Age and Petrogenesis of the Lower Cretaceous North Coast Schist of Tobago, a Fragment of the Proto–Greater Antilles Inter-American Arc System
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The North Coast Schist of Tobago is part of the leading edge of the Caribbean Plate, which has been in oblique collision with northern South America for much of the Cenozoic. The North Coast Schist is dominated by two volcanic "formations" metamorphosed under greenschist-facies conditions during later deformation. The Parlatuvier Formation mostly consists of mafic to intermediate tuffs and tuff breccias with a U-Pb zircon ID-TIMS age of Ma. Trace element data and radiogenic isotopes reveal that the Parlatuvier Formation is derived from a heterogeneous subduction-modified, locally incompatible trace element–enriched, mantle source with some rocks containing the highest 176Hf/177Hf ratios found in the offshore Caribbean. The Mount Dillon Formation comprises silicified tuffs and tuff breccias that are derived from a more isotopically enriched mantle source with a significant slab fluid-related component. A thin belt of amphibolite-facies dynamothermally metamorphosed metavolcanic rocks lies in contact with a younger island arc pluton. Some of these amphibolites have an isotopically similar source to the Parlatuvier Formation but lack a clear subduction-related component. The age, geochemical heterogeneity, and proximal nature of eruption confirm that the North Coast Schist lay within an east-dipping proto–Greater Antilles arc. We propose that the arc system at the time of North Coast Schist magmatism was actively rifting, possibly during development of a back-arc basin. This arc system shut down during the Cretaceous, making way for southwest-dipping Greater Antilles subduction and relative eastward motion of the Caribbean Plate.Keywords:
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Abstract Geothermobarometric and geochronological work indicates a complete Eocene/early Oligocene blueschist/greenschist facies metamorphic cycle of the Cycladic Blueschist Unit on Naxos Island in the Aegean Sea region. Using the average pressure–temperature ( P–T ) method of thermocalc coupled with detailed textural work, we separate an early blueschist facies event at 576 ± 16 to 619 ± 32°C and 15.5 ± 0.5 to 16.3 ± 0.9 kbar from a subsequent greenschist facies overprint at 384 ± 30°C and 3.8 ± 1.1 kbar. Multi‐mineral Rb–Sr isochron dating yields crystallization ages for near peak‐pressure blueschist facies assemblages between 40.5 ± 1.0 and 38.3 ± 0.5 Ma. The greenschist facies overprint commonly did not result in complete resetting of age signatures. Maximum ages for the end of greenschist facies reworking, obtained from disequilibrium patterns, cluster near c . 32 Ma, with one sample showing rejuvenation at c . 27 Ma. We conclude that the high‐ P rocks from south Naxos were exhumed to upper mid‐crustal levels in the late Eocene and early Oligocene at rates of 7.4 ± 4.6 km/Ma, completing a full blueschist‐/greenschist facies metamorphic cycle soon after subduction within c . 8 Ma. The greenschist facies overprint of the blueschist facies rocks from south Naxos resulted from rapid exhumation and associated deformation/fluid‐controlled metamorphic re‐equilibration, and is unrelated to the strong high‐ T metamorphism associated with the Miocene formation of the Naxos migmatite dome. It follows that the Miocene thermal overprint had no impact on rock textures or Sr isotopic signatures, and that the rocks of south Naxos underwent three metamorphic events, one more than hitherto envisaged.
