f prospects occurring along a late devonian unconformity in the georgetown area northern queensland australia mineralization is structurally controlled by the intersection of steep east west fractures with an unconformity between a proterozoic basement and a paleozoic cover sequence of continental sedimentary rocks and abundant rhyolitic volcanic rocks the mineralogical composition of high grade ore pitchblende fe rich molybdenite arsenopyrite arsenian pyrite fluorite dickite chlorite goyazite graphite or hematite postlithification brecciation and quartz dissolution indicate a strong chemical gradient and disequilibrium during mineralization between the reduced basement and the largely oxidized cover sequence elemental and mineral zonation centered to faults and fractures cutting the unconformity indicates locally reducing and quartz dissolving conditions during the formation of tabular u mo orebodies which are surrounded by a halo rich in fluorite a detailed petrographic study microthermometry and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la icp ms analyses of quartz and fluorite hosted fluid inclusions provide concentrations of ore forming components in fluids related to hydrothermal uranium mineralization three fluids were involved in the mineralizing process at maureen a likely oxidized saline l3 fluid an aqueous l1 fluid and a ch4 bearing carbonic vapor cv the oxidized saline l3 fluids trapped in fluorite and dickite bearing hydrothermal quartz veinlets crosscutting detrital quartz show the highest average concentrations of u 10 47 ppm mo 489 888 ppm and as 318 777 ppm with element ratios close to those of high grade mineralized rocks we suggest that aqueous l1 fluids mixed in the cover sequence with oxidized saline fluids l3 to precipitate fluorite as a distal halo surrounding the east west fractures their mixture an oxidized moderately saline fluid l2 reacted with methane bearing carbonic vapor cv to precipitate u and mo by reduction close to the intersection of the fractures with the unconformity geochemical analysis of coexisting vapor and liquid assemblages indicate mixing of oxidized saline fluids with reduced carbonic vapors to be the driving force for uranium precipitation the maureen deposit shares essential geologic characteristics and hydrothermal processes with proterozoic unconformity related u deposits but probably owes its unusual element association of u with equally redox sensitive mo and abundant f to a source region in the volcano sedimentary cover sequence that was enriched in these elements due to the presence of highly fractionated easily leachable and oxidizable felsic volcanics

cooling pattern and mineralization history of the saint sylvestre and western marche leucogranite pluton french massif central i 40ar 39ar isotopic constraints abstract the saint sylvestre western marche leucogranite complex lc is a composite pluton emplaced 324 m y ago in the variscan continental crust of the northwestern limousin french massif central petrographic structural and new isotopic data are used to constrain the cooling pattern of the pluton in the temperature range for ar retention in muscovite part i and the genetic relationships with the subsequent uranium mineralization postdating the time of intrusion by 40 50 m y part ii a suite of thirty seven muscovite and nine biotite concentrates selected over the entire plutonic complex were analyzed by the 40 ar 39 ar technique muscovite is characterized by well defined plateau ages ranging between 314 and 301 ma while biotite gives less well behaved age spectra with apparent ages varying between 320 and 300 ma the muscovite age variations are systematic and clearly associated with regional trends at the scale of the pluton field petrographic gravimetric and structural relationships indicate that the age pattern is controlled by the intrusion shape and the regional post cooling fault network cutting through the laccolith when restored to their approximate pre faulting geometry the age variations are shown to correlate positively with sample elevation with a top to base difference as large as 10 14 m y over a mean intrusion thickness of 3 km this pattern is interpreted to reflect cooling driven by erosion and exhumation of the thickened variscan crust during the westphalian and is confirmed by two dimensional thermal modelling part ii the data show that 40 ar 39 ar mica ages can postdate the time of crystallization of the host pluton by up to 23 ma depending on the level sampled at the surface they warn against interpreting k ar mica ages from similar low relief igneous settings as closely postdating intrusive events without a precise knowledge of the thermal structure cooling mechanism and post cooling faulting of the pluton in turn provided that the pre faulting geometry of the intrusion is properly assessed the vertical cooling pattern can reveal fine scale variations in the thermal structure of old eroded intrusions that may be extremely useful for recovering quantitative information on the mechanisms and rates of cooling in ancient orogens

40 ma of hydrothermal w mineralization during the variscan orogenic evolution of the french massif central revealed by u pb dating of wolframite we present u pb thermal ionization mass spectrometer tims ages of wolframite from several granite related hydrothermal w sn deposits in the french massif central fmc located in the internal zone of the variscan belt the studied wolframite samples are characterized by variable u and pb contents typically 10 ppm and show significant variations in their radiogenic pb isotopic compositions the obtained u pb ages define three distinct geochronological groups related to three contrasting geodynamic settings i visean to namurian mineralization 333 327 ma coeval with syn orogenic compression and emplacement of large peraluminous leucogranites ca 335 325 ma ii namurian to westphalian mineralization 317 315 ma synchronous with the onset of late orogenic extension and emplacement of syn tectonic granites ca 315 310 ma and iii stephanian to permian mineralization 298 274 ma formed during post orogenic extension contemporaneous with the permian volcanism in the entire variscan belt the youngest ages 276 274 ma likely reflect the reopening of the u pb isotopic system after wolframite crystallization and may correspond to late hydrothermal alteration e g ferberitization our results demonstrate that w sn mineralization in the fmc formed during at least three distinct hydrothermal events in different tectono metamorphic settings over a time range of 40 ma

