exhumation of the dora maira ultrahigh pressure unit by buoyant uprise within a low viscosity mantle oblique slip shear zone the brossasco isasca subunit biu of the dora maira massif is currently the only known continental crustal ultrahighpressure uhp unit in the western alps the peak pressure temperature conditions are 3 5 4 5 gpa 730 c exhumation from 3 5 gpa to 1 gpa occurred within 2 2 1 8 ma but the exhumation mechanism is incompletely understood we present a conceptual model for the buoyancy driven exhumation of the biu inside a low viscosity dense mantle shear zone weakened by increased strain rates due to simultaneous strike slip and subduction oblique slip of the european plate two dimensional thermo mechanical models simulate such a buoyant uprise of an ellipse inside an inclined layer simulations i show the feasibility of the conceptual model ii fit the pressure temperature time record and iii constrain effective viscosities the model is compatible with the i small volume of continental crustal uhp rock in the western alps ii minor erosion during exhumation and iii strike slip deformation during the exhumation period

metasomatic replacement in the skaergaard intrusion east greenland preliminary observations abstract several unusual types of replacement structures in the layered series and marginal border series of the skaergaard intrusion indicate that metasomatic changes have altered the modal proportions and in places the mineral composition of the gabbro the geometrical forms and compositional patterns of these features indicate that they result from reactive fluids moving through the rocks at high temperatures shortly after the magma had reached an advanced stage of crystallization the principal effect of metasomatism has been to produce strongly contrasting mafic and felsic rocks

numerical modelling of arc continent collision application to taiwan two dimensional finite element numerical modelling is applied to study the deformation and failure of the overriding plate during arc continent collision continental margin subduction this plate has elasto plastic rheology with strain weakening and contains a volcanic arc with thinned and weakened lithosphere the overriding plate deforms due to the normal and tangential stresses applied along the interplate surface these boundary conditions represent the friction and pressure between the plates the latter is due to the flexural rigidity of the subducting lithosphere and the buoyancy force generated by the subducting continental crust the modelling shows that continental margin subduction results in increasing compression and failure of the overriding plate which occurs along the surface dipping under the arc in either of two possible directions the failure mode is largely controlled by the two competitive factors the rigidity of the subducting plate and thickness gradient of the subducted continental crust a high rigidity favors failure along an ocean vergent fault which is followed by a subduction reversal while a high thickness gradient favors failure in the opposite direction which is followed by a fore arc block underthrusting beneath the arc both scenarios seem to have natural analogs we consider one of them the ongoing arc continent collision in taiwan and argue that this process occurs according to the second scenario corresponding to the fore arc underthrusting wavelet statistical analysis of the seismicity distribution to the south of taiwan has clearly displayed a shallow 0 40 km zone of high density coherently distributed seismicity beneath the luzon arc this zone interpreted as a lithospheric scale fault dips from the forearc basin to the east and corresponds to the initiation of the forearc block subduction a self consistent combined mechanical gravity topography model is used to see whether failure of the overriding plate to the south of taiwan can be captured by this model by tuning diverent controlling parameters we did not succeed in obtaining realistic topography and gravity field in a model where failure of the overriding plate was not allowed introduction of this failure and underthrusting of the forearc block under the luzon arc allowed us to fit both topography and gravity data 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

regional flow perturbation folding within an exhumation channel a case study from the cycladic blueschists abstract kilometre scale cylindrical folds and associated parasitic folds that trend at small angles to the transport lineation are analysed along a 100 km long transport normal segment of the cycladic blueschists in an attempt to reconstruct the 3d structural architecture within an exhumation channel reversals in the polarity of both fold vergence and the hinge lineation obliquity occur in a flow normal direction defining transport parallel culmination and depression surfaces that root downwards onto an underlying detachment fold patterns generated around culmination and depression surfaces support models of flow perturbation folding where folds initiate at small angles or sub parallel to transport in response to wrench dominated differential shearing successive culmination and depression surfaces are separated from one another by along strike distances of 20 km although atypical fold geometries developed in the flanks of major culmination and depressions follow their own patterns revealing that smaller perturbations occur within the larger scheme major culminations are interpreted to reflect regions of surging flow marked by increased velocity during exhumation whilst the opposite is true for depressions this behaviour implies that on a regional scale differential shear varies laterally in an irregular sinusoidal manner defining areas of relative high and relative low displacement within the exhumation channel

exhumation of eclogites insights from depth time path analysis abstract literature data on geochronology and pressure temperature estimates have been used to assess the depth time paths for high pressure units in the alps and the variscan belt these depth time paths consistently show that exhumation rates decrease through time the first stages of the exhumation are rapid 1 mm yr 1 and last less than a few million to a few tens of million years in contrast the final 10 20 km ascent to the surface is at least one order of magnitude slower for the deepest and most important part of the exhumation trajectory the chronology of the retrogressive metamorphism excludes gravitational collapse as the major driving force material balance and structural arguments also exclude isostatically assisted erosion processes prism dynamics and tectonically assisted erosion are the most likely mechanisms accounting for the kinetics of exhumation isostasy assisted erosion and shallow level extension are nevertheless required to eventually bring the high pressure rocks to exposure

estimates of modern arc parallel strain rates in fore arcs deflections of slip vectors of interplate thrust earthquakes from expected directions are used to estimate arc parallel strain rates within the overriding plates at the world9s major convergent plate margins arc parallel extension strain rates between 10 8 yr and 10 7 yr and significant at 2 standard deviations are observed in the fore arcs of the aegean aleutian mariana sumatran southern kuriles new hebrides scotia and southern central american lat 8 to 12 n subduction zones and the himalayas northern chile lat 17 to 31 s and central america lat 11 to 18 n show arc parallel compression available geologic and geodetic estimates of fore arc slip and strain rates agree within a factor of two with slip vector estimates arc parallel strain in fore arcs is rapid enough to produce geologically significant effects such as unroofing of high grade metamorphic rocks and disruption of transported fore arc terranes fore arcs deform even where convergence is perpendicular to curved margins demonstrating that head on subduction can produce a three dimensional strain field

3d stochastic inversion of gravity data using cokriging and cosimulation a new application has been developed based on geostatistical techniques of cokriging and conditional simulation for the 3d inversion of gravity data including geologic constraints the necessary gravity density and gravity density covariance matrices are estimated using the observed gravity data then the densities are cokriged or simulated using the gravity data as the secondary variable the model allows noise to be included in the observations the method is applied to two synthetic models a short dipping dike and a stochastic distribution of densities then some geologic information is added as constraints to the cokriging system the results show the ability of the method to integrate complex a priori information the survey data of the matagami mining camp are considered as a case study the inversion method based on cokriging is applied to the residual anomaly to map the geology through the estimation of the density distribution in this region the results of the inversion and simulation methods are in good agreement with the surface geology of the survey region

occurrence and petrological significance of graphite in the upper critical zone western bushveld complex south africa abstract graphite occurs as a major rock forming constituent in pyroxenitic pegmatites near the platiniferous merensky reef in the western bushveld it is associated with amphibole biotite low k phyllosilicates chlorite sulphides and platinum group minerals rhass irass locally rocks with up to 80 graphite occur chlorine is a significant constituent in both hydrous silicates 0 1 0 3 cl and graphite 0 2 1 9 magnetite and quartz also occur with the above association this facilitates estimation oft 500 600 c andfo2 10 21 to 10 23 bar during graphite deposition which took place from c o h s fluids at an oxygen fugacity in the vicinity of qmf in equilibrium with maximum h2o mole fraction the latter accounts for the widespread association of graphite with hydrous silicates there is evidence for buffering offo2 of the melt by fluid phase this process may be more widespread than hitherto assumed c o h s fluids are considered instrumental not only in the formation of graphite rich pegmatites and associated mineralization but also in the genesis of pothole depressions and in the general development of stratiform pegmatites such as the merensky reef in layered igneous complexes

ultrahigh pressure minerals and metamorphic terranes the view from china abstract ultrahigh pressure uhp metamorphism refers to mineralogical modifications of continental and oceanic crustal protoliths associated mafic ultramafic rocks initially formed or emplaced in shallow levels of the lithosphere but which subsequently have experienced p t conditions within or above the coesite stability field 2 7 gpa 700 c typical products include eclogite garnet peridotite and uhp varieties of metapelite quartzite marble paragneiss and orthogneiss uhp metamorphic assemblages require relatively cold lithospheric subduction to mantle depths some recrystallization even occurs under forbidden p t conditions characterized by a geotherm of the current explosion of research on continental uhp terranes reflects their significance for mantle dynamics and the tectonics of continental subduction collision exhumation mantle slab interactions and geochemical recycling a further characterization of uhp phases and positive identification of uhp minerals requires new experimental studies coupled with state of the art analyses for example the very rare occurrence of microdiamond inclusions in zircons from dabie sulu uhp rocks may reflect high f o 2 attending recrystallization inasmuch as epidote is rather common rutile needles within garnets from sulu uhp eclogitic rocks may not be the result of exsolution so in such cases the apparent uhp pressure may have been over estimated hadean igneous microdiamond inclusions in jack hills detrital zircons could have originated from mantle xenoliths whereas abundant detrital phanerozoic diamonds containing inclusions of coesite and other eclogitic minerals from new south wales might have been derived from unexposed uhp metamorphic terranes micro mineral intergrowth and nano size minerals may hold important key to deciphering the actual p t paths of subduction and mantle return flow although most exhumed terranes have returned surfaceward relatively rapidly after short time of uhp condition the long duration of storage at great depth and slow exhumation for the largest uhp terranes remain as major problems

stochastic reservoir characterization using prestack seismic data reservoir characterization must be based on information from various sources well observations seismic reflection times and seismic amplitude versus offset avo attributes are integrated in this study to predict the distribution of the reservoir variables i e facies and fluid filling the prediction problem is cast in a bayesian setting the a priori model includes spatial coupling through markov random field assumptions and intervariable dependencies through nonlinear relations based on rock physics theory including gassmann s relation the likelihood model relating observations to reservoir variables including lithology facies and pore fluids is based on approximations to zoeppritz equations the model assumptions are summarized in a bayesian network illustrating the dependencies between the reservoir variables the posterior model for the reservoir variables conditioned on the available observations is defined by the a priori and likelihood models this posterior model is not analytically tra

