Single zircon ages, PT evolution and Nd isotopic systematics of high-grade gneisses in southern Malawi and their bearing on the evolution of the Mozambique belt in southeastern Africa

Abstract The high grade gneiss assemblage of central and southern Malawi belongs to the Neoproterozoic Mozambique belt of East Africa, and reached peak metamorphic conditions at 900±70°C and 9.5±1.5 kbar, followed by an isobaric cooling path. We report single zircon U–Pb and Pb–Pb ages and Nd isotopic data for orthogneisses and metapelites collected around Lilongwe and farther south in the region around Blantyre and Zomba. The ages document three distinct events, (1) a Kibaran-age period of intrusion of calc-alkaline granitoids around 1040–929 Ma; Nd isotope data indicate overall juvenile compositions consistent with a magmatic arc environment, or emplacement into thinned continental crust …

Numerical modelling of PT-paths related to rapid exhumation of high-pressure rocks from the crustal root in the Variscan Erzgebirge Dome (Saxony/Germany)

Abstract The Bohemian Massif in the Central European Variscides contains many crustal slices with (ultra-)high-pressure rocks related to continent-continent collision. After closure of pre-existing oceans during the Devonian, excess crustal thickness was maintained for about 50 Ma until at around 340 Ma large volumes of high-pressure rocks from the crustal root were exhumed within a few million years. We relate this event to delamination and complete detachment of the lithospheric mantle, causing a crustal-scale isostatic instability. In the Erzgebirge dome, a model region in the northern part of the massif, an array of interrelated PTtd-paths with “decompression/cooling” and “decompression…

Structural overprint of a late Paleozoic accretionary system in north-central Chile (34°-35°S) during post-accretional deformation

En la Cordillera de la Costa de Chile, de 36° a 35°S, se encuentra expuesta la arquitectura coherentemente preservada de un prisma de acrecion del Paleozoico tardio, en cercana vecindad a un area entre los 34° y 35°S, donde el mismo esta fuertemente modificado por procesos postacrecionales. Estudiando las desviaciones de la arquitectura original, en esta region pueden ser perfectamente distinguidas estructuras sin- y post acrecionales. Al sur de los 35° se observa un contacto transicional entre dos unidades mayores, el cual refleja un cambio continuo en el modo de acrecion de la cuna acrecional antes de -305 Ma: las metagrauvacas estructuralmente suprayacentes de las series orientales muest…

Structural contacts in subduction complexes and their tectonic significance: the Late Palaeozoic coastal accretionary wedge of central Chile

Understanding the contact between the very low-grade metagreywacke of the Eastern Series and high-pressure metamorphosed schist of the Western Series in the Late Palaeozoic accretionary wedge of central Chile is fundamental for the understanding of the evolution of ancient accretionary wedges. We show the progressive development of structures and finite strain from the least deformed rocks in the eastern part of the Eastern Series of the accretionary wedge to high-pressure schist of the Western Series at the Pacific coast. Upright chevron folds of sedimentary layering are associated with an axial-plane foliation, S1. As the F1 folds became slightly overturned to the west, S1 was folded abou…

METAMORPHIC EVOLUTION OF SPESSARTINE QUARTZITES (COTICULES) IN THE HIGH-PRESSURE, LOW-TEMPERATURE COMPLEX AT BAHIA MANSA, COASTAL CORDILLERA OF SOUTH-CENTRAL CHILE

Lenses of spessartine quartzites (coticules) are associated with greenschist intercalations in coastal exposures at Bahia Mansa within the mainly metapsammopelitic Western Series, which forms most of the basement in the Coastal Cordillera of central to southern Chile. The chemical compositions of the coticules can be explained by protoliths formed from ferriferous and manganiferous hydrothermal precipitates mixed with aluminous alteration-derived material on top of oceanic crust. The peak conditions of metamorphism were calculated with multivariant reactions: 270–370 °C, 6–8 kbar. A retrograde P–T evolution was marked by decompression to 2 kbar during cooling below 300°C, influx of an exter…

Has the East African Orogen Played Any Role in the Formation and Breakup of the Supercontinent Rodinia and the Amalgamation of Gondwana? New Evidence from Field Relationship and Isotopic Data

Time of formation and peak of Variscan HP-HT metamorphism of quartz-feldspar rocks in the central Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany

The Variscan Erzgebirge represents an antiform with a core of gneisses and mica schists, surrounded by a phyllitic mantle. The Gneiss-Eclogite Unit (GEU), in the central part, is a composite tectonometamorphic assemblage characterized by a HP-HT imprint and comprises migmatitic para- and orthogneisses, HT mylonites, HP granulites, eclogites and garnet peridotites. It is tectonically sandwiched between two major units with distinctly lower PT histories. The GEU experienced a characteristic “kinked” retrograde PT path after HP-HT equilibration with: (1) strong near-isothermal decompression at high temperatures; (2) extensive re-equilibration at medium pressures, followed (3) by rapid cooling …

Time Markers for the Evolution and Exhumation History of a Late Palaeozoic Paired Metamorphic Belt in North-Central Chile (34°-35°30'S)

A multi-method geochronological approach is applied to unravel the dynamics of a paired metamorphic belt in the Coastal Cordillera of central Chile. This is represented by high-pressure - low-temperature rocks of an accretionary prism (Western Series), and a low-pressure- high-temperature overprint in the retro-wedge with less deformed metagreywackes (Eastern Series) intruded by magmas of the coeval arc. A pervasive transposition foliation formed in metagreywackes and interlayered oceanic crust of the Western Series during basal accretion near metamorphic peak conditions (∼350-400°C, 7-11 kbar) at 292-319 Ma (