Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Metasedimentary rocks in the transition zone between the Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain and the Sergipano Belt (southern Borborema Province, NE Brazil) were studied in order to place constraints on the geological evolution of this portion of West Gondwana. High-grade metamorphic conditions are recorded by the garnet-sillimanite assemblage and common anatexis in pelitic paragneisses. Two samples dated by LA-ICP-MS in the north yielded a predominance of early Neoproterozoic detrital zircons, with age peaks between 990 Ma and 827 Ma, with the youngest grain suggesting deposition after 670 Ma. Low Th/U zircons (Th/U < 0.1) in these samples display a significant spread in ages, from 691 to 568 Ma. One sample in the south is dominated by a homogenous population of Paleoproterozoic grains, with a 2200 Ma peak. The southernmost sample also contains Paleoproterozoic zircons but the most abundant population is Neoproterozoic, and characterized by age peaks at c. 670, 647 and 623 Ma. These results show that deposition of sediments in the southern PEAL Domain and in the northern Sergipano Belt occurred in the Late Neoproterozoic. The differing age spectra between samples are correlated with potential source rocks in the study area or in its proximity, reflecting variable input from local sources. The data are interpreted to indicate that during the course of an extensional event at c. 673-647 Ma, Tonian granitic intrusions and synextensional metamorphic rocks were unroofed and eroded to provide zircons for sediments deposited in the north, whereas Paleoproterozoic and synextensional magmatic rocks were the main sources for sediments in the south. Peak metamorphic conditions and contractional deformation are constrained to c. 630-600 Ma.
ISSN: 0895-9811

hal-01468011
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01468011
DOI : 10.1016/j.jsames.2016.09.010

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Tsavorite is exclusively hosted in the Neoproterozoic Metamorphic Mozambique Belt (NMMB). The gemstone mines, widespread between Kalalani (Tanzania) and Mgama Ridge (Kenya), define a continuous corridor over a hundred kilometers in length. The tsavorite is hosted by a metasedimentary sequence defined as the Kurase tsavorite-bearing metasediments (Kurase-TB metasediments) that also hosts rubies. These metasediments underwent amphibolite-facies metamorphism and are surrounded by granulitic gneisses that are also of sedimentary origin (the Kurase high-temperature gneisses). All these rocks lie below the Kasigau Group, a unit dominated by granulite-facies metamagmatic rocks.To constrain the timing of events that led to this peculiar occurrence of tsavorite, we have performed geochronological analyses of thin sections and of separated grains of zircon, monazite, and rutile using LA-ICP-MS and ID-TIMS, as well as 40Ar/39Ar of muscovite and phlogopite from various lithologies. The results show that the different terranes were metamorphosed synchronously between 620–580 Ma but under different P-T strain conditions. The Kurase-HT gneisses and the rocks from the Kasigau Group are highly strained and underwent granulite-facies metamorphism with abundant partial melting and emplacement of felsic melts between 620 and 600 Ma. Textural observations also underlined a late regional water flux controlling the occurrence of V-free muscovite and monazite mineralizations at 585 Ma. The latter event can be related to the activity of the Galana shear zone, in the east. The Kurase-TB metasediments escaped strain and partial melting. They record amphibolite-facies conditions with static heating, since initial sedimentary structures were locally preserved. The age of the tsavorite mineralization was inferred at 600 Ma from metamorphic zircon rims and monazite from the closest host-rocks, sampled in the mines. Hence, tsavorite crystallization occurred statically at the end of the metamorphic event, probably when the temperature and the amount of volatiles were at maximum levels.Conversely, the ruby formed by local metasomatism of felsic dikes and isolated ultramafic bodies. The rubies are older and zircons and monazites from a ruby-bearing felsic dike (plumasite) were dated at 615 Ma. Finally, data from rutile and micas indicate a global cooling below 430 °C of the whole region between 510 and 500 Ma.
The Canadian Mineralogist

hal-01616037
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01616037
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01616037/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01616037/file/JEM.pdf
DOI : 10.3749/canmin.1700019