new tectonic divisions of the grenville province southeast canadian shield on the basis of geological geophysical and geochronological data the grenville province has been divided into three first order longitudinal belts the parautochthonous belt pb allochthonous polycyclic belt apb and allochthonous monocyclic belt amb these are set apart by three first order tectonic boundaries the grenville front gf allochthon boundary thrust abt and monocyclic belt boundary zone mbbz the belts are subdivided into terranes based on internal lithological character the gf separates the archean to proterozoic foreland northwest of the orogen from reworked equivalents to the southeast continuous at the scale of the orogen its main characteristic is that of a crustal scale contraction fault the pb although less clearly identified along the length of the orogen in most places represents upgraded and tectonically reworked rocks of the adjacent foreland the boundary between the pb and the apb to the southeast the abt is most clearly delineated in the eastern half of the province it is the locus of major crustal delamination along which high grade mostly middle proterozoic polycyclic terranes were tectonically transported northwest toward and onto the pb the amb comprises two separate areas underlain by the wakeham supergroup and what is currently known as the grenville supergroup respectively its basal contact the mbbz is a decollement zone of variable kinematic significance between older polycyclic rocks and tectonically overlying monocyclic rocks this first order zonation implies a tectonic polarity to the grenville province superimposed on which are second order features evident from contrasting tectonic styles and radiometric ages these characteristics are consistent with a diachronous or oblique collisional model for the grenville orogen

high resolution 40 ar 39 ar chronology of multiple intrusion igneous complexes the mount brome complex of the monteregian province of southern quebec canada consits of several major intrusions ranging compositionally from gabbro to syenite the relative ages of these intrusives have been investigated with high resolution 40ar 39ar analyses including a specially designed irradiation configuration to cancel the effects of fluence gradients small yet distinct apparent age differences are observed while a number of analytical and geological factors could be proposed to explain the small variations evaluation of these suggests the age differences reflect those in emplacement times the gabbro and nepheline diorite were emplaced within a short span 123 1 ma ago generally more evolved lithologies biotite monzodiorite pulaskite nordmarkite appear to have been emplaced within a restricted interval 1 4 0 3 ma later whole rock rb sr systematics do not give acceptable isochrons because of significant scatter interpreted to reflect initial 87sr 86sr heterogeneities resulting from crustal contamination considering the variations in initial ratio the rb sr data are consistent with the 40ar 39ar age

the cooling history of the late pliocene eldzhurtinskiy granite caucasus russia and the thermochronological potential of grain size age relationships abstract isotopic age investigations have been carried out on samples from the late pliocene eldzhurtinskiy granite great caucasus russia in order to elucidate the cooling history of this kilometere sized plutonic body the samples were taken from a horizontal profile from the edge to the centre of the granite and from a vertical profile from the top to a depth of 4570 m the 40ar 39ar results on biotites ranging from 2 5 to 1 2 ma indicate a vertical age zoning of the granite caused by regional uplift an uplift rate of 4 mm a is calculated from the age differences together with the results of fission track dating on apatite and zircon and the present day rock temperatures the biotite ages can be used to evaluate cooling rates below 400 c the cooling rates of about 180 c ma are relatively high and spatially and temporarily fairly uniform throughout the granite a geothermal gradient of 45 c km is derived from uplift and cooling rates this is identical to the present day borehole gradient the 40ar 39ar ages of distinct biotite grain fractions from one and the same sample specimen are discordant generally they show clear age grain size correlation as expected from ar diffusion theory for cooling systems thus the biotite results support the additional detailed thermochronological information the cooling rates in the temperature range of biotite closure based on the grain size age correlations of the biotites are close to 180 c ma they provide evidence that within a certain temperature interval the time temperature path of a rock may be determined exclusively by isotopic dating of different grain size fractions of only one type of mineral

40ar 39ar ages for plutons of the monteregian hills quebec evidence for a single episode of cretaceous magmatism 40ar 39ar data for biotite and amphibole from six plutonic complexes of the monteregian petrographic province in quebec canada are presented generally uncomplicated and concordant incremental heating spectra are observed although there is evidence for minor excess 40ar at several localities biotites and amphiboles are concordant consistent with rapid cooling of the high level complexes ages for different phases of individual complexes are analytically indistinguishable and suggest that the various principal lithologies are cogenetic the 40ar 39ar ages of six monteregian complexes st hilaire rougemont johnson shefford brome megantic all fall within the very restricted range of 124 1 m y it is suggested that all of the monteregian plutons with the exception of oka were formed within a short interval 1 2 m y during the cretaceous consistent with paleomagmetic results the new ages along with geochemical characteristics support derivation of the alkaline magmas by a fixed mantle hot spot which also produced broadly similar complexes in new england and the chain of new england seamounts

the gangotri granite garhwal himalaya laccolithic emplacement in an extending collisional belt the gangotri miocene leucogranite is composed of several laccoliths 6 7 km long 1 5 2 km thick which can be divided into two sets of lenses the southern lenses intruded in the lower part of the high himalaya sedimentary cover and the northern lenses intruded in an older porphyritic biotite bearing granite in both cases the magmatic fabric is commonly weak with no dominant stretching direction although a rough e w trend is present in the northern lenses the magnetic fabric is characterized by the fact that drastic changes in the direction in the magnitude of the magnetic parameters or in the fabric type planar or linear may take place over very short distances measurements of preferred orientations in thin sections indicate that the strain regime was largely dominated by a coaxial component for both sets of lenses in agreement with the large dispersion observed in both the field and magnetic lineations the comparison of the granite and host rock structures shows that the leucogranite emplacement dates the onset of the extensional tectonism in the high himalaya range and is not related to a southward directed thrust event associated with the main central thrust this is exemplified by the vertical attitude of the feeder dikes that intrude the metasedimentary rocks beneath die southern lenses the presence of these dikes indicates in turn that magma ascent occurred by fracture propagation the spatial disposition of the southern lenses could have resulted either from the disruption of a single laccolithic intrusion by crustal scale boudinage due to a northern gravity backslide of the top of the tibetan slab or from the intrusion of independent laccoliths the use of the elastic bending theory of pollard and johnson 1973 shows that in both hypotheses the current laccolith sizes are compatible with a laccolithic mode of magma emplacement however neither the density contrast between the magma and its enclosing rocks nor the lithological boundary between the tibetan slab and the overlying tibetan metasedimentary series controlled the level of magma emplacement rather flat lying collapse structures which intersected the upward propagating magma dikes are the most likely causes of magma arrest such a mechanism was favored by the schist rich lithology of the metasedimentary host rocks in addition field relationships indicate that the melt supply through the dike system was a continuous rather than pulsed process existing numerical treatments on the rates of magma transport through fractures show that in such a case the laccoliths could have been built in less than 100 years this short time of emplacement the small size of the laccoliths and their peripheral disposition relative to the badrinath granite suggest that the gangotri lenses may represent the initial stage of pluton accretion in the high himalaya which ultimately gave rise to a much larger massif such as the manaslu granite