investigations of the stillwater complex part v apatites as indicators of evolving fluid composition variations in the f cl and oh contents of apatite are not constrained by crystal chemical factors in contrast to micas and amphiboles and thus changes in the abundance of these components provide an indicator of halogen fugacity variations and insights into the degassing history of igneous rocks microprobe analysis of intercumulus apatites from the stillwater complex reveal that cl rich apatites typically containing 6 0 wt cl occur throughout the lower 1 3 of the complex excluding the basal series a change from cl rich to more f rich apatite occurs within olivine bearing zone i ob i of the banded series the host zone of the platiniferous j m reef although apatite compositions are somewhat variable above the j m reef more f rich apatites predominante and typically contain 1 2 wt f and 3 0 wt cl the most f rich apatites occur in the uppermost exposed cumulates pristine apatites from coeval sills and dikes from below the complex and from the basal series are similarly f rich in all apatites the cl and f contents are lower in rocks affected by later metamorphic fluids rare earth element ree concentrations in chlorapatites show a marked peak in the olivine rich rocks of the j m reef and contain up to 2 wt ce2o3 la2o3 the trend of first increasing then decreasing cl f ratios with stratigraphic height is modeled by a vapor driven zone refining process occurring within the cumulate pile causing cl enrichment in the interstitial melt accompanied by degassing at the top of the magma chamber causing overall loss of cl from the magma as crystallization proceeded the abrupt change from cl rich to more f rich apatites within ob i is interpreted as the result of a breakdown of the cl rich zone refining front and mixing with cl poor supernatant melt any high temperature fluids that exsolved and circulated through the lower 1 3 of the complex must have been enriched in cl and could have transported ree and trace metals

fore arc deformation at the transition between collision and subduction insights from 3 d thermomechanical laboratory experiments 1 three dimensional thermomechanical laboratory experiments of arc continent collision investigate the deformation of the fore arc at the transition between collision and subduction the deformation of the plates in the collision area propagates into the subduction collision transition zone via along strike coupling of the neighboring segments of the plate boundary in our experiments the largest along strike gradient of trench perpendicular compression does not produce sufficiently localized shear strain in the transition zone to form a strike slip system because of the fast propagation of arc lithosphere failure deformation is continuous along strike but the deformation mechanism is three dimensional progressive along strike structural variations arise because coupling between neighboring segments induces either advanced or delayed failure of the arc lithosphere and passive margin the modeling results suggest that orogenic belts should experience deeper subduction of continental crust and hence higher pressure metamorphism where the two plates first collided than elsewhere along the plate boundary where collision subsequently propagated furthermore during the initial stage of collision the accretionary wedge is partially subducted which leads to lubrication of the interplate zone and a reduction of shear traction therefore a large convergence obliquity angle does not produce a migrating fore arc sliver rather the pressure force generated by subduction of the buoyant continental crust causes fore arc motion it follows that convergence obliquity during collision does not yield trench parallel deformation of the fore arc and its influence on the collision process is limited however convergence obliquity may control the geometry of the active margin during the oceanic subduction stage prior to collision and inherited structures may influence the propagation mechanism

discordant iron rich ultramafic pegmatites in the bushveld complex and their relationship to iron rich intercumulus and residual liquids the iron rich ultramafic pegmatites comprise a suite of coarse grained rocks that form discordant bodies within the layered sequence of the bushveld complex these pegmatites which are considerably more abundant than is generally realized provide evidence for the differentiation of iron rich residual melts the pegmatites are composed largely of iron rich olivine and clinopyroxene together with ti magnetite and ilmenite feldspar is characteristically absent but paradoxically the pegmatites preferentially replace anorthositic cumulates two subgroups are recognized olivine clinopyroxene pegmatite and fe ti oxide pegmatite with increased stratigraphic height the pegmatites become richer in fe ti oxides thus olivine clinopyroxene pegmatite is prevalent in the upper critical and lower main zones whereas fe ti oxide pegmatite is restricted to the upper main and upper zones zoned pegmatite with a core of fe ti oxide pegmatite is transitional between the two subgroups new whole rock and electron microprobe analyses of olivine clinopyroxene pegmatite from the upper critical and lower main zones provide convincing evidence that their composition is directly related to height cryptic compositional variations are analogous to those displayed by the layered cumulates but for a given height the pegmatites are always more evolved compositions of clinopyroxene in the pegmatites reflect a near linear relationship with height whereas cumulus pyroxenes display upward iron enrichment trends complicated by replenishment and reaction with trapped intercumulus liquid the olivine clinopyroxene pegmatite formed by magmatic replacement of earlier formed cumulates in response to infiltration of iron rich melts suitably differentiated melts comprised intercumulus and residual liquids derived from thick anorthosite layers the absence of feldspar although not fully understood is attributed to an immiscible relationship between dense iron rich melts and light silica alkali rich liquids the latter infiltrated upward to be reincorporated into the resident magma the iron rich melts however drained down into the crystallizing cumulate pile channelling along early formed fractures and joints was significant locally resulting in huge pipe like bodies of pegmatite the iron rich melts became increasingly differentiated with height partly in response to the fractional crystallization of more evolved cumulates the olivine clinopyroxene pegmatites are related to infiltration of fe ti oxide rich silicate melt whereas fe ti oxide pegmatite is ascribed to fe ti oxide liquid as originally argued by bateman 1951 the bushveld complex followed the fenner trend of almost uninterrupted iron enrichment evidence of pronounced iron enrichment is however manifested in the discordant iron rich ultramafic pegmatites several thousands of metres below the height at which iron rich cumulates are observed

monazite geochronology of uhp and hp metamorphism deformation and exhumation nordoyane western gneiss region norway u th pb monazite geochronology is combined with previous structural analysis and quantitative estimates of metamorphic conditions to date the thermotectonic evolution of uhp and hp plates 820 c 39 kbar 780 c 18 kbar metamorphosed during the late silurian early devonian collision between baltica and laurentia the upper plate contains a microdiamond bearing kyanite garnet graphite gneiss and associated kyanite eclogites independently indicating probable diamond forming conditions in situ dating of monazite in the microdiamond sample using the shrimp ii at the geological survey of canada yielded ages of 415 6 8 ma for those included in garnet and 398 6 ma for those in the matrix these ages compare to 408 0 5 6 and 397 5 4 4 ma determined using the electron microprobe at the university of massachusetts both methods also identified complexly zoned detrital cores up to 150 micrometers in diameter with ages of 1100 950 ma and scattered grains with ages of 900 500 ma but no ages of 1680 1650 ma equivalent to the local baltica basement were found agreement between the two techniques allowed evaluation of monazite age domains 198 analyses from the microdiamond rock and a kyanite garnet sillimanite mylonite produced from it using a combination of high resolution element imaging and trace element analysis of u th pb and y this comparison yielded three mean ages of 407 0 2 1 ma 394 8 2 3 ma and 374 6 2 7 ma combining this geochronology with previous p t estimates we propose that the uhp unit reached its maximum depth of 125 km at a maximum age of 407 ma when monazite was included in garnet and experienced 65 km of exhumation at an average rate of 10 9 mm year during top southeast thrusting that brought it into contact with the hp unit following these events both units were exhumed together at an average rate of 3 8 mm year until reaching a depth of 37 km at 395 ma where these rocks experienced extensive re equilibration and top west and left lateral shearing after 395 ma these units continued to be exhumed at an average rate of 0 8 to 1 4 mm year until 375 ma the time of last equilibration of asymmetric monazite porphyroclasts in the mylonite the exhumation histories of these units record a change in mechanism from syncollisional exhumation through late to post orogenic collapse that was a consequence of plate reorganization

halogen variations in the paleoproterozoic layered mafic ultramafic intrusions of east kimberley western australia implications for platinum group element mineralization a number of paleoproterozoic layered mafic ultramafic intrusions in the central part of the halls creek orogen of east kimberley western australia have been explored for platinum group elements chromium nickel copper cobalt and gold here we report on the halogen geochemistry of apatite and biotite in a number of these intrusions interstitial apatite is ubiquitous in these intrusions and in most samples tends to be relatively enriched in f and oh end members and relatively poor in cl 20 mole fluorapatite occurs in the more evolved igneous rocks and in samples from the margins of the intrusions that apparently have been contaminated by metamorphic country rock cl f ratios generally increase with bulk rock molar mg mg fe ratios as observed in other intrusions only a few samples show cl enrichment as high as that seen in the stillwater and bushveld complexes beneath the major stratabound platinum group element deposits the most cl rich compositions observed occur in the upper part of the springvale intrusion where it is associated with troctolite and in a single sample from the mcintosh intrusion for the former intrusion it is suggested that volatiles migrating out of the lower part of the mafic stratigraphy stabilized olivine at the expense of pyroxene associated biotite tends to contain little no more than 10 mole cl or f it is concluded that the east kimberley intrusions contained a low to moderate volatile component that during the combined processes of crystallization degassing and fractionation of interstitial halogen bearing minerals produced a late mobile interstitial silicate liquid or volatile rich fluid phase of variable cl f content that in turn caused most of the observed variations within any given intrusion the exceptions include the margins of the intrusions that appear to have been affected by country rocks either during emplacement assimilation or during later metamorphism apatite s generally low cl f ratio the lack of primary amphibole and the high background sulfur concentrations of the east kimberley intrusions suggest that these magmas were relatively volatile poor the development of high grade platinum group element enriched horizons by late stage hydrothermal processes that could have mobilized significant amounts of the platinum group elements and sulfur is considered to be unlikely

tectonic evolution of the tancheng lujiang tan lu fault via middle triassic to early cenozoic paleomagnetic data the north striking tancheng lujiang tan lu fault is a conspicuous and controversial feature of the eastern asian landscape near the southeast extremity of the fault in anhui province we collected paleomagnetic samples at 17 middle triassic t2 and 10 upper cretaceous k2 to lower cenozoic e1 sites t2 remanent magnetizations are interpreted as primary in two of three areas the three areas are rotated 37 to 137 counterclockwise with respect to the south china block scb reference direction k2 e1 remanent magnetization directions pass regional fold and reversals tests and are not rotated with respect to surrounding areas counterclockwise rotation of t2 strata therefore ended before k2 and is attributed to left lateral shear acting along tan lu during the north china block ncb scb collision in shandong province 700 km north of the anhui sites four areas containing 33 upper jurassic j3 and cretaceous sites have negligible declination differences except for one which has dispersed directions the fold test is inconclusive for this latter area and positive for the other three regional concordance of the j3 e1 paleomagnetic data including paleolatitudes together with observed deformation patterns suggest that an extensional regime prevailed in the late cretaceous and cenozoic euler pole positions that constrain the north south china collision and account for tan lu motion suggest at least 500 km of sinistral shear took place along the fault and either 1 subduction and related ultrahigh pressure uhp metamorphism occurred near the present location of the qinling dabieshan and sulu uhp belts while tan lu acted as a transform fault that connected the two subduction zones or 2 tan lu and sulu were parts of the same transform fault system and no uhp rocks formed in situ at sulu in either case uhp rocks originally exhumed near dabieshan could have been transported by plate capture toward sulu along tan lu after north and south china impacted near dabieshan the tan lu fault grew within the scb as the dabieshan corner indented the scb causing folds in scb cover rocks to conform to the ncb margin late cretaceous to cenozoic reactivation of tan lu with both right lateral strike slip and normal fault motion occurred as the scb extruded east relative to the ncb under the influence of the india asia collision