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Alpine Corsica consists of a stack of variably metamorphosed units of continental and Tethys-derived rocks. It represents an excellent example of high-pressure (HP) orogenic belt, such as the Western Alps, exposed over a small and accessible area. Compared to the Western Alps, the geology of Alpine Corsica is poorly unraveled. During the 1970s-80s, based on either lithostratigraphic or metamorphic field observations, various classifications of the belt have been proposed, but these classifications have been rarely matched together. Furthermore, through time, the internal complexity of large domains has been progressively left aside in the frame of large-scale geodynamic reconstructions. As a consequence, major open questions on the internal structure of the belt have remained unsolved. Apart from a few local studies, Alpine Corsica has not benefited of modern developments in petrology and basin research. This feature results in several uncertainties when combining lithostratigraphic and metamorphic patterns and, consequently, in the definition of an exhaustive architecture of the belt. In this paper we provide a review on the geology of Alpine Corsica, paying particular attention to the available lithostratigraphic and metamorphic classifications of the metamorphic terranes. These data are completed by a new and exhaustive metamorphic dataset obtained by means of thermometry based on Raman Spectroscopy of Carbonaceous Material (RSCM). This technique provides reliable insights on the peak temperature of the metamorphic history for CM-bearing metasediments. A detailed metamorphic characterization of metasediments, which have been previously largely ignored due to retrogression or to the lack of diagnostic mineralogy, is thus obtained and fruitfully coupled with the available lithostratigraphic data. Nine main tectono-metamorphic units are defined, from subgreenschist (ca. 280-300 °C) to the lawsonite-eclogite-facies (ca. 500-550 °C) condition. These units are homogeneous in metamorphism, laterally continuous and have characteristic lithostratigraphic features. This study also suggests a direct link between the pre-orogenic extensional setting and the present-day compressional structure of Alpine Corsica, indicating that large sections of subducted lithosphere were subducted and exhumed as coherent domains. These features provide important insight on the mechanism of stacking and exhumation of HP rocks, and make Alpine Corsica a unique reference for mountain-building processes in Tethyan-type orogens.
ISSN: 0012-8252

hal-00814433
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00814433
DOI : 10.1016/j.earscirev.2012.10.003

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Tsavorite, the vanadian variety of green grossular, is a high value economic gemstone. It is hosted exclusively in the metasedimentary formations from the Neoproterozoic Metamorphic Mozambique Belt. The deposits are mined in Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar and other occurrences are located in Pakistan and East Antarctica. They are located within metasomatized graphitic rocks such as graphitic gneiss and calc-silicates, intercalated with meta-evaporites. Tsavorite is found as primary deposits either in nodule (type I) or in quartz vein (type II), and in placers (type III). The primary mineralizations (types I and II) are controlled by lithostratigraphy and/or structure. For the African occurrences, the protoliths of the host-rocks were deposited at the beginning of the Neoproterozoic within a marine coastal sabkha environment, located at the margin of the Congo-Kalahari cratons in the Mozambique Ocean. During the East African-Antarctican Orogeny, the rocks underwent high amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism and the formation of tsavorite deposits occurred between 650 and 550 Ma. The nodules of tsavorite were formed during prograde metamorphism, calcium coming from sulphates and carbonates, whereas alumina, silicates, vanadium and chromium probably came from clays and chlorite. The veins were formed during the deformation of the metasedimentary platform units which experienced shearing, leading to the formation of fault-filled veins. Metasomatism developed during retrograde metamorphism. The metasedimentary sequences are characterized by the presence of evaporitic minerals such as gypsum and anhydrite, and scapolite. Evaporites are essential as they provide calcium and permit the mobilization of all the chemical elements for tsavorite formation. The H2S-S8 metamorphic fluids characterized in primary fluid inclusions of tsavorites and the δ11B values of coeval dravite confirm the evaporitic origin of the fluids. The V2O3 and Cr2O3 contents of tsavorite range respectively from 0.05 to 7.5 wt.%, while their δ18O values are in the range of 9.5-21.1‰. The genetic model proposed for tsavorite is metamorphic, based on chemical reactions developed between an initial assemblage composed of gypsum and anhydrite, carbonates and organic matter deposited in a sabkha-like sedimentary basin.
ISSN: 0169-1368

hal-00853279
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00853279
DOI : 10.1016/j.oregeorev.2013.01.016