u pb zircon and sm nd dating of moldanubian hp ht granulites from south ohemia czech republic conventional multigrain u pb systematics of zircon and single grain evaporation data of zircons in combination with nd model ages are presented for pyroxene free felsic garnetiferous granulites and orthopyroxene bearing granulites of felsic mafic and intermediate composition from the blansky les mountains granulite complex s bohemia zircons from mafic and intermediate granulites yield concordia intercept ages between 346 5 and 351 6 ma as well as a single grain evaporation age of 346 12 ma these ages define the time of variscan high grade metamorphism in s bohemia and are supported by an internal sm nd garnet zircon plagioclase whole rock isochron age of 343 21 ma euhedral zircons from felsic granulites of probable granitic derivation yield u pb ages of 366 5 ma and 373 12 ma interpreted as intrusion ages of the granitic precursor an inherited proterozoic crustal component is documented by poorly defined concordia upper intercept ages around 1700 ma and nd model ages between 1 3 and 2 1 ga

thermobarometry and geotectonic significance of high pressure granulites examples from the moldanubian zone of the bohemian massif in lower austria

magnetic overprints in granitoids and metamorphic rocks from limousin france evidence for late variscan rotations crustal folding and tilting abstract generally the lack of bedding criteria in basement units hampers the interpretation of paleomagnetic results in terms of geotectonics nevertheless this work demonstrates that successive remagnetizations recorded in early carboniferous metamorphic and plutonic units without clear bedding criteria can be used to constrain a polyphased tectonic evolution consisting of a regional clockwise rotation followed by a folding phase a tilting phase and a second regional clockwise rotation metamorphic ultrabasic tonalitic and granitic rocks from different parts of limousin western french massif central 45 5 n 1 25 e which underwent metamorphism during devonian early carboniferous or were intruded in the early middle carboniferous were sampled in order a to identify the magnetic overprinting phases and the related tectono magmatic events and b to constrain the regional and plate tectonic evolution of limousin paleomagnetic results from 32 new and 26 sites investigated previously show that at least 90 of the magnetization isolated in rocks older than 330 ma are overprints in agreement with results from adjacent areas of the variscan belt the major overprinting phases occurred a in the last stages of the major exhumation phase 332 328 ma mean virtual geomagnetic pole vgp cp 37 n 70 5 e b during the post collisional syn orogenic extension 325 315 ma vgp b 11 n 114 e c in the latest carboniferous and early permian vgp a1 27 n 149 e and d in the late permian vgp a 48 n 146 e the middle late carboniferous overprints cp and b are contemporaneous with emplacement of leucogranitic crustal derived plutons and probably result from the hydro thermal activity related to the magmatism the drift from cp directions to b directions implies that after 330 ma limousin underwent a clockwise rotation by 65 together with the central europe variscides the bt components the vgps of which deviate from the mean apparent polar wander path apwp of the belt are interpreted as b overprints tilted during late variscan tectonics that is in the time range 325 315 ma the first and most important generation of bt overprints was tilted during nw se folding associated with ne sw shortening updoming and emplacement of leucogranitic plutons the second generation reveals southeastward tilting due to ne striking normal faulting the drift from b to a1 directions implies that limousin has participated to the second clockwise rotation by 40 of the whole belt in westphalian times

excess 40ar transport scale and mechanism in high pressure phengites a case study from an eclogitized metabasite of the dora maira nappe western alps application of the bulk separate furnace heating laser step heating and in situ laser agemapping 40ar 39ar techniques reveals that high pressure phengites from an alpine eclogite of the dora maira basement nappe western alps were pervasively contaminated with excess 40ar to yield ages 130 ma spot fusion dating of individual grains with the 40ar 39ar laserprobe reveals concentric radial patterns with core ages as high as 320 ma showing that this excess component was trapped at an early stage and subsequently remobilized by volume diffusion during a late greenschist thermal pulse the single grains and population from this hand sample retain major differences in apparent ages indicating that the extent of the excess 40ar contamination varies from grain to grain attempt to model these differences in terms of grain size dependent fractional loss falls short and demonstrates that strong cm scale argon isotopic gradients locally prevailed during syn kinematic high pressure metamorphism on petrostructural grounds a model of internal isotopic buffering is outlined whereby the excess 40ar is argued to have been internally derived from within the eclogite protolith itself low intergranular ar diffusion rates due to reduced water activity buffered below unity by the phengite assemblage resulted in the local segregation and partitioning of the excess 40ar along grain boundaries during ongoing ductile deformation supporting evidence for this model comes from the recent literature on fluid and stable isotope behaviour in alpine eclogites and very high pressure metasediments which shows that volatile recycling during high pressure metamorphism may occur on a very limited scale

