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Temperature, Pressure and Metamorphic Fluid Regimes in the Amphibolite Facies to Granulite Facies Transition Zones

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The Deep Proterozoic Crust in the North Atlantic Provinces

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIC,volume 158))

Abstract

Regional metamorphic progressions from amphibolite facies to granulite facies may be fossil profiles of the lower crust or may outline ancient “hot-spots” or collision zones. Paleotemperatures in different transition zones range from 650°C to 800°C, with pressures of below 5 to nearly 8 kbar, based on the most reliable geothermometry-geobarometry. Water activities were 0.35 and lower, based on calculations of orthopyroxene stability, fluid inclusions, and volatiles in cordierite. Oxygen fugacities were remarkably variable. High activities of F, CO2 and SO2 are recorded in fluorbiotite and scapolite.

Paleotemperatures increase across some transition zones, as in the Adirondack Highlands, the Willyama Complex (S. Australia), and the West Uusimaa Complex of South Finland. Some areas show increase of pressure towards higher grade, compatible with the depth-zone concept, as in southern India. Others record nearly isobaric increase of grade, as in Namaqualand, South Africa, and West Uusimaa. Granulites of the Nain Area, Labrador, are spatially distributed about the anorthosite bodies and show no correlation of pressures and temperatures, as might be expected of contact metamorphism at variable depth. Many transition zones show progressively lower H2O activity with increasing grade: decreasing water pressure seems to have been the most important factor in producing granulite terrains.

Opening and closing of an infracontinental ocean basin could provide a plausible, but possibly not unique, explanation of some features of the granulite transition zones, including overthrusts, involvement of anorogenic igneous rocks and evaporites, and pressures of 5 to 8 kbar.

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  1. Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA

    Robert C. Newton

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  1. Earth Science Institute, State University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Alex C. Tobi

  2. Earth Science Institute, The Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jacques L. R. Touret

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Newton, R.C. (1985). Temperature, Pressure and Metamorphic Fluid Regimes in the Amphibolite Facies to Granulite Facies Transition Zones. In: Tobi, A.C., Touret, J.L.R. (eds) The Deep Proterozoic Crust in the North Atlantic Provinces. NATO ASI Series, vol 158. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5450-2_6

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