Search

Impacts may have been important mechanisms of crustal redistribution and differentiation, particularly during intense postaccretionary bombardment between 4.5 Ga and 3.9 Ga ago. Evidence of crustal processes during this period is largely provided by detrital zircons from the Yilgarn craton, Australia. Trace element compositions, crystallization temperatures, and inclusion populations of these ancient zircons have been taken as evidence for predominantly granitic source magmas, implying widespread felsic continental crust on the early Earth. However, there is little knowledge of zircons formed in impact melt sheets, a potential source for the Hadean zircons. Here we present Ti thermometry, trace elements, and inclusion populations of zircons from the 1.85 Ga Sudbury impact melt sheet (Ontario, Canada). Our results demonstrate that large variations in zircon crystallization temperature and composition will be an inevitable consequence of the evolution of such magmatic systems. We also show that zircons in mafic rocks crystallize in residual liquids of granitic composition, producing inclusion assemblages that are remarkably similar to those reported for the ancient Yilgarn grains. Thus, we conclude that the trace element compositions and inclusion populations of the Hadean zircons are consistent with crystallization from more mafic melts than previously recognized, although high crystallization temperature distributions of Sudbury zircons indicate that impact melt sheets were not a dominant source for the grains older than 3.9 Ga.

The Antigonish Highlands, Nova Scotia, are within the Avalon terrane of the northern Appalachians and contain four distinct episodes of rift-related magmatism: Neoproterozoic, Cambrian, Middle Ordovician, and Late Devonian. All four magmatic suites are composed of basalts and subordinate crustally derived felsic rocks. The mafic rocks of these suites, which do not appear to be significantly contaminated by continental crust, display similar geochemical and Sm-Nd isotopic characteristics consistent with an enriched mantle source that was metasomatically enriched prior to the oldest rifting event, probably between 0.8 and 1.1 Ga. These data also imply that the Avalonian crust and its subcontinental lithospheric mantle remained coupled during four magmatic events. Because the earliest phases of magmatism occurred when Avalonia was located along the Gondwanan margin, and the latest phases after Avalonia accreted to Laurentia, the coupling of crust and mantle in the Antigonish Highlands suggests that the migration of Avalonia did not completely detach its lithospheric mantle from its crustal cover. This study demonstrates the importance of comparing magmatism of different ages in the same terrane. Keywords: enriched mantle, Sm-Nd isotopes, continental basalts, Avalon terrane.

Experimental melt (glass) compositions indicate that most of the S-type granites of the Cape Granite Suite in South Africa have ferromagnesian contents too high to represent melts. Consequently, the composition of the more mafic granites demands the addition of an Fe- and Mg-rich component to the magma. The compositions of the granites evolve along well-defined trends away from the likely melt composition for many components plotted against Mg + Fe. An increase in A/CNK, Mg#, Ca, and HREEs, as well as a decrease in K and Si, as a function of increasing Mg + Fe appears to limit the contaminant to garnet (up to 20 wt%). The rate of Ti increase, as a function of Mg + Fe increase in the granites, matches that defined by the stoichiometry of high-temperature biotite, but cannot be the product of accumulation of biotite ([+ or -] other phases) in the magma because the chemical trends are inconsistent with this, particularly those portrayed by K and Ti as a function of Mg + Fe. This, in conjunction with the fact that no large, counterbalancing population of very leucocratic material exists in the Cape Granite Suite, suggests that the relatively mafic granites are not the products of garnet fractional crystallization. Rather, these appear to be the result of selective entrainment of peritectic garnet and ilmenite. Thus, this work indicates that much of the compositional variation in the granites is primary, reflecting the magma composition that ascended from the source, and is controlled by the proportion of peritectic products entrained into the melt. There is no indication of entrainment of a mineralogically diverse residuum (restite). Keywords: S-type granite, granite geochemistry, granite petrogenesis, garnet.

Southwestern Japan during Paleogene time was affected by subduction of the Kula and Pacific plates beneath the eastern margin of Eurasia, followed by a brief episode of transform faulting to allow the Shikoku Basin to open at 27-15Ma. Subsequent opening of the Japan Sea back-arc basin in middle Miocene time broke Japan away from Eurasia, and SW Japan rotated clockwise ~45[degrees] as it drifted south (17-15 Ma). Southward drift required subduction of the Philippine Sea plate beneath SW Japan, leading to the formation of a magmatic arc. Subduction of the hot Shikoku Basin lithosphere and spreading ridge resulted in distinctive volcanism in the SW Japan forearc between 17 and 12 Ma. This volcanism included mid-oceanic-ridge basalt (MORB)-like intrusions and oceanic-island basalt (OIB)-type alkali basalts, felsic plutons in the accretionary prism, and high-magnesium andesites along the Setouchi forearc basin. Mafic magmas in the outermost forearc originated from the subducted Shikoku Basin spreading ridge, whereas Setouchi high-magnesium andesites (HMA) may have resulted from the interaction of melts of the subducted Philippine Sea plate with the overlying mantle. Felsic magmas in the forearc resulted from melting of Shimanto Belt sediments caused by intrusion of HMA magmas. Persistent rear-arc volcanism was caused by upwelling asthenosphere associated with opening of the Sea of Japan. Rear-arc volcanism began ca. 25 Ma as rift-fill low-alkali tholeiite volcanism and was replaced gradually after 12 Ma by alkali basalt volcanism. Upwelling-related alkali volcanism continues up to the present, whereas forearc volcanism ceased at 12 Ma. The volcanic arc narrowed with time as the Philippine Sea slab descended and slowly cooled. Adakitic dacites erupted after 1.7 Ma above the 100-km-depth contour of the subducted Philippine Sea plate, suggesting that melting resulted from interaction of the slab with upwelling asthenosphere. Interactions between upwelled rear-arc asthenosphere and subduction of the hot Philippine Sea slab appear to have been the main controls of magmatism for the Neogene SW Japan arc. Keywords: Neogene, back-arc basin opening, volcanism, SW Japan, subduction reinitiation.