The protracted tectonic and magmatic record of cratons over the Archaean Eon has been classically interpreted in terms of long-lived shallow-dipping subduction or repeated mantle plumes. In this paper, we use the 1D conductive heat equation to model the evolution of the geotherm of a generic felsic-dominated Archaean cratonic nuclei solely considering the secular decay of radioactive isotopes (238U, 235U, 232Th, and 40K), responsible for heat production in the crust. Using a range of plausible parameters for crustal thickness, lithospheric thickness, and surface heat flux, this modelling shows that Archaean crust was characterized by an initially high geothermal gradient at 3.5 Ga, with a Moho temperature close to 900 °C, and that it might have remained partially molten for about one billion years. The existence of a partially molten crust for an extended period of time offers an alternative option to shallow-dipping subduction or repeated mantle plumes for the understanding of the peculiar tectonic evolution of Archaean cratons marked by (i) protracted high-temperature metamorphism and magmatism associated with crustal differentiation, and (ii) widespread deformation characterized by structural domes attributed to the development of crustal-scale gravitational instabilities. 相似文献
Subvolcanic ring complexes are unusual in that they preserve a rapidly frozen record of intrusive events. This sequential history is generally lost or complicated in plutons owing to mixing and mingling in a dynamic state. Thus, subvolcanic ring complexes are more like erupted rocks in their preservation of instantaneous events, but the self-contained nature of the complexes allows detailed structural and chemical work to be conducted in environments where the relative timing between individual magmatic events is commonly well preserved.
We suggest that development of subvolcanic ring complexes in the western Peninsular Ranges Batholith (PRB) involved the following three-stage generalized sequence: (1) fracturing of the roof above a buoyant or overpressured magma chamber, which resulted in moderately inward-dipping conical fractures that locally hosted cone sheets; (2) subsequent loss of magma from the chamber, combined with degassing of the melt, which facilitated collapse of the roof along near-vertical ring faults that locally hosted ring dikes; and (3) resurgence of the chamber, and/or intrusion of a broadly cogenetic nested pluton, which locally destroyed evidence for the earlier history of the system. This sequence has been repeated twice in one of the ring complexes that we have identified, which resulted in nested intrusive centers.
Calderas, subvolcanic ring complexes and plutons may represent progressively deeper sections through linked magma plumbing systems, and the systematic occurrences of these features in the western PRB are consistent with progressively deeper along-strike exposures of the batholith from south to north over a distance greater than 250 km.
In addition to subvolcanic complexes in the western PRB, deeper crustal levels exposed in the transition zone between eastern and western parts of the batholith preserve ring complexes emplaced at depths of up to 18 km. Occurrence of these deeper-level complexes suggests either that caldera subsidence can extend to mid-crustal levels or that other processes can produce ring complexes. 相似文献
Rocks of the Neoproterozoic Mwashya Subgroup (former Upper Mwashya) form the uppermost sedimentary unit of the Roan Group. Based on new field and drill hole observations, the Mwashya is subdivided into three formations: (1) Kamoya, characterized by dolomitic silty shales/siltstones/sandstones and containing a regional marker (the “Conglomerate de Mwashya” bed or complex); (2) Kafubu, formed by finely bedded black carbonaceous shales; and (3) Kanzadi, marked by feldspathic sandstones. Rocks of the Mwashya Subgroup are overlain by the Sturtian age Grand Conglomérat diamictite (equivalent to the Varianto/Brazil and Chuos/Namibia diamictites), and conformably overlie rocks of the Kansuki Formation (former Lower Mwashya), a carbonate unit containing volcaniclastic beds. New geochemical data confirm the continental rift context of this magmatism, which is contemporaneous with rift-related volcanism of the Askevold Formation (Nosib Group, Namibia). A gradational lithological transition between rocks of the Kansuki and the underlying Kanwangungu Formations, and similar petrological composition of these two formations, support the hypothesis that the Kansuki is the uppermost unit of the carbonate-dominated Dipeta/Kanwangungu sequence, and does not form part of the Mwashya Subgroup. Base metal deposits, mostly hosted in rocks of the Kansuki Formation, include weakly disseminated early-stage low-grade Cu–Co mineralisation, which was reworked and enriched, or initially deposited, by metamorphic fluids associated with the Lufilian orogenic event. 相似文献