Terrane

About: Terrane is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11025 publications have been published within this topic receiving 442596 citations. The topic is also known as: tectonostratigraphic terrane.

The Variscan orogeny in the Saxo-Thuringian zone—Heterogenous overprint of Cadomian/Paleozoic Peri-Gondwana crust

Abstract: The Saxo-Thuringian zone of the European Variscides contains the record of the Cadomian and Variscan orogenies and a Paleozoic marine transition stage. The classical view of a relatively simple, double-vergent folded sedimentary basin at the end of the Early Carboniferous is challenged by the widespread occurrence of Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous high-pressure metamorphic units tectonically juxtaposed with low-grade Paleozoic successions. Here we demonstrate that the subdivision of the Saxo-Thuringian zone in three principal units (autochthonous domain, wrench and thrust zone, and allochthonous domain) and their heterogeneous overprint by two regional deformation events during the Variscan orogeny explain the entire geological record. Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous subduction of continental crust inside the allochthonous domain affected a Cadomian basement and sediments deposited on the same continental shelf as the one preserved in the autochthonous domain. Strain partitioning during this regional D1 process led to the formation and evolution of a wrench and thrust zone surrounding the autochthonous domain. The latter was only affected by regional D2 deformation, which was related to regional dextral transpression, rapid exhumation of the subducted rocks of the allochthonous domain, and fi nal fi lling and subsequent folding of the Saxo-Thuringian fl ysch basin that covers the autochthonous domain and the wrench and thrust zone. The SaxoThuringian zone is interpreted as a fragment of Peri-Gondwana that never separated from Gondwana to move as an independent terrane and that borders to the Old Red continent, represented by the Rheno-Hercynian zone, along a strike-slip dominated segment of the Rheic suture. The juxtaposition of the Saxo-Thuringian zone with the adjacent areas is discussed as a continuous subduction and/or accretion process representative for the entire Variscan orogen.

Pennsylvanian pluton stitching of Wrangellia and the Alexander terrane, Wrangell Mountains, Alaska

Abstract: A quartz monzonite-syenite-alkali granite plutonic complex in eastern Alaska crosscuts the contact of the Alexander terrane and Wrangellia and intrudes the basement rocks of both terranes. Zircon U-Pb data indicate an intrusion age of 309 {plus minus} 5 Ma (Middle Pennsylvanian) for the pluton, and {sup 40}K-{sup 40}Ar age for hornblende separates indicate cooling to about 450 C during Middle Pennsylvanian-Early Permian time. The new field relations and age data demonstrate the Wrangellia and the Alexander terrane were contiguous during the Middle Pennsylvanian. This conclusion provides an important new constraint on paleogeographic reconstructions of the northwest Cordillera, and necessitates reassessment of stratigraphic and paleomagnetic data that were cited as evidence that the terranes evolved separately until the late Mesozoic.

Guerrero terrane of Mexico: Its role in the Southern, Cordillera from new geochemical data

Abstract: The Guerrero terrane makes up most of the western part of Mexico, is one of the largest terranes of the North American Cordillera, and is characterized by an Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous volcanic-sedimentary sequence of are affinity. Metamorphic rocks that crop out in the western area of the terrane (Arteaga complex) may represent its basement. They are mostly composed of terrigenous sediments (Varales Formation) with minor basaltic pillow lavas, chert, tuff, and limestone. Initial ϵ Nd values (+13) and rare earth element (REE) values for pillow lavas of the Arteaga complex are characteristic of mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB). In contrast, the Varales Formation sedimentary rocks from the Arteaga complex have negative initial ϵ Nd (-6.2 and -7.2) and are enriched in light REEs. These data indicate that the sediments of the Varales Formation were supplied from an evolved continental crust. The overlying Jurassic(?)-Cretaceous arc-related rocks have initial ϵ Nd (+7.9 to +3.9) and REE patterns similar to those of evolved intraoceanic island arcs. These data show that the evolution of the Guerrero terrane had an early pre-Cretaceous(?) stage, which consisted of an oceanic crust receiving sediments from a continental source, and a Cretaceous stage, which was the development of an island arc.The oceanic-continental isotopic signature of the Arteaga complex is different from other western North American Cordilleran terranes (e.g., Alexander, Wrangelfia) that are more completely "oceanic" in affinity. Nevertheless, the extensive Jurassic(?).Cretaceous arc represents additions of juvenile material to the western North American Cordillera.

A major Oligo-Miocene detachment in southern Rhodope controlling north Aegean extension

Abstract: Plutonic and metamorphic rocks of the southwest part of the Rhodope massif in Greece correspond to ductile lower crust exhumed and deformed along a major detachment during post-thickening extensional tectonics. Extension started during the Oligocene and is responsible for the development of Miocene–Quaternary sedimentary basins. Both brittle and ductile deformations result from gravity collapse of previously thickened lithosphere, as proposed for others large extended terranes. This interpretation disagrees with the previous models which attributed Tertiary ductile deformation to Alpine thrusting and brittle extensional deformation to back arc tectonics above a subduction zone.

Cooling and inferred uplift/erosion history of the Grenville Orogen, Ontario: Constraints from 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology

Abstract: Stepwise 40Ar/39Ar degassing experiments of 57 mineral separates of hornblende, muscovite, biotite, and perthitic microcline have been used in conjunction with petrologic observations to place regional constraints on the postmetamorphic cooling and the inferred uplift and erosion history of the Grenville Orogen in Ontario. The 40Ar/39Ar data support an interpretation of slow, nearly uniform cooling (1°–4°C/m.y.) from temperatures of ˜500°C to below ˜150°C. In the Central Gneiss Belt (CGB) hornblendes cooled through Ar closure between 930 and 1025 Ma, whereas in the Central Metasedimentary Belt (CMB) hornblendes record the following range in 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages: 1104 Ma in the Frontenac terrane, 1007–1067 Ma in the Sharbot Lake terrane, 919–1026 Ma in the Elzevir terrane, and 972 Ma in the Central Metasedimentary Belt Boundary Zone. Regional uplift/erosion rates of 0.03–0.14 km/m.y. have been estimated for the Grenville Orogen in Ontario based on the 40Ar/39Ar data, a model retrograde P-T path for rocks of the CGB, and an upper time constraint provided by flat, overlying Cambrian and Ordovician sediments. These erosion rates are consistent with rates estimated for other Proterozoic or Archean granulite terranes but are an order of magnitude slower than active orogens such as the Alps and Himalayas. A regular variation in hornblende 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages is observed in rocks that traverse highly strained often mylonitic shear zones that separate the four major terranes of the CMB. The pattern of 40Ar/39Ar ages is interpreted to reflect late-tectonic extension, consistent with field observations in the Central Metasedimentary Belt Boundary Zone and elsewhere in the CMB. Up to 13 km of vertical displacement is inferred for some rocks in the CMB between the time they cooled below closure to argon diffusion in hornblende (˜500°C) and their exposure at the surface (˜25°C).