Remagnetisation of the Caerfai Group (lower Cambrian, SW Wales) in hot geothermal fluids during Caledonian (pre-Acadian) metamorphism

Abstract

Palaeomagnetic data from the Lower Cambrian red beds of the Caerfai Group in Pembrokeshire, South Wales have been revisited. Original studies all produced closely similar directional data with the combined results yielding a palaeomagnetic pole at 21.8^oS; 355.5°E corresponding to a time of ∼430 Ma when compared with the APWP of Stable Europe and Baltica. The results of this study indicate that remagnetisation occurred during Caledonian metamorphism, prior to Acadian deformation in the area. The magnetic remanence is carried by fine grained hematite distributed throughout the sequence and which appears to have been acquired during the duration of a single chron. This time zone is traditional early Silurian (late Llandovery) and corresponds to the docking of Baltica and east Avalonia with the Laurentian continent. The proposed age of the remagnetisation event is consistent with radiometric ages from epizonal authigenic illites in overlying Middle Cambrian bentonites at Porth-y-Rhaw and elsewhere in the Welsh Basin and other parts of Avalonia including Charnwood block and Brabantia. The Caerfai Group comprises texturally immature litharenites with a mineral assemblage including chlorite, biotite, muscovite, graphite, and epidote consistent with a greenschist facies source area which remains unidentified. A key component of the Caerfai mineral assemblage are magnetite crystals (typically 30–60 μm) deposited during contemporaneous volcanic activity. Deep burial during the drift of Avalonia, indicated by clay transformations and overpressure in the Caerfai Bay Mudstone, was associated with the alteration of iron-bearing minerals and the dissolution of magnetite. During collision of Avalonia/Baltica with Laurentia a geothermal cell with epizonal metamorphic conditions (>300 °C) and fluids enriched in iron, probably in the form of iron chloride complexes was established. The remagnetisation event was triggered when the geothermal cell was cooled, most likely by the infiltration of meteoric water, and the reaction of iron chloride with water produced the widespread precipitation of fine-grained hematite and the formation of a chemical remanent magnetisation (CRM).