multiple zircon growth during fast exhumation of diamondiferous deeply subducted continental crust kokchetav massif kazakhstan diamondiferous rocks from the kokchetav massif kazakhstan represent deeply subducted continental crust in order to constrain the age of ultra high pressure uhp metamorphism and subsequent retrogression during exhumation zircons from diamondiferous gneisses and metacarbonates have been investigated by a combined petrological and isotopic study four different zircon domains were distinguished on the basis of transmitted light microscopy cathodoluminescence trace element contents and mineral inclusions mineral inclusions and trace element characteristics of the zircon domains permit us to relate zircon growth to metamorphic conditions domain 1 consists of rounded cores and lacks evidence of uhp metamorphism domain 2 contains diamond coesite omphacite and titanian phengite inclusions providing evidence that it formed at uhp metamorphic conditions p 43 kbar t 950 c domain 3 is characterised by low pressure mineral inclusions such as garnet biotite and plagioclase which are common minerals in the granulite facies overprint of the gneisses p 10 kbar t 800 c this multi stage zircon growth during cooling and exhumation of the diamondiferous rocks can be best explained by zircon growth from zr saturated partial melts present in the gneisses domain 4 forms idiomorphic overgrowths and the rare earth element pattern indicates that it formed without coexisting garnet most probably at amphibolite facies conditions p 5 kbar t 600 c the metamorphic zircon domains were dated by shrimp ion microprobe and yielded ages of 527 5 528 8 and 526 5 ma for domains 2 3 and 4 respectively these indistinguishable ages provide evidence for a fast exhumation beyond the resolution of shrimp dating the mean age of all zircons formed between uhp metamorphic conditions and granulite facies metamorphism is 528 3 ma indicating that decompression took place in less than 6 ma hence the deeply subducted continental crust was exhumed from mantle depth to the base of the crust at rates higher than 1 8 cm year we propose a two stage exhumation model to explain the obtained p t t path fast exhumation on top of the subducted slab from depth 140 to 35 km was driven by buoyancy and facilitated by the presence of partial melts a period of near isobaric cooling was followed by a second decompression event probably related to extension in a late stage of continental collision

generalized compact gravity inversion extending the compact gravity inversion technique by incorporating a priori information about the maximum compactness of the anomalous sources along several axes provides versatility thus the method may also incorporate information about limits in the axes lengths or greater concentration of mass along one or more directions the judicious combination of different constraints on the anomalous mass distribution allows the introduction of several kinds of a priori information about the arbitrary shape of the sources this method is particularly applicable to constant linear density sources such as mineralizations along faults and intruded sills dikes and laccoliths in a sedimentary basin the correct source density must be known with a maximum uncertainty of 40 percent otherwise the inversion produces thicker bodies for densities smaller than the true value and vice versa because of the limitations of the inverse gravity problem the proposed technique requires an empirical technique to analyze the sensitivity of solutions to uncertainties in the a priori information the proposed technique is based on a finite number of acceptable solutions presumably representative of the ambiguity region by using standard statistical techniques each parameter is assigned a coefficient measuring its uncertainty the known hematite and magnetite ore body shape in the vicinity of iron mountain mo was reproduced quite well using this inversion technique

subduction versus accretion of intra oceanic volcanic arcs insight from thermo mechanical analogue experiments we perform thermo mechanical laboratory experiments designed to explore the behaviour of the volcanic arc during intra oceanic arc continent collision following oceanic subduction and subsequent back arc opening the overriding oceanic lithosphere is made of two layers representing the oceanic crust and the lithospheric mantle this lithosphere carries a volcanic arc and is thinned and weakened beneath both the arc and the back arc basin the subducting plate contains three parts one layer oceanic and two layer crust and mantle continental lithosphere with a continental margin between them when the continental margin reaches the trench and starts subducting the overriding plate undergoes growing horizontal compression and finally fails in the vicinity of the back arc spreading centre which is the weakest part of this plate the failure can result in subduction of the whole arc plate comprised between the trench and the back arc spreading centre during subduction of the arc plate the mantle part of this plate subducts completely while the behaviour of the arc crust depends on its thickness and strength which is a function of composition and temperature we tested four cases with different arc crust thicknesses and composition rheology with total lithosphere thickness in the arc being constant three types of tectonic evolution have been obtained complete arc subduction complete arc accretion and partial arc subduction accretion the result is largely controlled by the crustal thickness of the arc a thin arc thickness equivalent to v16 km in nature made of the same strong material as the oceanic crust subducts completely without leaving any trace at the surface on the contrary a thick arc equivalent to v26 km in nature made of the same material is scraped off and accreted to the overriding plate the lower crust of such an arc is hotter therefore its strength at moho depth and coupling between crust and mantle are small in addition the thick arc has a high isostatic relief and hence a greater mechanical resistance to subduction therefore the arc is scraped off if the arc is made of a weaker continental like material or contains a weak layer low friction interface it is completely or partially scraped off even if it is small when there is no back arc opening before collision no thin and weak lithosphere in the rear of the arc the overriding plate fails in the arc area which may result in a complete fore arc block subduction with the volcanic arc remaining at the surface the obtained models are compared with mountain belts with nearly no trace of arc activity oman with accreted arc kohistan and with small remnants of subducted arc southern tibet 2003 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

geochemistry and mineralogy of the platreef and critical zone of the northern lobe of the bushveld complex south africa implications for bushveld stratigraphy and the development of pge mineralisation the northern lobe of the bushveld complex is currently a highly active area for platinum group element pge exploration this lobe hosts the platreef a 10 300 m thick package of pge rich pyroxenites and gabbros that crops out along the base of the lobe to the north of mokopane formerly potgietersrus and is amenable to large scale open pit mining along some portions of its strike an early account of the geology of the deposit was produced by percy wagner where he suggested that the platreef was an equivalent pge rich layer to the merensky reef that had already been traced throughout the eastern and western lobes of the bushveld complex wagner s opinion remains widely held and is central to current orthodoxy on the stratigraphy of the northern lobe this correlates the platreef and an associated cumulate sequence that includes a chromitite layer known as the grasvally norite pyroxenite anorthosite gnpa member directly with the sequence between the ug2 chromitite and the merensky reef as it is developed in the upper critical zone of the eastern and western bushveld implicit in this view of the magmatic stratigraphy is that similar critical zone magma was present in all three lobes prior to the development of the merensky reef and the platreef however when this assumed correlation is examined in detail it is obvious that there are significant differences in lithologies mineral textures and chemistries mg of orthopyroxene and olivine and the geochemistry of both rare earth elements ree and pge between the two sequences this suggests that the prevailing interpretation of the stratigraphy of the northern lobe is not correct the critical zone of the northern lobe cannot be correlated with the critical zone in the rest of the complex and the simplest explanation is that the gnpa platreef sequence formed from a separate magma or mixture of magmas chilled margins of the gnpa member match the estimated initial composition of tholeiitic main zone type magma rather than a critical zone magma composition where the gnpa member is developed over the ultramafic lower zone hybrid rocks preserve evidence for mixing between new tholeiitic magma and existing ultramafic liquid this style of interaction and the resulting rock sequences are unique to the northern lobe the gnpa member contains at least seven sulphide rich horizons with elevated pge concentrations some of these are hosted by pyroxenites with similar mineralogy crystallisation sequences and pd rich pge signatures to the platreef chill zones are preserved in the lowest main zone rocks above the gnpa member and the platreef and this suggests that both units were terminated by a new influx of main zone magma this opens the possibility that the platreef and gnpa member merge laterally into one another and that both formed in a series of mixing quenching events involving tholeiitic and ultramafic magmas prior to the main influx of tholeiitic magma that formed the main zone

three dimensional stochastic assimilation of gravity data in lalor volcanogenic massive sulphide manitoba canada we propose a new numerical workflow based on stochastic data integration where we merge a conceptual geological model drillhole geophysical and geological logs and surface geophysical data to com

joint inversion of surface and three component borehole magnetic data the inversion of magnetic data is inherently nonunique with respect to the distance between the source and observation locations this manifests itself as an ambiguity in the source depth when surface data are inverted and as an ambiguity in the distance between the source and boreholes if borehole data are inverted joint inversion of surface and borehole data can help to reduce this nonuniqueness to achieve this we develop an algorithm for inverting data sets that have arbitrary observation locations in boreholes and above the surface the algorithm depends upon weighting functions that counteract the geometric decay of magnetic kernels with distance from the observer we apply these weighting functions to the inversion of three component magnetic data collected in boreholes and then to the joint inversion of surface and borehole data both synthetic and field data sets are used to illustrate the new inversion algorithm when borehole data are inverted directly three component data are far more usefu

new results from physical modelling of arc continent collision in taiwan evolutionary model abstract both the analysis of the geological data and the results from 2d and 3d experimental modelling of arc continent collision in taiwan reveal the following major stages in this process 1 failure and thickening of the subducting crust of the chinese continental margin under the frontal part accretionary prism of the philippine sea plate psp since ca 6 7 ma 2 uplift squeezing and exhumation of the subducted crustal slice of the chinese margin and initiation of the central range about 5 ma ago 3 flexural buckling subsidence of the luzon arc fore arc under strong horizontal compression and sedimentary infilling of this area by the material shed from the growing and exhuming central range 4 failure of the psp along the west vergent longitudinal valley fault dipping beneath the arc and closure of the fore arc 5 subduction reversal and stoppage of continental subduction which has already occurred in northern taiwan and propagates to the south the southward propagation of the collision is not stationary currently occurring initial collision in southern taiwan and offshore to the south does not follow the same described above evolution as in central and northern taiwan the evolution of the collision in time and space should be considered in the framework of a 3d model where the psp rupture is preparing in the central and northern taiwan during a long time passing through a number of evolutionary stages once it has occurred the rupture longitudinal valley fault rapidly propagates to the south into the domain which did not undergo the pre rupture evolution the rupture front is currently located near 21 30 n

oblique plate convergence slip vectors and forearc deformation slip vectors from thrust earthquakes at subduction zones where convergence is oblique to the trench often point between the directions of relative plate convergence and normal to the trench axis suggesting that oblique convergence is taken up by partial decoupling decoupling means that a component of arc parallel motion of the leading edge of the upper plate results in less oblique thrusting at the trench partial decoupling is modeled by partitioning of oblique convergence into slip on thrust and strike slip faults that are parallel to the trench and to each other and starting with a force equilibrium condition a relationship between the obliquity and the earthquake slip vector orientation is derived assuming that either fault slips when shear stress on it reaches a yield stress oblique slip parallel to the plate vector should occur on the thrust fault when obliquity is smaller than a critical angle for obliquity at or greater than this angle the stress on the strike slip fault is large enough to start it slipping and when both faults are active the arc parallel motion of the forearc deflects the slip vector back toward the trench normal if we assume that continued slip on either fault occurs at constant stress but the two faults can be at different stresses the slip vector will maintain a constant angle relative to the trench normal even when obliquity is larger than the critical angle this limiting angle of the slip vector called max measured relative to the trench normal is simply the arcsine of the ratio of the shear forces resisting slip on the strike slip and thrust faults a consequence is that when the obliquity exceeds max the slip vectors on the thrust fault are sensitive only to the thrust fault orientation and contain no information about the convergence direction between the plates slip vectors at the java trench southwest of sumatra show the relationship clearly with max 20 5 while slip vectors at the aleutian trench show the relationship less clearly with max 25 to 45 the greater angle at the aleutian trench suggests that the upper plate is stronger in the aleutian arc relative to the thrust fault than in the sumatran arc consistent with the sumatran arc being continental and having a well developed strike slip fault while the aleutian arc is oceanic and without a clear transcurrent fault slip vectors at the philippine trench which like sumatra has a large strike slip fault inboard of it tend to stay within 25 of the trench normal when obliquity is as large as 50 if obliquity exceeds max and continues to increase along a subduction zone the rate of motion of the forearc relative to the upper plate will vary with obliquity in which case the forearc sliver should extend or contract parallel to the arc from the geometry of modern island arcs arc parallel extension should be the more common and has been hypothesized for both sumatra and the aleutians on the basis of earthquake slip vectors and for these and other arcs from geological observations from estimates of max and the arc parallel gradients in obliquity arc parallel strain rates are estimated to be 1 to 3 10 8 yr for the sumatran forearc 2 to 6 10 8 yr for the aleutian forearc and 0 3 to 3 10 8 yr for the philippine forearc oblique convergence and subsequent arc parallel extension if accompanied by crustal thinning may provide an important yet little appreciated mechanism for bringing high grade metamorphic rocks to the surface of subduction complexes