palaeozoic granitoids from the french massif central age and origin studied by 87rb87sr system abstract according to geochronological results granitoids of the french massif central fall into two main chronological groups 1 a cambro silurian group 545 410 ma occurring all over the massif central later metamorphosed into orthogneisses during the devonian metamorphism 400 370 ma 2 an upper devonian carboniferous group 360 280 ma including non or weakly deformed granites the oldest 360 340 ma localized in the north of the massif central and the youngest 340 285 ma outcropping all over the massif geochemistry of rb sr and isotopic evolution diagram give the following results strontium initial ratios for orthogneisses increase with time from 0 704 545 ma to 0 710 410 ma excluding a purely mantellic origin of the magmas strontium initial ratios for granites show that their magmas cannot result from a remelting of orthogneisses the isotopic evolution of the leucogranitic family defines a trend originating 370 ma i e during the main metamorphic phase the source rocks of the early palaeozoic granitoids contain old zircons 1 5 2 0 ga probably originating from an earlier continental crust but the evidence of this crust is not pointed out by strontium isotopes

microfracturing and fluid mixing in granites w sn ore deposition at vaulry nw french massif central abstract the vaulry w sn mineralisation located at the eastern boundary of the blond rare metal leucogranite is contained in a set of subvertical quartz veins locally with muscovite and minor quartz selvages the sequence of deposition was 1 milky quartz predominantly as fracture filling generally affected by subsequent ductile deformation 2 hyaline quartz wolframite cassiterite 3 minor sulphides other sets of quartz veinlets although generally barren are observed in the blond massif fluid migration at the microscopic scale within the granite and in the vicinity of quartz fractures was constrained by studying the geometry of fluid inclusion planes and fluid inclusion chemistry in and outside the mineralised area three major sets of subvertical fluid inclusion planes are recognised a n050 060 e set mostly developed in the veins and in the immediate vicinity a n110 130 e set regionally developed in the granite and a n140 160 e set of local extent as a whole the density of fip decreases from the mineralised zones toward the barren part of the pluton except for the n140 160 e set these are locally abundant around quartz veinlets with similar orientations that form a broad n s band near the blond locality mineralising fluids observed as primary inclusions in cassiterite and in undeformed hyaline quartz are mostly aqueous with moderate salinity and a minor volatile component at variance with many other w sn deposits in the variscan belt ore deposition occurred around 315 c at an estimated depth of 5 5 km under hydrostatic to slightly suprahydrostatic pressures it resulted from fluid mixing in the central part of a large hydrothermal system between two end members i a hot 425 430 c moderately saline fluid that contained a diluted volatile component and although na dominated minor amounts of li and ca the estimated 18o indicates that this fluid was completely equilibrated with the tectono magmatic pile pseudo metamorphic fluid ii a cold 230 c low salinity fluid evolved meteoric water that mixed with and eventually overprinted the early moderately saline fluid responsible for granite muscovitization at 425 430 c later a second hydrothermal system was initiated by the percolation of heated meteoric water with very low salinity the system was by then at least 3 5 km deep and the fluid was heated to 300 c these characteristics are reminiscent of the ca 305 ma episyenitic hydrothermal system known elsewhere in the n limousin

zircon dating of north bohemian granulites czech republic further evidence for the lower carboniferous high pressure event in the bohemian massif u pb zircon and rutile multigrain ages and 207pb 206pb zircon evaporation ages are reported from high pressure felsic and metapelitic granulites from northern bohemia czech republic the granulites in contrast to those from other occurrences in the bohemian massif do not show evidence of successive ht mplp overprints multigrain size fractions of nearly spherical multifaceted metamorphic zircons from three samples are slightly discordant and yield a u pb concordia intercept age of 348 10 ma whereas single zircon evaporation of two samples resulted in 207pb 206pb ages of 339 1 5 and 339 1 4 ma respectively a rutile fraction from one sample has a u pb concordia intercept age of 346 14 ma all ages are identical within error and a mean age of 342 5 ma was adopted to reflect the peak of hp metamorphism because rutile has a lower closing temperature for the u pb isotopic system than zircon the results and the p t data imply rapid uplift and cooling after peak metamorphism the above age is identical to ages for high grade metamorphism reported from the southern bohemian massif and the granulite massif in saxony it can be speculated that all these granulites were part of the same lower crustal unit in early carboniferous being separated later due to crustal stacking and subsequent late variscan orogenic collapse

transpressional tectonics and carboniferous magmatism in the limousin massif central france structural and 40ar 39ar investigations new structural microstructural and 40ar 39ar data from the nw massif central france provide additional constraints on the timing and tectonic setting of late variscan granite magmatism previous studies had emphasized the role of late orogenic extension in the emplacement of granite plutons in the limousin region in contrast the new data set is consistent with syntectonic emplacement of magma in a dextral simple shear active from 350 to 300 ma in a transpressional regime as an alternative hypothesis to late orogenic extension we propose that magmas migrated into tensional bridges between active p shears associated with a lithospheric shear zone comparable to a pop up structure the galician region in the western end of the ibero armorican tectonic arc exhibits major left lateral ductile shear zones which can be interpreted as conjugate structures to the limousin and armorican shear zones citation ge belin a m brunel p monie m faure and n arnaud 2007 transpressional tectonics and carboniferous magmatism in the limousin massif central france structural and 40ar 39ar investigations

