Caledonian eclogite-facies metamorphism of early Proterozoic protoliths from the North-East Greenland Eclogite Province

Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology
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Abstract

High-pressure metamorphic assemblages occur in mafic, ultramafic and a few intermediate rocks in a gneiss complex that covers an area of approximately 400 ?? 100 km in the North-East Greenland Caledonides. Detailed petrologic and geochronologic studies were carried out on three samples in order to clarify the P-T-t evolution of this eclogite province. Geothermobarometry yields temperature estimates of 700-800 ??C and pressure estimates of at least 1.5 GPa from an ecologite senu stricto and a high as 2.35 GPa for a garnet websterite. The eclogite defines a garnet-clinopyroxene-amphibole-whole rock Sm-Nd isochron age of 405 ?? 24 Ma (MSWSD 0.9). Isofacial garnet websterites define garnet-clinopyroxene-orthopyroxene-amphibole-whole rock-(biotite) ages of 439 ?? 8 Ma (MSWD = 2.1) for a coarse=grained sample and 370 ?? 12 Ma (MSWD = 0.6) for a finer-grained variety. Overgrowths on zircons from the fine-grained pyroxenite and the eclogite give a pooled 206Pb/238U SHRIMP age of 377 ?? 7 Ma (n = 4). Significantly younger Rb-Sr biotite ages of 357 ?? 8, 330 ?? 6 and 326 ?? 6 agree withyoung Rb-Sr, K-Ar and 40Ar/39Ar mineral ages from the gneiss complex and indicate slow cooling of the eclogitic rocks. High-pressure metamorphism may have been at least 439 Ma old (Siluro-Ordovician) with cooling through amphibolite-facies conditions in the Devonian and continued crustal thinning and exhumation well into the Carboniferous. Sm-Nd whole rock model ages indicate the eclogite protoliths are Early Proterozoic in age, while 207Pb/206Pb SHRIMP ages of 1889 ?? 8 from an-hedral zircon cores probably reflect Proterozoic metasomatism. The samples have negative ??Nd values (-5 to -16) and elevated 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.708-0.715), consistent with field evidence that the eclogite protoliths were an integral part of the continental crust long before Caledonian metamorphism. The presence of a large Caledonian eclogite terrane in Greenland requires modification of current tectonic models that postulate subduction of Baltica beneath Laurentia during the Caledonian orogeny.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Caledonian eclogite-facies metamorphism of early Proterozoic protoliths from the North-East Greenland Eclogite Province
Series title Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology
DOI 10.1007/s004100050353
Volume 130
Issue 2
Year Published 1998
Language English
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology
First page 103
Last page 120
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