continental subduction and exhumation of high pressure rocks insights from thermo mechanical laboratory modelling abstract thermo mechanical physical modelling of continental subduction is performed to investigate the exhumation of deeply subducted continental crust the model consists of two lithospheric plates made of new temperature sensitive analogue materials the lithosphere is underlain by liquid asthenosphere the continental lithosphere contains three layers the weak sedimentary layer the crust made of a stronger material and of a still stronger lithospheric mantle the whole model is subjected to a constant vertical thermal gradient causing the strength reduction with depth in each lithospheric layer subduction is driven by both push force and pull force during subduction the subducting lithosphere is heating and the strength of its layers reduces the weakening continental crust reaches maximal depth of about 120 km and cannot subduct deeper because its frontal part starts to flow up the subducted crust undergoes complex deformation including indicated upward ductile flow of the most deeply subducted portions and localised failure of the subducted upper crust at about 50 km depth this failure results in the formation of the first crustal slice which rises up between the plates under the buoyancy force this process is accompanied by the delamination of the crustal and mantle layers of the subducting lithosphere the delamination front propagates upwards into the interplate zone resulting in the formation of two other crustal slices that also rise up between the plates average equivalent exhumation rate of the crustal material during delamination is about 1 cm year the crust asthenosphere boundary near the interplate zone is uplifted the subducted mantle layer then breaks off removing the pull force and thereby stopping the delamination and increasing horizontal compression of the lithosphere the latter produces shortening of the formed orogen and the growth of relief the modelling reveals an interesting burial exhumation evolution of the sedimentary cover during initial stages of continental subduction the sediments of the continental margin are dragged to the overriding plate base and are partially accreted at the deep part of the interplate zone at 60 70 km depth these sediments remain there until the beginning of delamination during which the pressure between the subducted crust and the overriding plate increases this results in squeezing the underplated sediments out part of them is extruded upwards along the interplate zone to about 30 km depth at an equivalent rate of 5 10 cm year

trace based and geostatistical inversion of 3 d seismic data for thin sand delineation an application in san jorge basin argentina argentina s san jorge basin which straddles the southern provinces of chubut and santa cruz in the heart of patagonia has been producing hydrocarbons since 1907 the region currently accounts for 32 of the country s production the existence and early geologic evolution of the basin is due to the same rift process responsible for the opening of the atlantic ocean in early jurassic times extensive direct faulting and local erosion accompanied the rift evolution thereby facilitating the accumulation of chiefly nonmarine terrigenous sediments well into the early cretaceous at this point andean tectonism became a major source of pyroclastic concentration in the sedimentary column it was also responsible for pervasive batholitic intrusions clastic deposition in the hydrocarbon producing zone is characterized by thick shale laminations of lacustrine and floodplain origin interspersed with much thinner and laterally sparse sand bodies the hydrocarbon reservoirs

divergence in subduction zones and exhumation of high pressure rocks eocene western alps abstract exhumation of high pressure rocks has long remained a controversial issue in the earth sciences in this article we analyze the tectono metamorphic stratigraphic and plate motion constraints from the western alps region providing new insights on exhumation mechanisms and tectonic evolution during the earliest orogenic stages eocene eclogites of the western alps form a 20 25 km wide belt on the upper plate side of the orogen eclogite belt exposed beneath extensional shear zones at the rear of a lower pressure accretionary wedge units of the eclogite belt show the youngest peak pressure assemblages within the subduction zone and experienced superfast tectonic exhumation since 45 40 ma the role of erosion was negligible during the whole of this stage eocene foreland basins remained starved and the massive arrival of axial belt detritus began well after exhumation was completed tectonic reconstructions based on fixed boundaries exhumation models e g channel flow and or implying fast erosion at the surface e g slab breakoff are thus not consistent with geological evidence in the lack of erosion exhumation through the overburden requires divergence within the subduction zone we demonstrate that this was not attained by rollback of the lower plate europe but was instead attained by nneward motion of the upper plate adria africa away from the western alps trench such motion induced localized extension within the weak portion of the upper plate at the rear of the accretionary wedge and allowed tectonic emplacement of the eclogite belt in the upper crust at rates much faster than subduction rates tectonic exhumation ceased in the oligocene when oblique divergence along the western alps traverse changed into oblique convergence the onset of slow erosional unroofing was synchronously recorded by pressure temperature paths in all major tectonic units of the western alps and by arrival of orogenic detritus in sedimentary basins this work demonstrates that divergence between upper plate and trench is a viable mechanism to exhume large and coherent eclogite units in continental subduction zones our exhumation model can be applied to other eclogite belts showing a similar exhumational record including the western gneiss region the dabie sulu and eastern papua new guinea

transition from subduction to collision recorded in the pan african arc complexes mali to ghana abstract the 1000 km long suture zone of the dahomeyide belt exposed from southeast ghana to south mali corresponds to a narrow and lithologically diverse area with symptomatic coronitic hp granulitic massifs based on a review of published petrological geochemical and geochronological data along the dahomeyide belt we propose a global scenario for the closure of the pharusian ocean between the west african craton wac and the benino nigerian shield during the end of the neoproterozoic the onset of a long lived oceanic subduction by 800 780 ma is recorded by early magmatism in the amalaoulaou intra oceanic arc in mali contemporary to the gourma and adrar des iforas to the north and in brazil to the south the first occurrence of tonalitic plutons dated at 720 ma and the development of a forearc system around 650 ma mark the onset of active margin subduction beneath the benino nigerain shield and its northward prolongation in mali oceanic subduction beneath the active margin ended between 640 and 630 ma with the onset of subduction of the wac continental margin while subduction related magmatism continues till ca 600 ma on the upper plate during a short period between 620 and 610 ma the forearc system and the tip of the active continental margin were buried synchronously the positive bouguer anomaly observed to the east of the suture zone in benin and not beneath the suture zone itself supports the occurrence of a massive mafic body at the base of the crust that could correspond to the underplated buried forearc ultimately the exhumation and partial amphibolitization of the suture zone and a shift from a calc alkaline magmatism to anatectic magmatism along with the onset of strike slip faulting in the upper plate marks the transition from continental subduction to continental collision between 610 and 580 ma this work highlights the importance of the pharusian suture zone s l to our knowledge it represents a unique example in the world in where the forearc system is buried and partly exhumed at the transition from subduction to collision

tectonics of the dabieshan eastern china and possible exhumation mechanism of ultra high pressure rocks the dabieshan is divided into three tectonic domains the southern dabieshan is a stack of allochtons from top to bottom i unmetamorphosed cambrian early triassic series unconformably covered by jurassic sandstone ii weakly metamorphosed proterozoic slate iii hp rocks mostly retrogressed into greenschist facies iv uhp allochton v uhp free gneisses these units exhibit a nw se lineation and top to the nw shearing reworked by s verging folds the central dabieshan is a migmatitic dome superimposed on uhp metamorphism and bounded by a detachement fault responsible for the exhumation of the uhp unit during its retrogression into amphibolite facies in the northern dabieshan early foliation and n s trending compressional lineation are deformed by n verging folds coeval to the syn exhumation ductile structures of the central dabieshan a geodynamic model involving coeval thrusting and normal faulting is discussed

role of oblique convergence in the active deformation of the himalayas and southern tibet plateau noting similarities with subduction along curved oceanic trenches and using a simple block model we show that radial vergence evident in earthquake slip vectors along the himalayan deformation front east west extension on north trending normal faults in the himalayas and southern tibet and right lateral strike slip on the karakorum jiali fault zone can all result from basal shear caused by the indian plate sliding obliquely beneath tibet along a gently dipping arcuate plate boundary within the framework of this mechanism the normal faults in the himalayas and southern tibet are not proxies for the uplift history of tibet the distribution and style of the faults in the himalayas and southern tibet suggest that the basal drag from the underthrusting indian lithosphere extends northward beneath most of southern tibet

the petrogenesis of a platiniferous dunite pipe in the bushveld complex infiltration metasomatism by a chloride solution the driekop dunite pipe crosscuts part of the noritic layered sequence of the upper critical zone in the eastern bushveld complex the central orebody of the pipe contains platinum group minerals base metal sulfides magnetite and iron rich olivine the country rock forms a collapse structure around the pipe with the layered sequence becoming almost vertical near the contact with the pipe it is proposed that a high temperature chloride solution flowed through irregular channel ways along a structural weakness near the axis of the pipe and reacted with the noritic host rocks leading ultimately to the formation of dunite reaction fronts advanced at different rates outward from the channelways and produced a sequence of metasomatic zones characteristics of infiltration metasomatism that are evident in the pipe include the movement of material over large distances in predominantly one direction the formation of a monomineralic rock the occurrence of a marginal zone that is enriched by displaced components and plateaus in the compositions of mineral solid solutions the reactions responsible for the major changes in the bulk composition of the host rocks were desilication of orthopyroxene to produce olivine and dissolution of plagioclase the 67 percent volume loss accompanying these reactions can account for the structural collapse of the critical zone around the pipe some olivine in the pipe is too fayalitic to have been produced by simple desilication of host rock orthopyroxene the enrichment of olivine in iron can take place bymg 2 sio 4 2fecl sub 2 sub aq fe 2 sio 4 2mgcl sub 2 sub aq forsterite fayalite aqueous chloride complexes are also believed to have played an important role in the transport and precipitation of the platinum group elements the base metals and other cations interdependent chemical reactions involving a chloride solution olivine magnetite and the platinum group elements can account for the preferential association of the ore with iron rich olivine infiltration metasomatism by a high temperature chloride solution may have an important bearing on the interpretation of other features of the bushveld complex

