Search results for "BELT"

Zircon ages defining deposition of the Palaeoproterozoic Soutpansberg Group and further evidence for Eoarchaean crust in South Africa

2014

Abstract The precise age of the volcano-sedimentary Soutpansberg Group, which was deposited upon the Palala shear belt separating the Kaapvaal Craton from the Central Zone of the Limpopo Belt, has long been debated. The Soutpansberg Group is subdivided into a lower and upper succession, which are separated from each other by a prominent regional unconformity. Zircon grains from silicic pyroclastic rocks of both successions were investigated in order to constrain the timing of deposition of the Soutpansberg Group rocks. The zircon grains of the investigated samples from both successions yield a wide range of ages, spanning from 1831 to 3937 Ma. Most of the zircon grains have rounded shapes, …

Inner vs. outer wedge-top depozone “sequences” in the Late Miocene (late Tortonian–early Messinian) Sicilian Foreland Basin System; new data from the…

2012

Abstract The wedge-top depozone belongs to the innermost portion of a Foreland Basin System (FBS) ( DeCelles and Giles, 1996 ) and includes all sediments, typically coarse-grained proximal facies, that bury the active frontal part of a fold and thrust belt. The Terravecchia Formation ( Flores, 1959 , Schmidt Di Friedberg, 1962 , Schmidt Di Friedberg, 1964 , Catalano, 1979 ) is a composite lithostratigraphic unit widespread in Sicily (southern Italy) which has been recently considered ( Gugliotta, 2010 ) as a part of the stratigraphic record of the Late Miocene (late Tortonian to early Messinian) Sicilian wedge-top depozone and represent the main object of this paper. Two end-member wedge-to…

Archaean granulite-facies paragneisses from central Swaziland: inferences on Palaeoarchaean crustal reworking and a complex metamorphic history

2014

We present a petrographic, petrological, geochemical, and geochronological study (U–Pb/Lu–Hf) on granulite-facies paragneisses of the Mahamba Gneiss Complex in central Swaziland, eastern Kaapvaal Craton. Our data suggest that prograde metamorphism occurred at c . 3.07 Ga. Dating of detrital zircons of a metapelite in combination with geochronological and ambiguous structural relationships with granitoid gneisses suggests two possible scenarios: (1) the time of deposition of the sedimentary protoliths is prior to c . 3.58 Ga; (2) c . 3.58 Ga granitoid crust was the basement for the sedimentary protoliths. Furthermore, enrichment in Ni and Cr in the Mahamba metasediments may originate from er…

Pre-3000 Ma thermal history of the Archean Kaap Valley puton, South Africa

1992

The Kaap Valley pluton is one of several early Archean (3200-3500 Ma) tonalitetrondhjemite plutons that surround the Barberton Greenstone belt, southern Africa. Precise dating using single-grain 207 Pb/ 206 Pb evaporation of zircon and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar laser step-heating of hornblende and biotite indicates that, in its interior, the Kaap Valley pluton preserves a memory of its initial intrusion and cooling, which spanned a time from 3225 to 3142 Ma. The pluton also records the effect of a low-temperature thermal event at its margin as seen by a 40 Ar/ 39 Ar biotite age of 3035 Ma, which is perhaps related to hydrothermal activity and gold mineralization in the adjacent Barberton Greenstone belt…

Reworking of Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic crust in the Mozambique belt of central Tanzania as documented by SHRIMP zircon geochronology

2005

Abstract New SHRIMP zircon ages for high-grade rocks from the Pan-African Mozambique belt (MB) of central Tanzania document reworking of Archaean–Palaeoproterozoic crust during the formation of this Neoproterozoic collisional orogen. Several gneisses and granulites from the Great Ruaha river area yielded late Archaean emplacement ages of 2575–2680 Ma for their magmatic precursors. Core-rim relationships in some zircons revealed new zircon growth during relatively short episodes of granitoid magmatism. Metamorphic zircons, dated at 1925 Ma, provide new evidence for high-grade metamorphism during formation of the Palaeoproterozoic Usagaran mobile belt. Metamorphic rims around magmatic cores i…

Fluid geochemistry of the San Vicente geothermal field (El Salvador)

1997

The volcano Chichontepeque (San Vicente) is one of the nine recent volcanoes making up the El Salvador sector of the WNW-ESE-trending active Central American volcanic belt. Thermal activity is at present reduced to a few thermal springs and fumaroles. The most important manifestations (Agua Agria and Los Infernillos Ciegos) are boiling springs and fumaroles located on the northern slope of the volcano (850 m a.s.l.) along two radial faults. The chloride acid waters of the Los Infernillos area are partly fed by a deep hydrothermal aquifer (crossed at 1100–1300 m by a geothermal exploration well), which finds a preferential path to the surface through the radial fault system. C02 is the most …

The “Camporeale wedge-top Basin” (NW Sicily; Italy) in the frame of the Late Miocene Sicilian Foreland Basin System; Inferences from the Upper Torton…

2011

Abstract Since the latest Oligocene–earliest Miocene the building of the Sicilian fold and thrust belt has been accompanied by development of a “peripheral” foreland basin system which migrated toward the foreland. In north-western Sicily, the sedimentary record of the foreland basin system migration is represented by a stratigraphic succession made up of several lithostratigraphic units, bounded by regional unconformity surfaces, deposited recording at least four main sedimentary phases, each characterized by the development of different types of syntectonic basins. In particular, during the Late Miocene (Late Tortonian to Early Messinian) a wide wedge-top depozone developed in the innermo…

Subsurface geometries in central sicily FTB as a premise for hydrocarbon exploration

2008

The study concerns a sector of the Maghrebian Sicilian Fold and Thrust Belt (FTB), located in central Sicily between the southern edge of the Madonie Mts. and the Caltanissetta trough. Interpretation of recently acquired seismic profiles, constrained by joint detailed stratigraphy and field investigation, revealed the structure of the study area as formed by a thick pile of deep water carbonate (Imerese and Sicanian) thrusts lying on carbonate platform imbricates. In the forward migration of the FTB, two main tectonic events were envisaged; shallow and deep seated thrusts occurred during the Miocene-early Pleistocene time interval that deformed the former sedimentary cover of the continenta…

WALKING ALONG A CRUSTAL PROFILE ACROSS THE SICILY FOLD AND THRUST BELT

2013

Using high-resolution stratigraphy and structural analysis to constrain a “polyphase” tectonics in wedge-top basins. Inferences from the Late Tortoni…

2012

Abstract The present paper aims to show, both from a stratigraphic and structural points of view, the main features of a wedge-top syntectonic basin which evolved recording polyphase and non-coaxial tectonics. The study area is the Scillato Basin ( SB ), a roughly N–S-oriented structural depression located in the central-northern sector of the Sicililian Maghrebides. There, an approximately 1300 m-thick upper Serravallian to upper Tortonian succession of clastic units outcrops as a portion of the Neogene syntectonic covers of the Sicilian fold and thrust belt. Within the outcropping succession the upper Tortonian Terravecchia Fm represents the main topic of this paper. A multidisciplinary a…