Search results for "Archean"
showing 10 items of 87 documents
The Chirwa dome: granite emplacement during late Archaean thrusting along the northeastern margin of the Zimbabwe craton
2002
The Chirwa dome in northeast Zimbabwe is situated at the boundary between the Zimbabwe craton and Archaean gneisses of the Zambezi mobile belt. This circular granite intrusion has long been regarded as Archaean granite which was remobilized during Pan-African times and emplaced as a mantled gneiss dome into a Proterozoic metasedimentary sequence. Field mapping, structural work and new zircon dates indicate that the Chirwa dome and surrounding rocks underwent a very different history. The supracrustal sequence was deposited and moderately deformed between ~2613 and ~2601 Ma ago, as bracketed by a provenance date and an intrusive date, respectively. Shortly after deposition, the sequence was …
Plume — Lid interactions during the Archean and implications for the generation of early continental terranes
2020
Abstract Many Archean terranes are interpreted to have a tectonic and metamorphic evolution that indicates intra-crustal reorganization driven by lithospheric-scale gravitational instabilities. These processes are associated with the production of a significant amount of felsic and mafic crust, and are widely regarded to be a consequence of plume-lithosphere interactions. The juvenile Archean felsic crust is made predominantly of rocks of the tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) suite, which are the result of partial melting of hydrous metabasalts. The geodynamic processes that have assisted the production of juvenile felsic crust, are still not well understood. Here, we perform 2D and …
On shearing, magmatism and regional deformation in Neoarchean granite-greenstone systems: Insights from the Yilgarn Craton
2014
Abstract The structure of the Neoarchean Yilgarn Craton is dominated by craton-scale high-strain zones, mostly associated with highly-deformed elongate granitic bodies and transposed greenstone belts. These shear zones developed during widespread and prolonged magmatic activity that led to a nearly complete reworking of the felsic continental crust. The spatial, temporal and genetic relationships between such a voluminous and protracted event of crustal reworking and the development of the craton-scale shear zone network are unclear. Here, we combine new structural, geophysical and geochemical data to investigate the relationship between crustal-scale shear zones and large syntectonic pluto…
Geochemical characteristics of Archaean and Late Proterozoic to Palaeozoic fine-grained sediments from Southern Africa and significance for the evolu…
1985
Chemical data for pelitic rocks (shallow-marine platform sediments) of the ∼ 2.9 Ga old Pongola Supergroup, South Africa, and the 550–700 Ma old Nama Group, Namibia, revealed clearly different compositions in both groups. A comparison of the Pongola and Nama data with literature values for sedimentary rocks shows a trend for Cr/TiO2 and Cr/Zn ratios as well as the absolute Cr and Ni concentrations to lower values with decreasing age, whereas the Cr/Ni ratios seem to remain broadly constant through time. REE patterns of Pongola and Nama sediments show no significant difference, thus giving the impression of a post-Archaean origin for the demonstrably Archaean Pongola sediments. However, a pl…
Multiple zircon growth within early Archaean tonalitic gneiss from the Ancient Gneiss Complex, Swaziland
1988
Abstract U Pb age determinations by ion microprobe reveal multiple episodes of zircon growth and recrystallization within a single sample of tonalitic gneiss from the Ancient Gneiss Complex. The oldest episode at3644 ± 4Ma(2σ) produced the dominant type of zircon, characteristically purplish-brown and massive in texture; this probably constitutes unaltered zircon precipitated from the original magma. Recrystallization accompanied (and obscured) by early Pb loss took place within the oldest grains at3504 ± 6Ma and3433 ± 8Ma. Whole new grains grew at these times also. We interpret the post-3644 Ma growth as due to episodic deformational and metamorphic events that transformed the tonalite plu…
