Cook, C. A. and Holdsworth, R. E. and Styles, M. T. (2002) 'The emplacement of peridotites and associated oceanic rocks from the Lizard Complex, southwest England.', Geological magazine., 139 (1). pp. 27-45.
Upper mantle peridotites and associated oceanic rocks from the Lizard Complex, southwest England, preserve evidence for a multistage geological history. Steeply dipping pre-emplacement fabrics record high-temperature (900-1100 degreesC) shearing and exhumation of the mantle peridotites apparently formed during localized NE-SW rifting in a pull-apart basin setting (c. 400-390 Ma). Associated oceanic rocks (Landewednack amphibolites) preserve a pre-emplacement prograde brown amphibole-bearing metamorphic assemblage and steeply dipping fabric thought to have formed as the newly formed oceanic crust was juxtaposed with newly exhumed hot mantle peridotite during NE-SW rifting. In both the peridotites and Landewednack amphibolites, steep pre-emplacement structures are cross-cut by low-angle mylonitic fabrics thought to have formed during the initial phases of emplacement of mantle over crustal rocks in a partially intra-oceanic setting (c. 390-375 Ma). The fabrics in peridotites and amphibolites exhibit retrograde mineral assemblages (c. 500-800 degreesC), with the amphibolites preserving two superimposed assemblages, green amphibole + titanite and colourless magnesio-hornblende, respectively, that are thought to record progressive down-temperature deformation during thrusting. Emplacement-related structures in both the basal peridotites and amphibolites consistently dip at low to moderate angles NW, with down-dip lineations and kinematic indicators showing consistent top-to-the-NW senses of shear. Syn-emplacement magmatism is recorded by intrusions of foliated Kermack Gneiss. Anastomosing serpentine-filled faults mark many existing low-angle contacts between the peridotites and Landewednack amphibolites and appear to represent the final, lowest-temperature (< 250degreesC) stages of emplacement (c. 370 Ma). This study shows that 'dynamothermal aureoles' in ophiolites may preserve evidence for tectonothermal events that pre-date thrust emplacement.
|Keywords:||Geology, Microstructure, Metamorphism.|
|Full text:||PDF - Published Version (1940Kb)|
|Publisher Web site:||http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0016756801005933|
|Publisher statement:||© Cambridge University Press 2002|
|Record Created:||01 Jul 2008|
|Last Modified:||20 Apr 2011 10:43|
|Social bookmarking:||Export: EndNote, Zotero | BibTex|
|Usage statistics||Look up in GoogleScholar | Find in a UK Library|