Search results for "Oceanic plateau"
showing 7 items of 7 documents
The southern margin of the Caribbean Plate in Venezuela: tectono-magmatic setting of the ophiolitic units and kinematic evolution
2002
Abstract The southern Caribbean Plate margin in Venezuela consists of a W–E elongated deformed belt, composed of several tectonic units dismembered along the northern part of the South America continental Plate since the Late Cretaceous. The present review, based on petrology and tectono-magmatic significance of each unit, makes it possible to define the main geotectonic elements and to reconstruct the paleogeographic domains from Late Jurassic to Tertiary: (a) Mid-Ocean Ridge Basalt (MORB) proto-Caribbean oceanic basin (Loma de Hierro Unit); (b) oceanic plateau (Dutch and Venezuelan Islands basement); (c) rifted continental margin (Cordillera de La Costa and Caucagua–El Tinaco Units) with …
Partial melting of metabasic rocks and the generation of tonalitic–trondhjemitic–granodioritic (TTG) crust in the Archaean: Constraints from phase eq…
2020
Abstract Rocks of tonalitic–trondhjemitic–granodioritic (TTG) composition preserved in Archaean terranes represent fragments of the Earth’s earliest-formed continental crust, and are thought to have formed via partial melting of hydrated metabasalt. The geodynamic environments in which such high-grade metamorphism and anatexis may have occurred in the early Earth is strongly debated. Constraining the pressure ( P ) and temperature ( T ) conditions at which melts of appropriate composition can be derived from protoliths containing plausible mineral assemblages is central to addressing this question. Phase equilibrium modelling has been undertaken for an enriched Archaean tholeiite bulk compo…
Age of initial oceanic magmatism in the Late Proterozoic Arabian Shield
1992
Lead isotopic data for zircons from a dacite clast in a volcanic breccia of the oldest oceanic assemblage (immature arc or oceanic plateau) of the southwestern Arabian Shield (Baish group), acquired with the single-grain evaporation technique, yielded a mean 207 Pb/ 206 Pb age of 842 ±17 Ma. Earlier published Rb-Sr data for Baish rocks yielded a three-point isochron of 1165 ±110 Ma. This age has been repeatedly cited as evidence for pre-1 Ga arc magmatism in the Arabian Shield. However, more recent Rb-Sr data and zircon ages for clastic metasedimentary rocks are in agreement with our new zircon age, suggesting that initial oceanic magmatism in the Arabian Shield did not begin until after 90…
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 …
Polarity-reversal subduction zone initiation triggered by buoyant plateau obstruction
2022
Abstract Oceanic lithosphere worldwide is younger than ca. 200 Myr, suggesting that it must have been globally recycled by the recurrent formation of new subduction zones since the existence of subduction on Earth. However, postulated subduction zone initiation processes remain difficult to explain in many cases, and the specific geodynamic conditions under which these might occur are still largely unknown. We here use numerical models driven by the internal force balance of a subduction system to better understand the (geo)dynamics governing (intra-oceanic) polarity-reversal subduction zone initiation. This initiation mode assumes that the birth of a new subduction zone could be triggered …