effects of progressive mylonitization on ar retention in biotites from the santa rosa mylonite zone california and thermochronologic implications the santa rosa mylonite zone developed predominantly from a granodiorite protolith in the eastern margin of the peninsular ranges batholith a wide variation in k ar biotite dates within the zone is shown to reflect the times of cooling through closure temperatures whose variability is chiefly a result of deformation induced reduction in grain size we suggest that such variation generally may be exploited to place constraints on the timing of deformation episodes previous workers have shown that deformation in the santa rosa mylonite zone involved the formation of mylonites and an imbricate series of low angle faults which divide the area into structural units field work petrographic studies and tem analysis of deformation mechanisms in biotite show that the granodiorite mylonite the lowermost structural unit formed below the granodiorite solidus the granodiorite mylonite varies from protomylonite to ultramylonite with regions of high strain distributed heterogeneously within the zone previously reported biotite and hornblende k ar dates from the granodiorite protolith below 82 89 ma and the asbestos mountain granodiorite above 61 68 ma the mylonite zone indicate dramatically dissimilar thermal histories for the lowermost and uppermost structural units other workers fission track dates on sphene zircon and apatite from the granodiorite mylonite and the asbestos mountain granodiorite suggest thermal homogenization and rapid cooling to 100 c by ca 60 ma within and adjacent to the mylonite zone k ar dates on 5 samples of biotite from variably deformed granodiorite range from 62 76 ma dates are not correlated with structural depth but clearly decrease with degree of deformation and concomitant grain size reduction 40ar 39ar incremental heating analyses of biotite from the granodiorite protolith reveals no evidence of excess argon and produces a relatively flat age spectrum 40ar 39ar incremental heating analysis of biotite from the granodiorite mylonite discloses discordance consistent with 39ar recoil loss k analysis of samples allowing k ar dates to be calculated is therefore recommended as an adjunct to 40ar 39ar step heating analysis in rocks that have experienced similar deformation during mylonitization biotite grain size reduction through intracrystalline cataclasis results in estimated grain dimensions as small as 0 05 m locally within porphyroclasts as large as 1 mm because biotite compositions are relatively uniform fe fe mg mn ti alvi 0 47 0 52 and show no systematic variation with grain size compositional dependence of activation energy and diffusivity can be eliminated as sources of variation in ar retention ar closure temperatures calculated with appropriate diffusion parameters for the observed grain sizes are in the range 220 280 c and define a cooling curve consistent with a thermal history intermediate between those of the granodiorite protolith below and the asbestos mountain granodiorite above the mylonite zone changes in the slope of the cooling curve indicate that the main deformation episode initiated at or above ca 330 c 80 ma above the closure temperature for thermally activated diffusion of argon in biotite and continued to a minimum of ca 220 260 c 62 ma

metallogenesis in the french part of the variscan orogen part i u preconcentrations in pre variscan and variscan formations a comparison with sn w and au abstract in the french part of the variscan orogen the pre variscan metamorphic rocks and the variscan granites resulting from pure crustal recycling are enriched in uranium and tin data on tungsten and gold are too scarce for a reasonable estimation of the average concentrations of these elements to be obtained the spatial distribution of uranium preconcentrations is transverse to the main variscan structural domains and the distribution of the sn w mineralizations prompts the same conclusions u sn w and au metal enrichment in crustal domains in europe seems to result from late proterozoic to early palaeozoic basic and acid magmatism for uranium at least two main stages of partial melting early palaeozoic and late carboniferous lead to enrichment of the metal in peraluminous leucogranites these leucogranites represent the main source of late variscan uranium and tin within the peraluminous granitic complexes the main metal source is related to the late intrusion of small granitic cupolas strongly enriched in metals in the case of uranium the efficiency of the hydrothermal remobilization depends on the proportion of metal located in uraninite which is easily leachable by hydrothermal solutions the emplacement of these cupolas is structurally controlled in well defined areas by large shear zones these shear zones are continuously active during the successive emplacement of the granitic magmas most of the hydrothermal uranium mineralization is related to the permian reactivation of the shear zones in a brittle stage these zones then channel the hydrothermal fluids involved in the last metal concentration step leading to the formation of the orebodies the efficiency of metal remobilization is dependent on a close spatial relationship between magmatic structures enriched in uranium and brittle structures channeling the hydrothermal fluids

isotopic study of the manaslu granite himalaya nepal inferences on the age and source of himalayan leucogranites a detailed isotopic study of the manaslu leucogranite was carried out a u pb age of 25 ma and a whole rock rb sr age isochron of 18 ma were obtained suggesting that the magmatic activity lasted at least 7 ma initial sr isotopic ratios are very high 0 740 to 0 760 and initial nd isotopic ratios are low nd in 13 to 16 and they show the existence of large isotopic variations even at the metre scale these are not the result of perturbations by fluids but rather they reflect the initial isotopic heterogeneity of the source material which has not been obliterated by magmatic processes e g fusion mixing by convection these results also support the crustal origin of this leucogranite the tibetan slab paragneisses whose sr and nd isotopic ratios are very similar to those of the granite at an age of 20 ma are the most probable parental material nd model ages for both the leucogranite and the gneisses are in the range 1 5 2 ga a model of formation of the manaslu granite by coalescence of different batches of magma is in agreement with the present data

pb loss patterns in zircons from a high grade metamorphic terrain as revealed by different dating methods upb and pbpb ages for igneous and metamorphic zircons from northern sri lanka abstract we report u pb and 207 pb 206 pb ages for multigrain fractions single grains and grain domains in zircons from highgrade igneous and sedimentary rocks of the vavuniya charnockite province vcp in northern sri lanka using the ionmicroprobe shrimp a new vapour digestion technique vdt and evaporation charnockitic enderbitic and mangeritic gneisses are derived from i type tonalitic syenitic granodioritic and granitic precursors for which the u pb systematics of zircons as determined by shrimp suggest crystallization ages between 1000 and 1100 ma many translucent round and multifacetted zircons in these rocks are not of metamorphic but of igneous origin and acquired their shape through partial zircon dissolution and recrystallization the large majority of zircons exhibit severe and variable pb loss some 540 580 ma ago which we ascribe to granulite grade metamorphism almost immediately followed by local retrogression most of the zircons lost pb from the entire grain with no domains remaining that reflect the original pb isotopic composition it was therefore impossible to obtain meaningful 207 pb 206 pb evaporation ages for such grains and this cautions against use of this method in zircons that experienced severe pb loss however zircons formed during high grade metamorphism apparently retain their primary pb isotopic composition and were dated successfully by the evaporation technique yielding ages between 553 26 and 560 30 ma conventional multigrain analysis and small fractions following vdt for two samples although much more precise than the shrimp data yielded only strongly discordant data points with patterns reflecting variable pb loss these data alone would not have made it possible to obtain reliable primary zircon crystallization ages 207 pb 206 pb evaporation ages for detrital zircons from two garnetiferous gneiss samples of sedimentary origin in the centre of the vcp revealed a maximum age of 1329 18 ma whereas a metaquartzite near the southern margin of the vcp contained zircons with 207 pb 206 pb ages between 1857 14 and 2543 14 ma we interpret the latter rock as belonging to the highland complex which occurs adjacent to the vcp our zircon data in combination with nd model ages milisenda et al 1994 suggest the vcp to be part of the wanni complex a distinct crustal domain in northern sri lanka characterized by relatively young ages in comparison with much older ages in the adjacent highland complex