thrusting and extension in the southern dora maira ultra high pressure massif western alps view from below the coesite bearing unit the dora maira ultra high pressure uhp unit exposed in the internal western alps is a 1 km thick continental slice sandwiched between lower pressure rock units the contact at the base of the uhp unit is a major contractional shear zone that thrust the uhp unit and the overlying continental and oceanic units onto the sanfront pinerolo unit the latter metamorphosed under blueschist greenschist conditions is the lowest structural unit exposed in the western alps our analysis indicates that all rock units of the dora maira massif were sheared and juxtaposed together within a top to the sw large scale medium temperature low pressure ductile shear zone in the middle crust thrust faulting was accompanied and followed by vertical thinning that progressively reduced the thickness of the orogenic wedge and brought the ultra high pressure uhp unit into the brittle crust contractional tectonic contacts in the southern dora maira were concealed by late extensional structures the majority of the extensional structures postdated the emplacement of the uhp unit over the sanfront pinerolo unit implying that extension lagged behind much of the exhumation of the uhp unit extensional shear zones in the dora maira and elsewhere in the western alps are parallel to the strike of the orogen their overall effect was to widen the orogenic belt in the north east south west direction the sense of extensional movement was toward the frontal part of the orogen so that rather than defining tectonic wedges formed during extrusion the extensional structures represent lateral spreading of the mid to upper crust of the internal western alps toward the foreland rapid compression of the dora maira was coeval with the transition from marine flysch deposits to molasse sedimentation in the foreland of the western alps the switchover from burial to exhumation and the lateral spreading of the upper crust in the internal western alps were coupled by readjustment of the entire orogenic wedge

petrology and mineral compositions of the middle banded series of the stillwater complex montana the two olivine beating zones of the middle banded series of the stillwater complex are characterized by an increase in the number of cumulus minerals with height in each anorthosite and anorthositic troctolite dominate the lower part whereas olivine gabbro and gabbronorite form much of the upper portions electron microprobe analyses of cumulus minerals indicate little or no variation of average mineral compositions with height in addition no significant lateral variations in cumulus mineral compositions occur along 8 km of section plagioclase from throughout these zones shows the complex reverse and oscillatory zpnation patterns also seen in plagioclase from the thick 500 m anorthosites that sandwich the zones the data suggest that the entire middle banded series is genetically related and therefore requires models for the origin of the thick anorthosites to also explain the olivine bearing rocks between them however textural features such as discordant troctolites pegmatoids slump structures and variably developed mineral laminations and chemical features such as zpnation in clinopyroxene produced by intergranular exchange with orthopyroxene and large within sample variations in the mg number of olivine in lowolivine troctolites indicate that significant modification of these rocks by postcumulus processes has taken place thereby obscuring evidence of their genesis

shear zone controlled post magmatic ore formation in the huangshandong ni cu sulfide deposit nw china abstract the huangshandong ni cu sulfide deposit located in the kangguer jing erquan ductile shear zone belongs to the jueluotage island arc belt in eastern tianshan of the central asian orogenic belt the huangshandong mafic ultramafic pluton which has a fusiform shape is believed to have intruded strongly foliated late carboniferous volcanic rocks during the development of the regional ductile shear zone some orebodies in the deposit show intense ductile deformation among them the no 17 orebody is entirely controlled and hosted by the ductile shear zone host rocks and ores from this orebody show intense deformation and alteration and could be called ore mylonites furthermore numerous anastomosing veinlets can be observed in copper rich carbonate sulfide veins in the ductile shear zone geological field investigation and ore petrography studies indicate that sulfide ores at huangshandong are composed of three types undeformed magmatic ores deformed magmatic ores and hydrothermal overprinted ores magmatic ores with net fabrics remain unaltered and undeformed and sulfide minerals in them show only brittle fractures silicate and sulfide minerals in deformed magmatic ores are characterized by intense deformation fabrics examples for such fabrics are kink bands wavy extinction of uralite domino structure of phlogopite and elongated grains of pyrrhotite and pentlandite hydrothermal overprinted ores are characterized by strong deformation flattened grains and recrystallization of pyrrhotite moreover annealing of pyrrhotite is frequently observed pyrrhotite pentlandite and chalcopyrite in hydrothermal overprinted ores have high ni and co concentrations in pyrrhotite a higher ni concentration in pentlandite and high ag and cd concentrations respectively we attribute ni and co in fluid overprinted ores mainly to the alteration of olivine and the dissolution of primary chalcopyrite is the likely source of copper in chalcopyrite rich hydrothermal overprinted ores during the intruding and cooling of the huangshandong pluton intense regional ductile shearing caused the ductile deformation of sulfide ores in the deposit and subsequently ore mylonites were formed gangue minerals in the deformed orebodies were crushed to fine grained minerals and altered to serpentine chlorite and uralite during these processes fluid and ore elements were released and reacted with deformed rocks and ores forming anastomosing veinlets on hydrothermal overprinted ores

the emplacement of the peridotite nappe of new caledonia and its bearing on the tectonics of obduction the peridotite nappe of new caledonia is one of the few ophiolites worldwide that escaped collisional orogeny after obduction here we describe the deformation associated with serpentinization in two klippes of the nappe in northwestern new caledonia the klippes are flat lying and involve s sw vergent reverse slip shear zones which are true compressional structures in origin further northeast the nappe is folded in association with the development of a steep schistosity in low grade metasediments this difference in structural style indicates that the peridotite nappe experienced compression at greater depths toward its root zone suggesting a push from the rear mechanism of emplacement this supports the view that the nappe has been emplaced through horizontal contraction sustained by plate convergence we establish a crustal scale cross section at the end of the obduction event before neogene extension this involves a large fold nappe of high pressure rocks bounded from below by a major thrust furthermore we show that obduction in new caledonia occurred through dextral oblique convergence oblique convergence probably resulted from the initial obliquity between the subduction trench and the continental ribbon that became incorporated in it this obliquity can solve the paradox of the peridotite nappe seemingly being emplaced at the same time the high pressure rocks were exhumed oblique convergence together with focused erosional denudation on the northeastern flank of the island led to exhumation of the metamorphic rocks in a steep fold nappe rising through the rear part of the orogen

the lac des iles complex ontario petrology and platinum group elements mineralization in an archean mafic intrusion the lac des iles complex is a late archean mafic to ultramafic complex that is host to 20 4 106 t pt pd and au mineralization with an average grade of 6 34 g t platinum group elements pge the 30 km2 complex located in the wabigoon subprovince consists of several coalescing mafic to ultramafic intrusive centers the complex is emplaced into early gneissic tonalite and is contemporaneous with late granitoids the magmatic evolution of the complex reflects the emplacement of multiple pulses of previously fractionated magma some of which underwent subsequent in situ fractionation distinct magma sequences are recognized on the basis of intrusive relationships differences in the cumulus minerals crystallization order and trace element chemistry these sequences are 1 hornblende gabbro 2 gabbro and gabbronorite and 3 ultramafic where there is evidence of intrusive relations the most primitive sequences are emplaced late and occur toward the north end of the complex microprobe analyses in

evolutionary model of the himalaya tibet system geopoem based on new modelling geological and geophysical data a two dimensional thermo mechanical laboratory modelling of continental subduction was performed the subducting continental lithosphere includes a strong brittle upper crust a weak ductile lower crust and a strong upper mantle the lithosphere is underlain by a low viscosity asthenosphere subduction is produced by a piston push force and the pull force from the mantle lithospheric layer which is denser than the asthenosphere the lithospheric layers are composed of material whose strength is sensitive to and inversely proportional to temperature throughout the experiment the model surface was maintained under relatively low temperature and the model base at higher temperature the subduction rate satisfied the peclet criterion modelling confirms that the continental crust can be deeply subducted and shows that slab break off delamination and tectonic underplating are fundamental events with drastic consequences on the subsequent evolution of the convergent system combining these results with previous purely mechanical modelling we elaborate a new evolutionary model for the himalaya tibet convergent system the principal successive stages are 1 subduction of the indian continental lithosphere to 200 250 km depth following subduction of the tethys oceanic lithosphere 2 failure and rapid buoyancy driven uplift of the subducted continental crust from ca 100 km depth to some depth that varies along the mountain belt 20 30 km on average 3 break off of the indian subducted lithospheric mantle with the attached oceanic lithosphere 4 subduction underplating of the indian lithosphere under asia over a few to several hundred kilometers 5 delamination roll back and break off of the indian lithospheric mantle 6 failure of the indian crust in front of the mountain belt formation of the main central thrust and underthrusting of the next portion of indian lithosphere beneath tibet for a few hundred kilometers at the beginning of stage 6 the crustal slice corresponding to the crystalline himalayas undergoes erosion activated uplift and exhumation fl 2000 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

role of extensional tectonics in exhumation of eclogites and blueschists in an oblique subduction setting northeastern venezuela eclogites and blueschists in northeastern venezuela belong to a mid to late cretaceous subduction complex fore arc terrane related to right oblique subduction of the proto caribbean plate beneath the farallon plate along the leeward antilles volcanic island arc these rocks were metamorphosed at high pressures and subsequently underwent retrogradation at decreasing pressures but at constant or slightly increasing temperatures they underwent five phases of deformation three synmetamorphic and two postmetamorphic the major principal extensions x axes of each of the three synmetamorphic deformations are subparallel to the volcanic arc the extension parallel to the arc and the associated exhumation and uplift of the subduction complex fore arc terrane may have resulted primarily from an increase of the arc parallel displacement rate of this terrane caused by an increase of obliquity of plate convergence

impact of arc continent collision on the conditions of burial and exhumation of uhp lt rocks experimental and numerical modelling abstract a 2 d physical and finite element numerical modelling of arc continent collision was performed to study the deformation and failure of the overriding lithosphere the experimental technique allowed us to model the whole subduction collision process from oceanic subduction to deep subduction of the continental crust with the numerical approach we have modelled the deformation of the overriding plate only through initial stages of its failure and studied the influence of different parameters on this process the results obtained by both techniques are coherent and mutually complementary they show that the failure of the overriding plate is physically quite plausible or even inevitable during subduction the conditions for such a failure the weakening of this plate are prepared during oceanic subduction the weakening occurs due to the interaction between the subducting lithosphere and the asthenosphere in the mantle corner between the two plates and due to back arc spreading in oceanic subduction zones with a compressional regime no back arc opening thick and strong back arc lithosphere the weakest zone is volcanic arc area when weakening becomes sufficient during subduction the lithosphere fails in this area the failure occurs along a fault dipping under the arc in either of two possible directions and results either in subduction reversal or subduction of the fore arc almost half of the presently active subduction zones are characterised by a tensional subduction regime with back arc spreading in such subduction zones the weakest place is not the volcanic arc but the back arc spreading centre when a subduction regime changes from tensional to compressional failure occurs in the vicinity of the extinct spreading centre this process can occur during oceanic subduction again along either a trench vergent or trenchward dipping fault but the formation of a trench verging fault is most likely in this latter case which is a principal subject of our study the failure is followed by partial subduction of the arc plate complete subduction occurs during arc continent collision subduction of the continental margin when tectonic compression of the lithosphere increases rapidly and becomes sufficient to push the arc plate into the mantle the arc itself can be subducted completely or be partially or completely scraped off and accreted a deeply subducted material including continental margin is preserved at relatively low temperatures between the lithospheric mantle and the cold subducted arc plate to about 150 km depth subduction of the arc plate is a major phenomenon which affects all processes associated with continental subduction from deep burial and hp lt metamorphism to exhumation of subducted material does this process occur in nature future investigations will allow us to answer this question in this paper we analyse the conditions of emplacement of a very young oceanic lithosphere samail ophiolite on the continental crust in oman in the late cretaceous and argue that this lithosphere formed in a back arc basin it reached and overthrust the arabian continent after complete subduction of the arc plate

