Search results for "Crust"

Serbo-Macedonian revisited: A Silurian basement terrane from northern Gondwana in the Internal Hellenides, Greece

2009

Abstract New geochronological and geochemical data on basement orthogneisses from the Vertiskos Unit of the Serbo-Macedonian Massif (SMM), Internal Hellenides, northern Greece, are used in order to constrain the pre-Alpine tectonic history of the basement units in the metamorphic hinterland of the Hellenides. The prevailing rock types in the Vertiskos crystalline basement are coarse-grained biotite augengneisses with subordinate leucocratic muscovite gneisses and two-mica gneisses. Zircon Pb–Pb and U–Pb ages on 20 samples range from 425.9 ± 4.2 Ma to 443.4 ± 5.5 Ma with a mean of 432.2 ± 3.2 Ma and are interpreted as primary crystallisation ages of the basement granites on the basis of the …

Palaeozoic arc magmatism in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt of Kazakhstan: SHRIMP zircon ages and whole-rock Nd isotopic systematics

2008

Abstract Early Palaeozoic tonalite to granodiorite intrusions in northern Kazakhstan are associated with lode gold mineralization and have SHRIMP zircon ages of 457.3 ± 6.6 Ma (Aksu), 452.9 ± 5.6 Ma and 447.4 ± 5.4 Ma (both Zholymbet). The Stepnyak intrusion contains large xenoliths with an age of 480.6 ± 5.0 Ma. One early Palaeozoic zircon from a porphyritic diorite at Stepnyak has a core with a near-concordant 207Pb/206Pb age of 3888 ± 1.5 Ma, whereas other xenocrystic grains are between 983 and 2698 Ma old. The early Archaean age is probably inherited from unexposed basement of the Kokchetav Massif and represents the oldest crustal material so far known from the Asian continent. It appea…

Os isotopes and highly siderophile elements (HSE) in the Ligurian Ophiolites, Italy.

2000

The Os isotopic and highly siderophile element (HSE) concentration systematics of the upper mantle have been the focus of much recent interest. However, little systematic study has addressed the combined HSE and Os isotopes in mantle rocks from MOR ophiolites. The Ligurian ophiolites in northern Italy represent an important class of ophiolites representing, like Zabargad or the Galicia margin, crust with clear ocean ridge affinity floored by older mantle with arguably more continental affinities [Rampone et al., J. Petrol. 36, 18–105, 1995; Rampone et al., Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 123, 61–67, 1996]. We have studied a suite of 15 geochemically and geologically well characterized mantle peri…

Late Neoarchean synchronous TTG gneisses and potassic granitoids in southwestern Liaoning Province, North China Craton: Zircon U-Pb-Hf isotopes, geoc…

2019

Abstract Abundant late Neoarchean granitoids occur in southwestern Liaoning Province, part of the Eastern Ancient Terrane of the North China Craton. These rocks include intermediate gneiss, TTG gneisses and potassic granitoids, and we report on the geochemistry and zircon SHRIMP ages as well as Hf-in-zircon isotopes of these granitoids in order to determine their petrogenesis. Field relationships suggest that most of these granitoids experienced widespread metamorphism and deformation, associated with anatexis at some localities. The intermediate gneisses, TTG gneisses and potassic granitoids were all emplaced at the end of the Neoarchean (2.50–2.53 Ga), and CL images document widespread re…

Influence of pre-existing fabrics on fault kinematics and rift geometry of interacting segments: Analogue models based on the Albertine Rift (Uganda)…

2011

This study aims at showing how far pre-existing crustal weaknesses left behind by Proterozoic mobile belts, that pass around cratonic Archean shields (Tanzania Craton to the southeast and Congo Craton to the northwest), control the geometry of the Albertine Rift. Focus is laid on the development of the Lake Albert and Lake Edward/George sub-segments and between them the greatly uplifted Rwenzori Mountains, a horst block located within the rift and whose highest peak rises to >5000 m above mean sea level. In particular we study how the southward propagating Lake Albert sub-segment to the north interacts with the northward propagating Lake Edward/George sub-segment south of it, and how this i…

Rifted margin formation in the South Tyrrhenian Sea: A high resolution profile across the North Sicily passive continental margin.

2000

A new, 150 km long seismic line across the continental margin of north Sicily has been acquired and interpreted. The overall structure of the margin is controlled by extension, which caused crustal thinning and widespread normal faulting. Two main thinned zones are observed in the south in correspondence with the Cafalù basin and farther to the north at the continent-ocean transition. Zones of thinned crust coincide with zones of intense normal faulting. Extension began in late Tortonian times and caused the opening of the Cefalù basin controlled by a northward dipping listric fault. Messinian stretching affected most of the future margin and provoked a widening of the Cefalù basin and norm…

Lithospheric P- and S-wave velocity models of the Sicilian area using WAM tomography: Procedure and assessments

2013

We present 3-D models of the P- and S-wave velocity distributions in the crust and uppermost mantle beneath Sicily, Calabria (Southern Italy), and surrounding submerged areas, obtained by tomographic inversion of traveltimes of regional body waves phases. Our method combines double-difference tomographic inversion with a post-processing procedure [Weighted Average Model method (WAM)]. This procedure was applied to a set of models consistent with the experimental data. We tested the ability of the WAM procedure to mitigate the uncertainty associated with the arbitrary nature of the many input parameters required for each inversion. The local reliability and resolution of the obtained models …

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

2013

The building blocks of continental crust: Evidence for a major change in the tectonic setting of continental growth at the end of the Archean

2013

Abstract Oceanic arcs are commonly cited as primary building blocks of continents, yet modern oceanic arcs are mostly subducted. Also, lithosphere buoyancy considerations show that oceanic arcs (even those with a felsic component) should readily subduct. With the exception of the Arabian–Nubian orogen, terranes in post-Archean accretionary orogens comprise  50%) produced in continental arcs. Felsic igneous rocks in oceanic arcs are depleted in incompatible elements compared to average continental crust and to felsic igneous rocks from continental arcs. They have lower Th/Yb, Nb/Yb, Sr/Y and La/Yb ratios, reflecting shallow mantle sources in which garnet did not exist in the restite during m…

Bivergent extension in orogenic belts: The Menderes massif (southwestern Turkey)

1995

The central Menderes massif is characterized by an overall dome-shaped foliation pattern and a north-northeast-trending stretching lineation. The asymmetry of shear bands and quartz c-axis fabrics on either side of the structural dome demonstrate a top to the north-northeast shear sense in the northern part and a top to the south-southwest shear sense in the southern part of the submassif, i.e., a bivergent downdip movement. This suggests a symmetric collapse of the Alpine Menderes orogenic belt along two extensional shear zones. Conjugate shear bands and symmetric quartz c-axis fabrics in the east-trending transition zone demonstrate a coaxial deformation between the two extension domains.…