Discrete ultrahigh-pressure domains in the Western Gneiss Region, Norway: implications for formation and exhumation |
| |
| Authors: | D B ROOT B R HACKER P B GANS M N DUCEA E A EIDE J L MOSENFELDER |
| |
| Institution: | Department of Geological Sciences, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA (); Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; Geological Survey of Norway, Leiv Erikssons vei 39, 7491 Trondheim, Norway; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | New eclogite localities and new 40Ar/39Ar ages within the Western Gneiss Region of Norway define three discrete ultrahigh‐pressure (UHP) domains that are separated by distinctly lower pressure, eclogite facies rocks. The sizes of the UHP domains range from c. 2500 to 100 km2; if the UHP culminations are part of a continuous sheet at depth, the Western Gneiss Region UHP terrane has minimum dimensions of c. 165 × 50 × 5 km. 40Ar/39Ar mica and K‐feldspar ages show that this outcrop pattern is the result of gentle regional‐scale folding younger than 380 Ma, and possibly 335 Ma. The UHP and intervening high‐pressure (HP) domains are composed of eclogite‐bearing orthogneiss basement overlain by eclogite‐bearing allochthons. The allochthons are dominated by garnet amphibolite and pelitic schist with minor quartzite, carbonate, calc‐silicate, peridotite, and eclogite. Sm/Nd core and rim ages of 992 and 894 Ma from a 15‐cm garnet indicate local preservation of Precambrian metamorphism within the allochthons. Metapelites within the allochthons indicate near‐isothermal decompression following (U)HP metamorphism: they record upper amphibolite facies recrystallization at 12–17 kbar and c. 750 °C during exhumation from mantle depths, followed by a low‐pressure sillimanite + cordierite overprint at c. 5 kbar and c. 750 °C. New 40Ar/39Ar hornblende ages of 402 Ma document that this decompression from eclogite‐facies conditions at 410–405 Ma to mid‐crustal depths occurred in a few million years. The short timescale and consistently high temperatures imply adiabatic exhumation of a UHP body with minimum dimensions of 20–30 km. 40Ar/39Ar muscovite ages of 397–380 Ma show that this extreme heat advection was followed by rapid cooling (c. 30 °C Myr?1), perhaps because of continued tectonic unroofing. |
| |
| Keywords: | 40Ar/39Ar cordierite eclogite Norway thermobarometry ultrahigh pressure |
|
|