re os isotope and pd ru variations in chromitites from the critical zone bushveld complex south africa abstract rhenium osmium isotope measurements of selected chromitites from the critical zone of the bushveld igneous complex reveal that a significant component of radiogenic os was present in the magma when it formed 2 06 ga ago measured 187 os 188 os ratios increase with stratigraphic height and individual layers have similar values across the complex initial 187 os 188 os ratios for chromitites from the western bushveld decrease from 0 140 at the lg to 0 129 at the mg2 chromitite increasing to 0 153 at the ug2 chromitite the inflection at mg2 mg3 is the boundary between the lower and upper critical zone consistent with previous mineralogical and geochemical studies indicating a shift in magma composition at this point chromite separates have os values of 12 35 at 2 06 ga and are too radiogenic for a purely mantle derivation assimilation of 5 mafic granulitic lower crust in a tholeiitic parent magma can explain the radiogenic values pd ru ratios for the intergranular and chromite separate components of each layer differ by orders of magnitude but relative shifts from layer to layer are similar combined with the re os data the results suggest that pge were concentrated into chromitites by magmatic or early deuteric processes that were specific to each layer post layering upward mobilization of pge by hydrothermal processes probably did not play a significant role in pge enrichment

reconnaissance isotopic investigations on rocks of an undeformed granite contact within the coesite bearing unit of the dora maira massif abstract recent research on ultrahigh pressure rocks in val gilba and the brossasco area has revealed the complete textural preservation of large volumes of a premetamorphic granite together with its former contact aureole that was subducted to depths of 100 km as indicated by coesite pseudomorphs petrographic studies indicate that although most minerals have been affected by metamorphism biotite and potassium feldspars in the rock are largely preserved except for thin peripheral rimming of biotite by phengite and garnet rb sr analyses on seven biotite samples fail to produce a valid isochron indicating either incomplete resetting or inheritance of radiogenic sr during metamorphism ar ar data from two biotites likewise yield very irregular patterns that are consistent with an episode of severe ar loss from a pre alpine parent rock followed later by addition of inherited radiogenic ar the biotite rb sr and k ar systems have therefore been extensively disturbed during alpine metamorphism in spite of the largely unaltered appearance of the crystals in thin sections attempts to measure u pb ages with apatite also failed although the geochronological studies yielded no reliable ages pb and sr ratios from four potassium feldspar samples are within the ranges found in known hercynian rocks providing new evidence that hercynian rocks played a prominent role as source materials for the dora maira rocks sr ratios from two apatite samples agree closely with the potassium feldspar values the ratios are also substantially lower than those found in the whiteschists in completely recrystallized rocks at parigi ca 3 km north of the present rocks these results indicate that the undeformed rocks in val gilba brossasco area are less disturbed by alpine ultrahigh pressure metamorphism thereby preserving the record of the protoliths somewhat better than do the completely recrystallized rocks at parigi to the north the pb and sr isotope data further show that the minerals of the undeformed rocks failed to reach isotopic equilibrium despite subduction to 100 km and heating to 700 c

compositional convection in a reactive crystalline mush and melt differentiation fractional crystallization and partial melting involve relative motion of liquid and solid phases and chemical and thermal interactions between them to elucidate some physical principles of thermosolutal convection in a reactive porous medium we describe experiments on the directional solidification of aqueous ammonium chloride solutions the addition of small amounts of a polymerizing agent permits variation of the solution viscosity independently of thermal conditions the phase diagram and permeability solutions were cooled from below and crystallization developed at the base of the tank generating at first a field of thin plumes of light residual fluid released from the boundary layer at the top of the mush the interstitial fluid within the mush also became unstable eventually the onset of convection occurring when the porous medium rayleigh number of the mush reached a critical value this threshold value was found to be 25 at low initial superheat and to decrease with increasing superheat local thermodynamic equilibrium between crystals and liquid within the mush coupled the evolution of temperature composition and porosity convective motions locally caused dissolution and precipitation and hence fluctuations of porosity developed dissolution occurred preferentially in the central parts of upwellings and the upflow gradually focused being ultimately channelized into narrow chimneys devoid of crystals all else being equal the areal density of chimneys was greater the lower the viscosity chimney diameter increased with increasing solution viscosity in the liquid above the growing mush the convective plumes were very similar to salt fingers depending on solution viscosity and temperature gradient they exhibited a phenomenon of collective instability such that vertical motion was disrupted by wave instabilities the base plate temperature chosen was above the eutectic and hence the total amount of crystals at the end of experiments with the same initial composition and the same final temperature was a constant fixed by the phase diagram the spatial distribution of crystals and the final porosity of the mush were however determined by the strength of compositional convection as measured by the porous medium rayleigh number when no convection occurred mush thickness finally became equal to the initial layer thickness and the system was homogeneous when compositional convection occurred the overlying reservoir underwent chemical evolution and mush growth slowed dramatically in experiments with progressively lower solution viscosity and hence more vigorous convection final mush thickness was progressively less and final porosity lower final mush thickness was found to scale with solution viscosity to the power 0 33 during fractional crystallization of magma the effects of compositional convection can be recorded in the chemical and mineralogical features of cumulate rocks we speculate that fossil chimney structures can be found in the lower zone of the bushveld ultramafic complex in the form of iron rich platinum bearing dunite pipes this could explain the adcumulate nature of the lower zone rocks and the chemical and mineralogical similarities between the pipes and the overlying merensky reef the merensky reef would be interpreted as a hiatus in mush growth the results may also have applications to the flow structure in regions of partial melting and in the earth s core

diamond former coesite and supersilicic garnet in metasedimentary rocks from the greek rhodope a new ultrahigh pressure metamorphic province established abstract we report here the first discovery of ultrahigh pressure uhp indicator minerals and textures from the rhodope metamorphic province rmp northern greece in particular we document the exsolution of quartz rutile and apatite in sodic garnet from metapelites garnet biotite kyanite gneisses which attests to the presence of a si ti na p rich precursor garnet phase similar textures in garnet have been reported in the literature only once before for eclogites from the su lu uhp metamorphic province china we also document the presence of microdiamonds and multicrystalline quartz pseudomorphs after coesite included in garnet from both eclogites and metapelites we then argue that these rocks had once been transported to depths exceeding 220 km well into the upper mantle thus establishing the rmp as another important uhp metamorphic belt in the world

rapakivi granites within phanerozoic collisional orogens as a possible consequence of continental subduction and following exhumation of the precambrian crust evidences from the permian jangart rapakivi in south tien shan collisional belt eastern kyrgyzstan abstract all worldwide known rare occurrences of phanerozoic a type granites with typical rapakivi texture do not usually have any significant volume of contemporaneous basic rocks in magmatic association and occur only in those collisional orogens which border ancient cratons and contain hp uhp metamorphic terranes suggesting connection of their petrogenesis with a deep continental subduction and subsequent exhumation of the ancient crust early permian jangart rapakivis and genetically related leucogranites and li mica granites widely spread within the saryjaz syntaxis which is distinguished by the shortest distance between the tarim craton and caledonian kazakh continent collided in the late carboniferous with the possibly deepest continental subduction of the tarim under the south tien shan collisional belt rapakivi plutons occur within the remarkable huge 20 120 km mega melange mega breccia terrane of diapiric not tectonic origin which was identified by the latest geological data and deciphering of satellite imagery according to geophysical data the most of subducted tarim continental crust was trapped within lithospheric mantle and never exhumed but in the saryjaz syntaxis where the collisional suture has been subjected to flecsure like oroclinal bending due to sinistral strike slip tectonics during oblique collision between the tarim and kazakh plates the subduction channel was weakened and exhumation occurred the suggested p t t path of exhumed slices of the subducted tarim continental crust presumes a relatively long around 20 ma residence time on a mantle depth as well as additional internal radiogenic heating and rapid around 2 ma isothermal exhumation which were favorable for extensive melting and subsequent rapakivi formation phanerozoic rapakivis originated from the same ancient lower crust granulite source rocks as their abundant proterozoic counterparts but mechanism of heating and melting of those source rocks was radically different

a mechanism for syn collisional rock exhumation and associated normal faulting results from physical modelling abstract properly scaled physical modelling of the subduction of continental lithosphere is performed with a three layer lithospheric model the model includes a strong upper crust a weak ductile lower crust and a strong mantle part the lithosphere is underlain by a low viscosity asthenosphere subduction is produced by a piston push force and the pull force from the mantle lithospheric layer which is slightly denser than the asthenosphere the results of the modelling are tested on the example of the himalayas in the experiments all lithospheric layers subduct into the mantle to a depth corresponding to 200 300 km in nature until the upper crustal layer fails in front of the subduction zone forming a first major thrust fault the mct in our interpretation of the himalayas underthrusting along this fault increases relief which upon reaching a height corresponding to several kilometres in nature is removed mechanically by a blade the blade is moved horizontally back and forth throughout the experiment this erosional unloading mechanism causes the previously subducted segment of the buoyant upper crust to slide upward over the weak lower crust at a rate comparable to the subduction rate the rise of the crustal slice accelerates displacement along the crustal thrust while producing a normal sense motion and exhumation of the material from great depth up to 40 50 km depending on the model parameters along the upper surface of the slice the rapid uplift of the crust then ceases and the orogenesis occurs further due to continuing underthrusting along the first major thrust at a certain stage the crust fails again producing a new major crustal thrust the mbt in the himalayas

compositions of pegmatoids beneath the j m reef of the stillwater complex montana u s a abstract pegmatoids sporadically occur in the cumulates of the ultramafic series and norite zone i and gabbronorite zone i the lower banded series below the level of the platiniferous j m reef of the stillwater complex but are less common in norite zone ii and gabbronorite zone ii above the reef the pegmatoids are composed of the same minerals plagioclase orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene as the host cumulates and in approximately the same proportions but with grains that may be in excess of several tens of centimeters in length whole rock compositions show the pegmatoids to be modestly enriched in lithophile incompatible major and trace elements relative to the host cumulates whereas average host cumulates of norite zone i and gabbronorite zone i have a whole rock molar mg mg fe ratio of 81 1 5 and a normative an content of 85 1 5 almost all pegmatoid samples have lower values with mg mg fe ratios as low as 71 and normative an content as low as 58 these results are confirmed by electron microprobe analyses ratios of soluble insoluble lithophile trace elements e g ba zr show inconsistent trends excess sulfide in some pegmatoids strongly affects chalcophile element abundance if it is accepted that the pegmatoids define pods where late stage volatile rich fluids were locally enriched or channel ways by which fluids migrated up through the cumulate sequence then it is clear that such fluids differ from the host assemblages only in that the fluids were in equilibrium with a slightly more evolved bulk rock compositions calculated fluid compositions are relatively rich in fe and na and poor in ca and mg and are consistent with the compositional features of the pegmatoids the lack of significant difference in the ratios of soluble insoluble lithophile trace elements between the pegmatoids and the host cumulates suggests that it could be difficult to detect geochemical signatures for the former presence of igneous fluid in nonpegmatoidal cumulate rocks using these elements alone