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New exposures of Monian schists in SE Anglesey reveal a transition from weakly foliated, coarse, porphyroblastic actinolite greenschist to intensely foliated, fine-grained blueschist dominated by epidote and sodic amphibole. Textures are interpreted as recording an initial, near-static greenschist recrystallisation of a basic plutonic igneous rock, followed by deformation during continuing metamorphism at greenschist, then blueschist, grades. The sodic amphibole ranges in composition from glaucophane to ferro-glaucophane and crossite. A balanced reaction expressing the greenschist to blue-schist transition is:
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Abstract Psammitic schist, 2 types of pelitic schist (grey and porphyroblastic), and 4 types of greenschist (metavolcanic rock — light, spotted, foliated, and epidote rich) are recognisable on outcrop scale in textural zone 4 of the Otago Schist, northwest Otago, New Zealand. Thin horizons of metachert, marble, and ultramafic rock are commonly associated with greenschist. Broad units with 1 predominant rock type (greenschist, psammite, grey pelite, or porphyroblastic pelite) are mappable on a regional scale. These units also contain most or all of the above rock types and have poorly defined boundaries. The degree of original Stratigraphic continuity within and between these broad units is unknown. The studied area can be subdivided into 2 lithologic associations, the "Aspiring association" and the eastern "Wanaka association", separated by a north-trending, poorly defined but lithologically gradational boundary. The Aspiring association is made up predominantly of pelitic rock types with considerable quantities of greenschist and minor marble, chert, and ultramafic horizons. The Wanaka association consists of psammitic schist with subordinate greenschist and pelitic schist. The proportion of greenschist decreases eastwards. These "associations" represent fundamental lithologic differences within the Otago Schist belt, on a scale equivalent to the previously defined Te Anau Assemblage. Keywords: Otago Schistlithologypelitic schistgreenschistmetachertmarblepsammitic schist
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Abstract The Bikou Group on the Shaanxi‐Gansu‐Sichuan border is composed of Mid‐Late Proterozoic metamorphosed bimodal volcanic rocks and flysch sediments. Its metamorphism may be divided into the blueschist and greenschist facies. Three metamorphic zones, i.e. zones A, B, and C, may be distinguished on the basis of the field distribution of metamorphic rocks and the variation of b 0 values of muscovite. Blueschists are characterized by coexistence of sodic amphiboles and epidote and occur as stripes or relict patches in extensive greenschists of zone A. Studies of metamorphic minerals such as amphiboles, chlorite, epidote and muscovite and their textural relationships indicate that blueschists and greenschists were not formed under the same metamorphic physico‐chemical conditions. The blueschist facies was formed at temperatures of 300‐400°C and pressures of 0.5–0.6 GPa. The greenschist facies in zones A and B has similar temperatures but its pressure is only 0.4 GPa or so. The transition from the blueschist to greenschist facies is a nearly isothermal uplift process. The rock and mineral assemblages of the Bikou Group indicate that the blueschist facies metamorphism of the group might be related to crustal thickening or A‐subduction accompanying the closure of an intracontinental small ocean basin.
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Abstract The Cascine Parasi Mélange (CPM) of the high-pressure, meta-ophiolitic Voltri Massif (Ligurian Western Alps), consists of a foliated chlorite-actinolite greenschist matrix enclosing lenses of metabasites and metasediments. The surrounding units consist of serpentinites not enclosing these metamorphic rocks. The matrix records three sets of folds: (i) Dm1/Dm2 (blueschist to greenschist-facies conditions), which can be correlated to folds in the metasedimentary blocks; (ii) Dm3, which are the most obvious in the field and which partially re-orient the previous structures. The metabasite lenses preserve internal High-Pressure (HP) schistosities unrelated to the matrix foliation. The lenses equilibrated at different peak metamorphic conditions (ranging from eclogite- to blueschist-facies) and some recorded the prograde transition from lawsonite-bearing assemblages to garnet blueschists. Individual lenses display different segments of typical subduction PT paths which apparently converge in the blueschist facies. A late stage greenschist-facies re-equilibration is particularly widespread at the rims of the HP lenses. These structural and metamorphic features suggest that the mélange was active during early phases of the structural evolution of the area, at least through the exhumation and emplacement of the HP blocks into shallower crustal levels at conditions transitional from blueschist- to greenschist-facies; the older history is only preserved inside the blocks. Keywords: tectonic mélangehigh-pressure metamorphismLigurian Alpsexhumation
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Amphibolite-facies Settler Schist in the southeastern Coast Mountains of British Columbia has long been correlated with Chiwaukum Schist of the Cascade metamorphic core, North Cascade Mountains, northwestern Washington. The additional correlation proposed here of Settler Schist with Darrington Phyllite and Shuksan Greenschist (and blueschist) of the Northwest Cascade System in Washington is based on along-strike near-continuity of outcrop areas, a similar protolith composition range, the same structural position relative to the Shuksan fault zone, and distinctive irregular structures in variably metamorphosed sandstone and pelite of both Darrington Phyllite and Settler Schist. If this correlation is valid, then the record of Early Cretaceous; subduction-related blueschist metamorphism of Shuksan–Darrington rocks was destroyed in Settler Schist by overprinting by early Late Cretaceous Barrovian metamorphism; only some distinctive, premetamorphic structures remain. The implication is that within the southeastern Coast Mountains, a cryptic record of subduction is overprinted by Barrovian metamorphism.
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