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
New petrographic and microstructural observations, mineral equilibria modelling and U/Pb (monazite) geochronological studies were carried out to investigate the relationships between deformation and metamorphism across the Rehamna massif (Moroccan Variscan belt). In this area, typical Barrovian (muscovite to staurolite) zones developed in Cambrian to Carboniferous metasedimentary rocks that are distributed around a dome-like structure. First assemblages are characterized by the presence of locally preserved andalusite, followed by prograde evolution culminating at 6 kbar and 620 °C in the structurally deepest staurolite zone rocks. This Barrovian sequence was subsequently uplifted to supracrustal levels, heterogeneously reworked at greenschist facies conditions, which was followed locally by static growth of andalusite, indicating heating to 2.5–4 kbar and 530–570 °C. The 206Pb/238U monazite age of 298.3 ± 4.1 Ma is interpreted as minimum age of peak metamorphic conditions, whereas the ages of 275.8 ± 1.7 Ma and 277.0 ± 1.1 Ma date decompression and heating at low pressure, in agreement with previous dating of Permian granitoids intruding the Rehamna massif. The prograde metamorphism occurred during thickening and associated horizontal flow in the deeper crust (S1 horizontal schistosity). The horizontally disposed metamorphic zones were subsequently uplifted by a regional scale antiform during ongoing N–S compression. The re-heating of the massif follows late massive E–W shortening, refolding and retrograde shearing of all previous fabrics coevally with regionally important intrusions of Permian granitoids. We argue that metamorphic evolution of the Rehamna massif occurred several hundred kilometres from the convergent plate boundaries in the interior of continental Gondwanan plate. The tectonometamorphic history of the Rehamna massif is put into Palaeozoic plate tectonic perspective and Late Carboniferous reactivation of (Devonian)–Early Carboniferous basins formed during stretching of the north Gondwana margin and formation of the Palaeotethys Ocean. The inherited heat budget of these magma-rich basins plays a role in the preferential location of this intracontinental orogen. It is shown that rapid transition from lithospheric stretching to compression is characterized by specific HT type of Barrovian metamorphism, which markedly differs from similar Barrovian sequences along Palaeozoic plate boundaries reported from Variscan Europe.
ISSN: 0263-4929

hal-01468009
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01468009
DOI : 10.1111/jmg.12214

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Detrital zircons in metasedimentary rocks attributed to three different complexes in the Central and Pernambuco-Alagoas domains of the Borborema Province, northeastern Brazil, were dated by LA-ICP-MS. Two samples from each of the following complexes were analyzed: Sertania and Surubim, in the Central Domain, and Rio Una, in the Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain. One sample of the Sertania Complex yielded only Paleoproterozoic zircons, whereas Neoproterozoic zircons predominate in the other, with the youngest zircon indicating deposition after 642 Ma. One of the samples of the Surubim Complex yielded, again, only Paleoproterozoic concordant zircon ages. In the other sample, although Paleoproterozoic zircons predominate, ages vary from the Mesoarchean to the Neoproterozoic. The age of the youngest zircon in this latter sample indicates deposition after 850 Ma and an overgrowth on an Archean grain yielded an age of 623 +/- 6 Ma (2 sigma), interpreted as the age of peak metamorphism. The two samples of the Rio Una Complex yielded predominantly detrital zircons with ages in the ranges 2.2-2.1 Ga and 1.7-1.6 Ga. In this complex, the youngest detrital zircon suggests deposition after 917 Ma and metamorphic zircons indicate peak metamorphic conditions between 600 Ma and 617 Ma.;The results of this study, together with available data from the literature, allow the following conclusions: (a) The Sertania Complex is a Neoproterozoic sequence, and not Paleoproterozoic, as previously thought; (b) The similarity in lithological associations, detrital zircon populations and C isotope signature between the Sertania and Surubim complexes suggest that they belong to the same lithostratigraphic unit; (c) Although the Rio Una Complex can be older than the Sertania/Surubim Complex, the lack of zircons younger than 900 Ma can also result from insufficient sampling or absence of young rocks alongside the drainage system that collected detritus to this complex: (d) The regional metamorphism related to the Brasiliano Orogeny attained its climax at 630-600 Ma; (e) The age spectra of detrital zircons require their derivation from erosion of rocks formed not only during known geological events in the Borborema Province and in the nearby Sao Francisco/Congo Craton, but also from the Amazonian Craton, suggesting accumulation in an intracratonic setting within a preexisting large continent: (f) The short timespan between deposition and orogenic deformation may explain the overall medium- to high-temperature metamorphism due to maintenance, in the subsequent compressional event, of the elevated geothermal gradients produced during broad-scale lithosphere extension.
ISSN: 0301-9268

hal-00443856
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00443856
DOI : 10.1016/j.precamres.2009.09.009