deciphering magmatic and metasomatic processes recorded by fluid inclusions and apatite within the cu ni pge sulfide mineralized bathtub intrusion of the duluth complex ne minnesota usa

rapid exhumation of the zermatt saas ophiolite deduced from high precision smnd and rbsr geochronology sm nd isotope data from garnets in ultrahigh pressure coesite bearing eclogite from the western alps were obtained to determine the age of peak metamorphism and exhumation rates of deeply buried oceanic crust in the zermatt saas ophiolite complex we report an exceptionally well constrained sm nd isochron age of 40 62 6 ma from the lago di cignana eclogite difficulties in dating alpine eclogites using this method were overcome by using an hf acid leaching procedure on garnet to remove mineral inclusions the zermatt saas rocks reached greenschist facies conditions around 38 2m a on the basis of rb sr whole rock phengite isochrons these data combined with existing estimates of the pressure and temperature conditions of the eclogite give an estimate for the initial exhumation rate of 10 to 26 km m y depending on the inferred pressure for the recrystallization of phengite followed by slow exhumation of 0 3 km m y from 34 to 14 ma the initial exhumation rates at lago di cignana are among the highest yet determined for high pressure terranes and are well constrained because the age has been determined directly on the high pressure assemblage the rapid exhumation rates presented here place critical constraints on collisional tectonic models 1999 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

a model of palaeozoic obduction and exhumation of high pressure low temperature rocks in the southern urals abstract a new evolutionary geodynamic model of devonian continental subduction and exhumation of high pressure low temperature metamorphic rocks in the southern urals is proposed based on the results of physical modelling geological and geophysical data and on the comparison of this belt with other orogens the model includes the following principal phases 1 closure of the western uralian ocean by eastward intraoceanic subduction associated with the magnitogorsk volcanic arc 2 subduction of the european continental margin causing failure of the overriding plate in the arc area along a fault dipping eastward under the arc 3 subduction into the mantle of the fore arc block together with the underlying continental crust and sedimentary layer the sedimentary cover as well as the crustal and mantle fragments of this block are scraped off and accreted in front of and under the arc the continental crust shielded from the hot mantle by the fore arc block subducts to depths of more than 150 km remaining at a relatively low temperature the crust then fails at depths of several tens of kilometres 4 the subducted crustal slice starts to rapidly rise and intrude the interplate zone scraping and pushing up the sediments and slivers of the oceanic fore arc block previously dragged down to different depths 5 exhumation of the rising high pressure low temperature rocks within the uraltau dome separating the subduction accretionary complex from the magnitogorsk arc the eastern border of the uraltau dome coincides with the main uralian fault this fault represents a complex suture zone which at the stage of deep crustal subduction was associated with a major thrust subduction fault and at the exhumation stage with a major normal fault corresponding to the upper surface of the rising crustal sedimentary body

effect of margin curvature on plate deformation in a 3 d numerical model of subduction zones summary the large amount of data acquired along most subduction zones underlines the importance of three dimensions in the subduction mechanism in this work we use a fully 3 d mechanical numerical model to analyse the impact of the plate boundary geometry on the deformation of the upper plate the model consists of two initially horizontal independent plates overlying an inviscid fluid and continuously pushed towards each other the initial geometry of the contact zone between the two plates controls the stress regime and the strain pattern in the upper plate the case with a linear plate boundary and orthogonal convergence is first considered and used as a reference model with this simple model the effects of some important parameters i e the interplate friction and the lithosphere asthenosphere density contrast are investigated finally cases with curved plate boundaries are considered and the results are used to shed light on the importance of the dip direction of the interplate plane for the upper plate strain pattern unnecessary oceanward convexity causes an accumulation of the subducted material beneath the upper plate and induces an important uplift of the convex area on the contrary the material escapes from an oceanward concavity and provokes subsidence in the forearc zone such a behaviour induces preferential zones of weakeness in the overriding plate and may allow for explaining some local stress regime variations along convergent margins

structural evolution of a subducted continental sliver the northern dora maira massif italian alps continental crust of the dora maira massif was subducted in part to pressures of 30 kbar during early stages of the alpine orogeny a new investigation in a transect across the north of the massif has shown that much of the dominant foliation in the upper dora maira pellice unit was formed at high pressures of the order of 11 kbar but at lower pressure than the locally preserved relicts of eclogite facies metamorphism this dominant deformation phase produced large recumbent isoclinal folds with intensely flattened limbs in the pellice unit basement and the overlying permian mesozoic cover now white augen gneisses and calcschists the rocks were thus part of the upper crust prior to their subduction unless an unrealistically large thickness of mesozoic rocks now removed is hypothesized the pellice unit was later emplaced over the chisone unit in greenschist facies conditions all shear sense indicators are top to west implying a simple but prolonged history in which high pressure units were emplaced westwards over lower pressure ones whilst being exhumed the intense horizontal stretching recorded in the basement gneisses may have helped bring them closer to the surface by thinning indirect arguments suggest that such tectonic thinning is not on its own sufficient to explain the present setting of the eclogite units one or more sheets of eclogite material may have been extruded from the eoalpine subduction zone in addition such slabs would be bounded below by west directed and above by east directed shears as the dora maira massif forms the structurally lowest eoalpine eclogite unit in the alps the observed history is not incompatible with this model east or southeast directed structures in the alps are commonly identified as backthrusts but an origin for some as the extensional shears predicted by this model should not be excluded

the 190pt 186os decay system applied to dating platinum group element mineralization of the bushveld complex south africa abstract we evaluate the 190pt 186os decay system measured by laser ablation mc icpms as a useful geochronometric tool for direct dating of platinum group minerals pgm in large mafic ultra mafic intrusions by analysing mineralised rocks from the geochronologically well constrained bushveld complex s africa mixed pgm laurite cooperite laurite platarsite sperrylite and pt fe alloy from the merensky reef yield a pt os isochron age of 1995 50 ma 2 n 48 mswd 1 16 initial 186os 188os 0 119819 0 000006 while this is 59 myr younger than the u pb zircon age for the merensky reef scoates and friedman 2008 it is consistent with recent re os ages for the platreef considering the younger age recorded by both re os and pt os systems we propose that the pt os isochron age records a late low temperature hydrothermal event affecting pgm and sulphides in the platreef and merensky reef pt rich phases may also yield single grain 190pt 186os model ages since initial 186os 188os can be well constrained a pt os model age of 2024 ma 101 ma was calculated for a merensky cooperite a pt fe alloy from the onverwacht pipe and a tweefontein hill sperrylite give pt os model ages of 2113 106 ma and 2042 102 ma respectively a pt os isochron derived from all bushveld units gives an age of 2012 47 ma 2 186os 188osi 0 119818 0 000006 with an mswd of 1 19 hence pge mineralisation in different stratigraphic horizons of the complex cannot be distinguished temporally using the pt os chronometer nonetheless the potential for the pt os system in dating events in pge mineralised systems is evident and the agreement of single grain model ages in high pt os phases with the pt os and re os isochron ages indicates their usefulness in the geochronology of these systems

dynamics of exhumation and deformation of hp uhp orogens in double subduction collision systems numerical modeling and implications for the western dabie orogen abstract the dynamics of formation and exhumation of high pressure hp and ultra high pressure uhp metamorphic orogens in double subduction collision zones remain enigmatic here we employ two dimensional thermo mechanical numerical models to gain insights on the exhumation of hp uhp metamorphic rocks as well as their deformation during the collision of a micro continent with pro and retro continental margins along two subduction zones a three stage collisional process with different convergence velocities is tested in the initial collisional stage a fold and thrust belt and locally rootless superimposed folds are developed in the micro continent and subduction channel respectively in the second exhumation stage of hp uhp rocks a faster convergence model results in upwelling of the asthenosphere which further leads to a detachment between the crust and lithospheric mantle of the micro continent a slower convergence model results in rapid exhumation of hp uhp rocks along the north subduction channel and a typical piggy back thrusting structure in the micro continent a non convergence model produces a slab tear off leading to the rebound of residual lithosphere of the micro continent in the third and final stage a series of back and ramp thrusts are formed in the micro continent with the pro continent re subducted based on an analogy of our numerical results with the western dabie orogen wdo we suggest that 1 slab tear off results in a rebound of residual lithosphere which controls the two stage syn collisional exhumation process of hp uhp rocks in the wdo and 2 in contrast to the single subduction collision system the exhumation range of the partially molten rocks with lower viscosity and density is restricted to a specific region of the micro continent by the mianlue and shangdan subduction zones which generated the complex deformation features in the wdo

exhumation of uhp lt rocks due to the local reduction of the interplate pressure thermo mechanical physical modelling abstract spatial distribution of uhp lt terrains suggests that their exhumation is essentially a three dimensional process that occurs only locally in specific sites along mountain belts on the other hand the continental subduction resulting in the formation of uhp lt rocks takes place along the whole belt the previously performed by the authors 2 d thermo mechanical laboratory modelling of continental subduction has shown that exhumation of deeply subducted continental crust is possible only when the effective interplate pressure p n is lower than the lithostatic pressure low compression subduction regime at the same time this modelling showed that for the deeply subducted continental crust to be preserved at low temperature at great depth the continental subduction should be accompanied by the subduction of the fore arc block or the arc plate the latter process occurs only when p n is high high compression regime to reconcile both processes we suggest that within the background of a generally high compression regime the interplate pressure can be locally reduced in some specific situations which would then allow the local exhumation of uhp lt material using physical modelling technique we investigate one of such situations that occurs when the frontal part of the overriding plate undergoes subduction induced or not extension parallel to the plate boundary with activation or formation of a strike slip transform fault oblique to the plate boundary to the interplate zone the displacement along this fault results in a local reduction of the interplate pressure at the intersection of the fault with the interplate zone this pressure reduction permits the rise of the deeply subducted low density continental crust and sediments submitted to uhp lt conditions under buoyancy force a 10 km thick slice of crust detaches at 150 km depth and moves up along the interplate zone with a starting rate of ca 3 cm yr the ascent rate reduces when the unit reaches crustal depth the deformation of this unit is small when it first detaches and starts rising but increases when reaching the base of the overriding plate the exhuming material is sheared and stretched in a narrow passage at 70 km depth therefore in real conditions the deformation is mainly recorded when the unit is submitted to hp and not uhp conditions