rapid early miocene acceleration of uplift in the gangdese belt xizang southern tibet and its bearing on accommodation mechanisms of the india asia collision abstract five samples from a biotite hornblende granodiorite phase of the 42 5 ma quxu pluton gangdese batholith southern tibet have been collected at 250 m vertical intervals biotite from these rocks yields monotonically decreasing40ar 39ar isochron ages with decreasing elevation of 26 8 0 2 23 3 0 5 19 7 0 3 18 4 0 4 and17 8 0 1ma tc 335 c coexisting k feldspars have virtually identical minimum apparent40ar 39ar ages of 17 0 0 4ma tc 285 c these data indicate parts of southern tibet experienced a pulse of uplift in the early miocene with the rate of uplift rising from 0 07 to 4 4 mm year in the interval 20 to 17 ma an apatite fission track age of 9 9 0 9ma from this locality constrains the average uplift rate at this site to about 0 81 mm year between 17 and 9 9 ma and 0 30 mm year from 9 9 ma to present k feldspar from the dagze granite 30 km to the east near lhasa yields a minimum apparent40ar 39ar age of 35 9 0 9ma tc 227 c which indicates an average uplift rate there of 0 21 mm year since then the marked pulse of uplift of the quxu granodiorite and the difference in uplift history between the dagze and quxu plutons suggests southern tibet has experienced discrete pulses of uplift variable in both space and time these data are not consistent with models which require a large proportion of uplift of the tibetan plateau to have occurred in the last 2 ma the data support the suggestion that convergence between india and asia was largely accommodated by tectonic escape during the opening of the south china sea 32 to 17 ma ago and permit distributed shortening as a mechanism for crustal thickening and uplift of this part of the tibetan plateau subsequent to 20 ma

whole grain evaporation for 207 pb 206 pb age investigations on single zircons using a double filament thermal ion source a technique has been developed and tested to analyse 207pb 206pb apparent ages by thermal evaporation of radiogenic lead directly from untreated whole zircon grains 0 3 mm the evaporation analyses are performed in the double filament arrangement of a thermal ion mass spectrometer thims the method is a powerful tool to distinguish between different lead components occurring in the same grain because differing activation energies of the competing lead components cause their sequential evaporation from the zircons the evaporation of test samples results in 207pb 206pb apparent ages in good agreement with u pb ages known from literature single zircons from a granite of the marble mountains california yield an age of crystallization of 1 410 30 ma ceylon zircons from heavy mineral bearing gravels yield 560 40 ma as age of crystallization of the pegmatitic gravel sources individuals from a heterogeneous zircon population of a diatexite from the southern schwarzwald sw germany indicate metamorphic zircon formation around 500 ma and the existence of middle proterozoic relics 1 95 0 05 ga

uranium metallogenesis of the peraluminous leucogranite from the pontivy rostrenen magmatic complex french armorican variscan belt the result of long term oxidized hydrothermal alteration during strike slip deformation in the french armorican variscan belt most of the economically significant hydrothermal u deposits are spatially associated with peraluminous leucogranites emplaced along the south armorican shear zone sasz a dextral lithospheric scale wrench fault that recorded ductile deformation from ca 315 to 300 ma in the pontivy rostrenen complex a composite intrusion the u mineralization is spatially associated with brittle structures related to deformation along the sasz in contrast to monzogranite and quartz monzodiorite 3 3 the leucogranite samples are characterized by highly variable u contents 3 to 27 ppm and th u ratios 0 1 to 5 suggesting that the crystallization of magmatic uranium oxide in the more evolved facies was followed by uranium oxide leaching during hydrothermal alteration and or surface weathering u pb dating of uranium oxides from the deposits reveals that they mostly formed between ca 300 and 270 ma in monzogranite and quartz monzodiorite apatite grains display magmatic textures and provide u pb ages of ca 315 ma reflecting the time of emplacement of the intrusions in contrast apatite grains from the leucogranite display textural geochemical and geochronological evidences for interaction with u rich oxidized hydrothermal fluids contemporaneously with u mineralizing events from 300 to 270 ma infiltration of surface derived oxidized fluids leached magmatic uranium oxide from fertile leucogranite and formed u deposits this phenomenon was sustained by brittle deformation and by the persistence of thermal anomalies associated with u rich granitic bodies

a two stage exhumation in western french massif central new geochronological evidences of syn collisional extension abstract systematic 40ar 39ar dating of granitoids and surrounding metamorphic rocks has been performed in the limousin area w of french massif central in order to provide new constrains concerning its late orogenic thermal and tectonic evolution the same 40ar 39ar age of ca 335 338 ma is found on the present day outcrop surface for most of the limousin metamorphic rocks hence indicating that the entire massif was uniformly cooled down at this period these ages are very close to the 40ar 39ar ages proposed in the sioule and brevenne areas in the literature but also to the coupled tectonic and magmatic activity in the south limousin these results help to document the existence of two exhumation stages each one associated with an extensional stage a first exhumation stage has been active at ca 335 340 ma available data indicate that this extension and associated exhumation and cooling occurred over a distance of more than 200 km in the internal zones of the belt whereas compression was still active in the northern and southern parts of the belt a second exhumation stage may be related to the late orogenic extension and collapse of the belt at ca 310 305 ma and is characterized by the uplift of the st sylvestre complex by unroofing of the overlying metamorphic and granitoidic formations