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Field and petrostructural investigations in the Central Mauritanides provide new precisions on the polyorogenic character of the nappe edifice of this belt. The upper structural unit exposed in the Gaoua area includes anatectic gneisses and high-grade metasediments affected by medium temperature, high-pressure metamorphism and cut by granitoids. They represent a basement unconformably overlain by a monometamorphic cover, the Gaoua Group, of assumed lower Paleozoic age. Late Paleozoic regional metamorphism of metapelites from this cover is characterized by pyrophyllite-kyanite-chloritoid assemblages equilibrated at T around 420 degrees C and P = 1 GPa. In the lower structural unit exposed in the south around Boufkerine-Farkaka, metapelites of the Gadel Group display slightly retrogressed garnet-kyanite-staurolite-rutile assemblages that equilibrated at T around 600 degrees C and P >= 1.2 GPa before the intrusion of 639 Ma old plutons. The Gadel Group locally overlies in unconformity polycyclic gneisses. This continental assemblage represents an outboard terrane inserted between two monocyclic greenschist facies terranes: remnants of oceanic lithosphere in the east and arc-derived metasediments and metavolcanics cut by 670 Ma old calc-alkaline plutons in the west. All units have been involved in late Paleozoic nappes emplaced to the east above the West African craton and its late Neoproterozoic to Cambro-ordovician cover. Though an east-directed vergence is locally recorded in the Neoproterozoic units, most early E-W trending stretching and mineral lineations are synchronous with greenschist facies metamorphism developed during the Late Paleozoic and roughly coeval with the Applachian nappe system.
ISSN: 0899-5362

hal-00424501
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00424501
DOI : 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2008.09.004

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
We present an overview of the Mid-Cretaceous hyper-extended rift systemexposed in the northern part of the Pyrenean mountain range. Itsinversion during the Pyrenean orogeny allows for precious observationsof the deep-seated processes occurring at the foot of distal margins.Some peculiar aspects characterizing the pre-Alpine hyper-extended domainare examined throughout the 400 km long suture that is fossilizedin the North Pyrenean Zone (NPZ). The high temperature/low pressure(HT/LP) thermal imprint of the extensional event is studied thanksto a dataset of more than hundred peak temperature measurementsby Raman spectroscopy of the carbonaceous material (RSCM). Thepre- and syn-rift metasediments are characterized by an intense, synmetamorphicductile deformation. Focusing on several key-localitiesof the NPZ, we examine the emplacement conditions of the peridotitesin response to this extreme crustal thinning. Geological evidencessuch as the occurrence of peridotite bodies directly underlying metamorphicpre-rift sediments indicate an early attenuation of the rifted continentalcrust. Moreover, syn-rift, Albian-Cenomanian flysch sequenceswere deposited synchronously with the syn-metamorphic ductile deformationof the pre-rift sequences. All along the Internal MetamorphicZone (IMZ), the base of the flysch deposits also recorded the HT tectonicevent. Such a synchronicity between geological events, which aregenerally separated in time, is not common in mountain belts. We examinehow tectonics, metamorphism and sedimentation may be activein a single basin during extension. We propose an original mechanismfor the evolution of the basins involving continuous basal extraction ofthe pre-rift metamorphic sediments. This early HT deformation eventrelates to the « phase anté-Cénomanienne » described by Pyrenean geologistssince 1930.
24 ème Réunion des sciences de la Terre 2014
Pau, France

insu-01080795
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01080795

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Unusual high-pressure inner thermal aureoles are described from the Minador and Angico Torto epidote-bearing tonalitic plutons that emplaced into green schist-facies metasedimentary rocks of the Neoproterozoic Cachoeirinha-Salgueiro belt, northeastern Brazil. The foliated pelitic hornfelses display the mineral assemblage garnet, kyanite, staurolite, muscovite, biotite, plagioclase +/- quartz. Rare fibrolite is only found very close to the contacts. Hornfelses display steep mineral lineations and steeply-dipping foliations concordant with magmatic contacts. Leucocratic veinlets containing quartz, oligoclase, garnet, kyanite, staurolite, rutile and ilmenite suggest that limited melting conditions were reached very close to magmatic contacts (T >= 650 degrees C, P around 8 kbar). These high-pressure hornfelses form a few meters thick, rigid envelopes around the two plutons. Contrary to known examples of kyanite-bearing hornfelses that recorded high-temperature decompression, the nearly isobaric cooling down to ca. 450 degrees C is constrained by 3.20-3.30 Si contents of retrogressive phengites from both inner hornfelses and ductilely-deformed tonalite at the pluton margins. Isograds and bathograds are, therefore, apparently telescoped due to HP/LT shearing, possibly caused by subsequent differential vertical movements affecting these two solidified plutons. The unusual depth of emplacement of these syn-kinematic calc-alkaline plutons is explained by a tentative geodynamic model involving a pre-620 Ma-subduction setting.
ISSN: 0895-9811

hal-00424503
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00424503
DOI : 10.1016/j.jsames.2008.09.005