New constraints on granulite facies metamorphism and melt production in the Lewisian Complex, northwest Scotland
2018
The research carried out for this study was part of YF's Master Thesis at the Institute of Geoscience, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, which provided the funding for fieldwork and laboratory analyses. TJ acknowledges support from Open Fund GPMR210704 from the State Key Lab for Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan. In this study we investigate the metamorphic history of the Assynt and Gruinard blocks of the Archaean Lewisian Complex, northwest Scotland, which are considered by some to represent discrete crustal terranes. For samples of mafic and intermediate rocks, phase diagrams were constructed in the Na2O-CaO‐K2O‐FeO‐MgO‐Al2O3-SiO2-H2O-T…
Single zircon ages for granitoid gneisses in the Central Zone of the Limpopo Belt, Southern Africa and geodynamic significance
1999
Abstract Ion microprobe, evaporation and vapour digestion single zircon emplacement ages for granitoid rocks throughout the Central Zone (CZ) of the Limpopo mobile belt, South Africa define three broad age groups, namely at 3188–3314, 2637–2734 and ca 2500 Ma, respectively. All these granitoids, including the youngest group, display polydeformational features suggesting that much of the tectonic history of the CZ occurred in the late Archaean and early Proterozoic. The oldest group of predominantly tonalitic–trondhjemitic–granodioritic gneisses was found in relatively small domains from the extreme W to the E of the CZ and probably represents remnants of a once more widespread early Archaea…
Chronology of early Archaean granite-greenstone evolution in the Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa, based on precise dating by single zircon evap…
1991
We report precise 207Pb/206Pb single zircon evaporation ages for low-grade felsic metavolcanic rocks within the Onverwacht and Fig Tree Groups of the Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB), South Africa, and from granitoid plutons bordering the belt. Dacitic tuffs of the Hooggenoeg Formation in the upper part of the Onverwacht Group yield ages between 3445 +/- 3 and 3416 +/- 5 Ma and contain older crustal components represented by a 3504 +/- 4 Ma old zircon xenocryst. Fig Tree dacitic tuffs and agglomerates have euhedral zircons between 3259 +/- 5 and 3225 +/- 3 Ma in age which we interpret to reflect the time of crystallization. A surprisingly complex xenocryst population in one sample documents …
Multiple sulfur and carbon isotope composition of sediments from the Belingwe Greenstone Belt (Zimbabwe): A biogenic methane regulation on mass indep…
2013
Abstract To explore the linkage between mass-independent sulfur isotope fractionation (MIF-S) and δ13Corg excursions during the Neoarchean, as well as the contemporary redox state and biogeochemical cycling of carbon and sulfur, we report the results of a detailed carbon and multiple sulfur (δ34S, δ33S, δ36S) isotopic study of the ∼2.7 Ga Manjeri and ∼2.65 Ga Cheshire formations of the Ngezi Group (Belingwe Greenstone Belt, Zimbabwe). Multiple sulfur isotope data show non-zero Δ33S and Δ36S values for sediments older than 2.4 Ga (i.e. prior to the Great Oxidation Event, GOE), indicating MIF-S thought to be associated with low atmospheric oxygen concentration. However, in several 2.7–2.5 Ga …
Multi-chronometric ages and origin of Archaean tonalitic gneisses in Finnish Lapland: A case for long crustal residence time
1984
The Tojottamanselka gneisses of the Koitelainen region, northern Finland, have been dated by the Sm-Nd and the common Pb methods. The Sm-Nd data of seven samples from a small area (100 m × 100 m) define an isochron ofT=3.06±0.12 (2σ) Ga, with correspondingINd=0.50848±9 (2σ), oreNd(T)=−3.7±1.8. This age is in good agreement with the zircon U-Pb discordia age (3.1 Ga) reported by Kroner et al. (1981) and is interpreted as the time of magmatic emplacement. The distinctly negativeeNd(T) value is found for the first time for Archean tonalitic gneisses and implies derivation of these magmas by remelting of continental material with a long (200–500 Ma) crustal residence time. A few samples, on the…