chronology of early archaean granite greenstone evolution in the barberton mountain land south africa based on precise dating by single zircon evaporation abstract we report precise 207 pb 206 pb single zircon evaporation ages for low grade felsic metavolcanic rocks within the onverwacht and fig tree groups of the barberton greenstone belt bgb south africa and from granitoid plutons bordering the belt dacitic tuffs of the hooggenoeg formation in the upper part of the onverwacht group yield ages between 3445 3 and 3416 5 ma and contain older crustal components represented by a 3504 4 ma old zircon xenocryst fig tree dacitic tuffs and agglomerates have euhedral zircons between 3259 5 and 3225 3 ma in age which we interpret to reflect the time of crystallization a surprisingly complex xenocryst population in one sample documents ages from 3323 4 to 3522 4 ma we suspect that these xenocrysts were inherited during the passage of the felsic melts to the surface from various sources such as greenstones and granitoid rocks now exposed in the form of tonalite trondhjemite plutons along the southern and western margins of the bgb and units predating any of the exposed greenstone or intrusive rocks several of the granitoids along the southern margin of the belt have zircon populations with ages between 3490 and 3440 ma coeval with or slightly older than onverwacht felsic volcanism while the kaap valley pluton along the northwestern margin of the belt is coeval with fig tree dacitic volcanism these results emphasize the comagmatic relationships between greenstone felsic volcanic units and the surrounding plutonic suites some of the volcanic and plutonic units contain zircon xenocrysts older than any exposed rocks these indicate the existence of still older units possibly stratigraphically lower and older portions of the greenstone sequence itself older granitoid intrusive rocks or bodies of older unrelated crustal material our data show that the onverwacht and fig tree felsic units have distinctly different ages and therefore do not represent a single tectonically repeated unit as proposed by others unlike the late archaean abitibi greenstone belt in canada which formed over about 30 ma exposed rocks in the bgb formed over a period of at least 220 ma the complex zircon populations encountered in this study imply that conventional multigrain zircon dating may not accurately identify the time of felsic volcanic activity in ancient greenstones a surprising similarity in rock types tectonic evolution and ages of the bgb in the kaapvaal craton of southern africa and greenstones in the pilbara block of western australia suggests that these two terrains may have been part of a larger crustal unit in early archaean times

40ar 39ar and 18o 16o studies of the chegem ash flow caldera and the eldjurta granite cooling of two late pliocene igneous bodies in the greater caucasus mountains russia volcanic and intrusive rocks of the chegem caldera and the nearby eldjurta eldzhurtinskiy granite record a late pliocene episode of silicic magmatism in the north central caucasus mountains surface exposures created by the recent rapid uplift and erosion of the caucasus mountains span a 2 km vertical section of chegem caldera fill and 1150 m of the eldjurta granite cored mineral exploration drillholes in the eldjurta granite extend the sampling to a depth of 4 km the unique sampling range available in these two young igneous bodies affords an excellent opportunity to study their denudation and cooling histories which we examine by means of 40 ar 39 ar and 18 o 16 o measurements on an extensive sample suite total fusion biotite and sanidine ages from eight chegem tuff samples both intracaldera and outflow are analytically indistinguishable with a weighted mean of 2 82 0 02 ma a cross cutting granodiorite porphyry intrusion has a sanidine total fusion age of 2 84 0 03 ma and whole rock incremental heating of a post caldera andesite flow which caps the caldera fill yields an age of 2 82 0 02 ma thus caldera formation and post caldera resurgence and volcanism all occurred within a very short time 50 000 yr biotite total fusion ages of ten eldjurta granite samples including seven from 500 m intervals in the 4 km deep drillhole show a systematic linear decrease in age with depth from 1 90 ma near the roof contact of the granite to 1 56 ma at a depth of 3700 m assuming these ages were set at the same temperature this age depth gradient implies an isotherm migration rate of 13 mm yr between 1 90 and 1 56 ma this migration rate is due to a combination of rapid denudation and downward relaxation of isotherms with cooling rates between 200 and 500 c ma during this period oxygen isotopic compositions of quartz k feldspar plagioclase and biotite from the drillhole samples below the 800 m depth are fairly uniform and record primary igneous 18 o values with little evidence for subsolidus hydrothermal activity however in surface outcrop samples and in the shallowest drillhole sample mineral 18 o values have been lowered by up to 3 by interaction with an external meteoric hydrothermal fluid the primary mineral 18 o values of the eldjurta granite are distinctly higher than the corresponding phenocryst 18 o values in the chegem volcanic rocks indicating that the two bodies evolved as separxate magma batches

late orogenic carboniferous extensions in the variscan french massif central the variscan french massif central experienced two successive stages of extension from middle carboniferous to early permian in the northern massif central the first stage began in the late visean immediately after nappe stacking and is well recorded by namurian westphalian synkinematic plutonism the middle carboniferous leucogranites widespread in the nw massif central limousin and sioule area were emplaced within a crust extending along a ne sw direction at the same time the hanging wall or gueret extensional allochton moved toward the se several examples of the synextensional plutonism are also recognized in central limousin saint mathieu dome la porcherie and cornil leucogranites these examples illustrate the relationship between granite emplacement and crustal scale deformation characterized by nw se stretching and ne sw shortening in the central and southern massif central cevennes ch taigneraie and margeride areas plutonism is dominantly granodioritic and exhibits the same structural features nw se maximum stretching and overturning to the se middle carboniferous namurian westphalian extension was parallel to the variscan belt both in the massif central and southern armorican area this extensional regime was active from the late visean in the north while compression dominated in the southernmost domains montagne noire and pyrenees the second extensional stage occurred from late carboniferous to early permian this event was responsible for the opening of intramontane coal basins brittle deformation in the upper crust and ductile normal faulting localized on the margin of cordierite granite migmatite domes data from the coal basins show that the half graben is the dominant structural style except for basins located along submeridianal left lateral faults which have pull apart geometries late carboniferous extension occurred along the ne sw direction the ne sw maximum stretching direction can be found in the whole massif central but is more developed in the eastern part the extensional direction is transverse to the general trend of the belt and top to the ne shearing is dominant correlations of these two extension directions with neighboring variscan massifs are discussed