sr and pb isotopic disequilibrium between coexisting plagioclase and orthopyroxene in the bushveld complex south africa microdrilling and progressive leaching evidence for sub liquidus contamination within a crystal mush progressive leaching of plagioclase for sr iso topes and microdrilling for sr and pb isotopes from grains of plagioclase and orthopyroxene from the critical zone and the lower zone indicates that these minerals are not in isotopic equilibrium leaching suggests critical zone plagioclase either lost rb or had a more radiogenic sri rim relative to the core whereas plagioclase from an upper zone sample is isotopically homogeneous for sri microdrilling analyses of plagioclase from the lower and critical zones consistently have a higher initial 87 sr 86 sr sri and a less radiogenic modeled 238 u 204 pb composition l2 than coexisting ortho pyroxene the range of calculated sri for plagioclase and orthopyroxene is 0 70506 0 70662 34 and 0 70290 0 70654 36 respectively the average difference in sri between mineral pairs was 0 00095 the range of calculated l2 for plagioclase and orthopyroxene is 9 42 10 30 average 9 7 and 9 83 15 75 average 10 1 respectively the range of measured 208 pb 206 pb for plagioclase and orthopyroxene is 34 757 36 439 33 and 36 669 41 845 85 respectively one orthopyroxenite without evidence for more than one population of crystal size distribution nonetheless had sri 0 70654 36 with calculated l2 of 10 32 for larger grains as compared with sri 0 70290 32 and calculated l2 of 9 97 for smaller grain size fractions isotopic results from this study demonstrate that whole rock isotopic data may not provide the appropriate level of detail necessary to address some processes in the bushveld complex however systematic changes have the potential to elucidate the timing of contamination with regard to other processes crystal aging compaction driven recrystallization and mineral exsolution occurring within a slowly cooled crystal liquid vapor mush system

exhumation of early tertiary coesite bearing eclogites from the pakistan himalaya early tertiary coesite bearing eclogites crop out in the internal zones of the indian plate in the kaghan valley of north pakistan field and geochronological data suggest that uhp metamorphism at c 46 ma accompanied subduction of the leading edge of continental india beneath kohistan a new u pb rutile age of 44 1 1 1 ma can be interpreted as either a growth or a cooling age given the uncertainty of the closure temperature of rutile for pb but clearly documents a very short lived metamorphic peak with cooling occurring between 44 and 40 ma eclogitic assemblages are preserved in permo triassic mafic rocks in both cover and basement sequences with the best preserved eclogites hosted in the anhydrous basement the eclogite facies rocks lie on the hanging wall of a major south directed ductile thrust zone which placed basement rocks that contain coesite eclogites southward onto lower pressure cover metasediments shear criteria show that those sequences that contain eclogite facies rocks are flanked above by a zone of pervasive north directed extensional shearing mineral assemblages contained within both the thrust and extensional shear zones are consistent with them both having operated synchronously during the amphibolite to greenschist facies transition amphibole ar ar cooling history data suggest that this was at c 40 42 ma as in the alps this implies exhumation from the metamorphic peak to greenschist facies conditions within a few million years this short time scale has important implications as it is likely that both the thrust and extensional shear zones represent the late stage of a deformation continuum that commenced at uhp and brought the uhp rocks back to mid crustal levels this late eocene extensional shearing and associated exhumation of hp or uhp rocks has not previously been recorded in the pakistan himalaya the thrusts and shears were later folded by major east trending folds themselves cut by miocene aged north vergent extensional faults that currently separate the indian plate from the structurally overlying kohistan island arc

exhumation of u hp lt rocks caused by diachronous slab breakoff abstract three dimensional thermo mechanical analogue models investigate how diachronous slab breakoff may lead to the exhumation of subducted continental crust slab breakoff initiates spontaneously in one location and migrates laterally along the plate boundary causing a transient excess downward pull force on the plate boundary in front of the propagating slab tear this pull force locally reduces the pressure between the plates which promotes buoyancy driven exhumation of subducted crust however both the surface area undergoing the pressure reduction and its duration are limited our experiments show that the rate of slab breakoff propagation controls both the duration of the pull force and the magnitude of pressure reduction our results further demonstrate that exhumation occurs where the slab breakoff propagation rate is lowest rather than where the pull force is strongest corresponding to where the slab tear initiates or terminates

sulfide and platinum mineralization in the merensky reef evidence from hydrous silicates and fluid inclusions the base metal sulfides of the merensky reef are associated with hydrous silicates and intense deuteric hydrous alteration of cumulus and postcumulus silicates biotite and phlogopite crystallized in the vicinity of sulfides from a volatile enriched highly fractionated intercumulus melt amphibole chlorite and talc are later alteration phases of cumulus pyroxene and intercumulus plagioclase biotite is often accompanied by zircon rutile and quartz accessory quartz hosts a complex suite of h2o nacl cacl2 co2 ch4 fluid inclusions which have thus far not been described from the merensky reef the earliest fluid inclusion compositions are nacl h2o with less than 10 vol water co2 coexisting with a halite daughter crystal and brine and polyphase inclusions with up to six daughter and accidental phases and high contents of divalent cations the maximum trapping temperature is around 730 c at 4 to 5 kb pressure later inclusion generations are h2o nacl co2 h2o and pure co2 and ch4 the presence of cl rich fluids during the intercumulus stage of the crystallizing merensky reef is directly related to the mode of sulfide precipitation prior to sulfide unmixing in a hydrous magma sulfur is likely to be present as h2s sulfur saturation causes reaction of h2s with oxides of the silicate melt to form a sulfide melt plus water during reaction the magma is enriched in water until a separate fluid unmixes it carries all compounds with high fluid melt partition coefficients as well as metals capable of forming oh and cl complexes precious metals are assumed to have fractionated into the cl rich fluid as cl complexes rather than being dissolved in the sulfide melt during the cooling evolution of the fluid the precious elements precipitate around the periphery of sulfide melt droplets the model proposed explains the distribution pattern of platinum group minerals in the merensky reef better than any orthomagmatic mineralization concept offered so far

an experimental study into the rheology of synthetic polycrystalline coesite aggregates coesite has been found as a relic in ultrahigh pressure metamorphic uhpm crust worldwide and is expected to play a major role in the mechanical behavior of continental crust at uhpm conditions we performed triaxial compression tests on synthetic polycrystalline coesitite in a solid medium apparatus at confining pressures of 3 1 to 3 7 gpa temperatures of 700 to 1160 c and strain rates betweeen 6 10 7 and 1 10 3 s 1 the problem of the limited stress resolution of the solid medium apparatus was addressed by applying two extreme friction corrections that yield lower and upper bounds to the differential stress the correlation between the mechanical data and the microstructural record of the deformed samples as a function of temperature and imposed strain rate is consistent with deformation by dislocation creep we deduced parameters of a power law as n 3 1 and q 275 50 kj mol 1 extrapolation of the experimental data to natural conditions cannot be constrained by comparison with natural microstructures due to the lack of preserved coesite other than as single crystal inclusions nevertheless the extrapolation indicates a low strength of order 10 mpa for natural strain rates at typical uhpm conditions absent deformation of the uhpm brossasco granite dora maira massif western alps thus implies low stresses deformation must have been localized in very weak shear zones during burial and exhumation

geologically driven 3d modelling of physical rock properties in support of interpreting the seismic response of the lalor volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit snow lake manitoba canada 3d lithofacies and physical rock property models were generated to interpret 3d seismic data acquired over the lalor volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit manitoba canada the lithofacies model revealed that strong seismic reflectivity is associated with ore host rock and mafic felsic lithofacies contacts including their hydrothermally altered equivalents different physical rock property models were subjected to 3d seismic forward modelling using the sofi3d finite difference code seismic synthetics from discrete and interpolated models in which kriging of p wave velocity and density was conditioned by curvilinear grids conformable to the 3d modelled geological structure showed a much better match to the seismic data in comparison to those generated by kriging in cartesian space synthetics from these curvilinear grid models corroborate the origin of seismic reflectors as qualitatively inferred from the lithofacies model seismic synthetics generated from physical rock property models in which physical rock properties were augmented by densely sampled secondary variables such as feo percentage enhanced lateral continuity of seismic reflectivity although these co kriged petrophysical models were not more accurate than their kriged equivalents the physical rock property modelling methodology was also useful for testing the utility of passive interferometric seismic surveys as this highlighted the limitations of the discrete physical rock property model

3d gravity inversion through an adaptive learning procedure we have developed a gravity inversion method to estimate a 3d density contrast distribution producing strongly interfering gravity anomalies the interpretation model consists of a grid of 3d vertical juxtaposed prisms in the horizontal and vertical directions iteratively our approach estimates the 3d density contrast distribution that fits the observed anomaly within the measurement errors and favors compact gravity sources closest to prespecified geometric elements such as axes and points this method retrieves the geometry of multiple gravity sources whose density contrasts positive and negative values are prescribed by the interpreter through the geometric element at the first iteration we set an initial interpretation model and specify the first guess geometric elements and their target density contrasts each geometric element operates as the first guess skeletal outline of the entire homogeneous gravity source or any of its homogeneous parts to be reconstructed from the second iteration on our method automatically redefines a new set of geometric elements the associated target density contrasts and a new interpretation model whose number of prisms increases with the iteration the iteration stops when the geometries of the estimated sources are invariant along successive iterations tests on synthetic data from geometrically complex bodies and on field data collected over a mafic ultramafic body and a volcanogenic sedimentary sequence located in the tocantins province brazil confirmed the potential of our method in producing a sharp image of multiple and adjacent bodies

an evaluation of models of apatite compositional variability using apatite from the middle banded series of the stillwater complex montana apatite is a relatively common accessory mineral in the olivine bearing zones ob iii and ob iv of the middle banded series of the stillwater complex occurring interstitial to cumulus grains as monomineralic inclusions in cumulus grains and in polymineralic clusters which may or may not be included in the cumulus grains eighty nine of 185 samples examined were found to contain some apatite the f cl oh content of the apatite show distinct stratigraphic variations xclap mole fraction cl in apatite of interstitial apatite increases upsection in both ob iii and ob iv with average values ranging from 0 15 to 0 85 in ob iii and from 0 03 to 0 60 in ob iv xfap varies inversely with xclapwith average values ranging from 0 00 to 0 70 while xohap remains relatively constant near 0 40 or decreases slightly with height these variations are remarkable given that no appreciable stratigraphic variations in either the major or trace element compositions of any of the cumulus minerals are found in the 800 m of section that comprise ob iii and ob iv within sample variation of xclap for samples containing cl rich apatite is substantially larger up to 0 65 xclap than for samples with more f rich apatite xclap varies by approximately 0 15 although interstitial apatite is found throughout ob iii and ob iv apatite occurring as monomineralic inclusion in cumulus grains or in polymineralic clusters is almost exclusively found in samples with cl rich apatite the data are best explained by a model involving the degassing of a cl rich volatile phase from the crystallizing interstitial liquid the up section migration of this fluid resulted in the crystallization of f rich apatite in the lower portion and progressive cl enrichment in the apatite with height the presence of hornblende bearing dikes veins and pegmatoids at the level of maximum cl enrichment is consistent with a fluid migration model