meta igneous origin of hercynian peraluminous granites in n w french massif central implications for crustal history reconstructions seventy samples of hercynian peraluminous granites gueret millevaches and saint sylvestre massifs and metamorphic units of the limousin area were analysed for rb sr and sm nd the source rocks of the peraluminous granites can be found in the metamorphic rocks of limousin among them meta igneous rocks were largely predominent over meta sedimentary rocks in the source of the three granites millevaches and gueret granites were generated by the partial melting of rocks comprising meta volcanics and meta sediments whereas the saint sylvestre granite was produced exclusively by the melting of late precambrian granites this leads to confusing t dm nd values the confusion being amplified by the segregation of monazite during the petrogenetic evolution of the peraluminous granites which leads to dramatic fractionation in sm nd ratios the data of the present study tend to demonstrate that peraluminous granites do not give a good representation of isotopic mean crustal estimates late precambrian time seems however to have been a period of extensive crustal generation in western europe

5 late variscan mineralizing systems related to orogenic processes the french massif central abstract the french massif central constitutes an exceptional study area due to the diversity of its metallic deposits its internal position in the variscan belt and the abundance of available geological geophysical and metallogenic data obtained within the geofrance 3d programme the deposits formed towards the end of the orogenic evolution represent the economic products of two distinct mineralizing systems a au sb hydrothermal system and a w sn and rare metals magmatic hydrothermal system which were simultaneously active during a short time span between ca 310 and 300 ma two types of gold deposit can be distinguished on the basis of their depth of emplacement deep seated gold deposits developed under lithostatic to hydrostatic pressure during rapid exhumation and shallow gold deposits emplaced under hydrostatic pressure with no significant uplift deposits of w sn and rare metals were emplaced in the upper crust during final crystallization of specialized magmas after their rapid ascent perhaps enhanced by simultaneous regional uplift the gold bearing systems are associated with a complex network of re activated crustal scale faults initially active during the period between 335 and 315 ma normal motion along the faults coeval with 335 to 315 ma granite migmatite domes played a major role in the 3d distribution of the hydrothermal plumbing system gold and related metals were carried within huge hydrothermal cells which reached ca 100 km by 10 km in area and 30 km in depth in contrast granites rich in magmatophile elements w sn rare metals generated smaller hydrothermal cells 10 km by 10 km in area and

mineralogical chemical and isotopic u pb method studies of hercynian uraniferous mineralizations margnac and fanay mines limousin france abstract mineralogical and chemical studies of pitchblendes pyrites and coffinites from the margnac and fanay mines limousin france indicate that chemical exchanges between uraniferous solutions and vein wall rocks are reflected in the chemical compositions of pitchblendes an age of 276 ma is given for the primary pitchblende pyrite association by the u pb method isotopic analysis of pb in galena crystallized during coffinitization of pitchblende gives an interval of 6 ma between pitchblende precipitation and its remobilization as coffinite analyses by electron microprobe indicate that this hydrothermal transformation affects more or less all the pitchblende spherulites even if the volume of coffinite is low this leads to si enriched pitchblende and explains the systematic age of 270 ma obtained by pb pb and concordia diagrams a mineralogically undetected remobilization stage is also found in some samples at 170 175 ma finally this work specifies the life time 20 30 ma of the geothermal system which is considered to be responsible for the episyenitization of the two mica granite the precipitation of pitchblende and its remobilization as coffinite

geochemical comparison between himalayan and hercynian leucogranites abstract isotopic sr pb nd o ree and trace element data from three himalayan nepal and six hercynian brittany france leucogranites are compared for the himalayan granites makulu mustang and especially manaslu the 87sr 86sr versus 87rb 86sr scatter diagrams and hence variability of the initial 87sr 86sr ratios reflect heterogeneity of the source materials these ratios are very high 0 730 0 770 for manaslu the very high 207pb 204pb ratios 15 8 at the corresponding 206pb 204pb ratio of 18 8 the very low 143nd 144nd ratios i nd 13 to 17 and the very high 18o 16o ratios 12 confirm the crustal origin with the paragneisses of the tibetan slab formation i as the probable parent source for the six hercynian granites with an individual rb sr isochron established for many of them the initial 87sr 86sr ratios range from 0 706 to 0 717 the lead neodymium and oxygen isotope compositions confirm their crustal source of presumably palaeozoic age but not specifically identified the rare earth patterns and thorium contents are comparable to those for himalayan granites the similarities of the geochemical signatures isotopes and trace elements of the himalayan and hercynian leucogranites suggest that the petrogenetic processes were comparable and that the himalayan continental collision model can be applied to the hercynian the depletion in ree and th implies either interaction of the granitic liquids with fluid or more probably early precipitation of monazite the increase in sm nd in the granites compared to their parent materials implies that the neodymium model ages of primary mantle extraction are maximum rather than minimum ages in contrast to the hercynian leucogranites the extremely radiogenic sr of the himalayan leucogranites reflects the very long crustal residence time before the melting event the apparent uniformity of the initial 87sr 86sr ratios of the individual hercynian granites may be related to an aging effect where the straight line fitting improves with increase in age of the pluton