Geosphere最新文献

{"title":"Picture Gorge Basalt: Internal stratigraphy, eruptive patterns, and its importance for understanding Columbia River Basalt Group magmatism","authors":"E. Cahoon, M. Streck, A. Koppers","doi":"10.1130/ges02508.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02508.1","url":null,"abstract":"The Picture Gorge Basalt (PGB) of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) has been previously thought to be limited in its eruptive volume (<3000 km3) and thought to not extend far from its type locality. At present, PGB represents only 1.1 vol% of the CRBG with a relatively limited spatial distribution of ~10,000 km2. New age data illustrate that the PGB is the earliest and longest eruptive unit compared to other main-phase CRBG formations and that some dated basaltic flows reach far (~100 km) beyond the previously mapped extent. This study focuses on extensive outcrops of basaltic lavas and dikes south of the type locality at Picture Gorge, in order to reassess the spatial distribution and eruptive volume of the PGB. Field observations coupled with geochemical data indicate that PGB lava flows and mafic dikes covered a significantly greater area than shown on the published geologic maps. We find that additional mafic dikes located farther south of the original mapped distribution have geochemical compositions and northwest-trending orientations comparable to the dikes of the Monument dike swarm. We also identify new lava flows that can be correlated where stratigraphic control is well defined toward the original mapped PGB distribution. Our analyses and correlations are facilitated by comparison of 20 major- and trace-element abundances via a principal component analysis. This statistical comparison provides a new detailed distribution of PGB with stratigraphic significance that more than doubles the total distribution of PGB lavas and dikes and brings the eruptive volume to a new minimum of at least ~4200 km3. Geochemically correlated basaltic lavas and dikes in the extended distribution of PGB represent the earlier and later sections of the internal PGB stratigraphy. This is an intriguing observation as new geochronological data suggest an eruptive hiatus of ~400 k.y. during PGB volcanic activity, which occurred from 17.23 Ma to 15.76 Ma.\u0000 The geochemical identifiers used to differentiate PGB from other main-phase CRBG formations include lower TiO2 (<2 wt%) concentrations, lower incompatible trace-element (i.e., La, Th, and Y) abundances, and a more pronounced enrichment in large-ion-lithophile elements (LILEs) on a primitive mantle–normalized trace-element diagram (Sun and McDonough, 1989). Geochemical characteristics of PGB are interpreted to represent a magmatic source component distinct from the other main-phase CRBG units, possibly a localized backarc-sourced mantle melt. However, this source cannot be spatially restricted as there are observed PGB lava flows and dikes extending as far east as Lake Owyhee and as far south as Hart Mountain, covering at least 15,000 km2. In context with the existing stratigraphy and the new extent of PGB lavas and dikes, these ages and coupled geochemical signatures demonstrate this mantle component was not spatially localized but rather tapped across a wide region.","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42474882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Critical workforce skills for bachelor-level geoscientists: An analysis of geoscience job advertisements","authors":"K. Viskupic, A. Egger, G. Shafer","doi":"10.1130/ges02581.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02581.1","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding the skills bachelor-level geoscientists need to enter the workforce is critical to their success. The goal of this study was to identify the workforce skills that are most requested from a broad range of geoscience employers. We collected 3668 job advertisements for bachelor-level geoscientists and used a case-insensitive, code-matching function in Matlab to determine the skills geoscience employers seek. Written communication (67%), field skills (63%), planning (53%), and driving (51%) were most frequently requested. Field skills and data collection were frequently found together in the ads. Written communication skills were common regardless of occupation. Quantitative skills were requested less frequently (23%) but were usually mentioned several times in the ads that did request them, signaling their importance for certain jobs. Some geoscience-specific skills were rarely found, such as temporal understanding (5%) and systems thinking (0%). We also subdivided field skills into individual tasks and ranked them by employer demand. Site assessments and evaluations, unspecified field tasks, and monitoring were the most frequently requested field skills. This study presents the geoscience community with a picture of the skills sought by employers of bachelor-level geoscientists and provides departments and programs with data they can use to assess their curricula for workforce preparation.","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47424603","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tectonomagmatic evolution of southwestern Laurentia: Insights from zircon U-Pb geochronology and hafnium isotopic composition of the Red Bluff Granite Suite, west Texas, USA","authors":"M. A. Mahar, P. Goodell, J. Ricketts, Eric J. Kappus, J. Crowley, A. Alvarez","doi":"10.1130/ges02577.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02577.1","url":null,"abstract":"We provide laser ablation–multicollector–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) and high-precision chemical abrasion–isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA-ID-TIMS) U-Pb ages and Hf isotopic compositions of zircons from the Red Bluff Granite Suite and mafic dikes in the Franklin Mountains of El Paso, Texas, USA. Granitoids exposed in the Franklin Mountains were previously divided into five magmatic stages based on cross-cutting relationships. Major and trace element compositions showed that these granitoids are ferroan, alkaline, and A2 type. Homogeneity in the whole-rock geochemistry suggests that the granite stages are genetically related and share similar petrogenetic histories. Weighted mean zircon 206Pb/238U dates from the older magmatic stage 1 alkali-feldspar quartz syenite and stage 2 alkali-feldspar granite are 1112.36 ± 0.35 and 1112.46 ± 0.37 Ma, respectively. The weighted mean εHf(t) values varying from +5.3 to +7.2 are similar to those of other regional ca. 1.1 Ga magmatic rocks throughout south- western Laurentia. Geochemical characteristics, petrological modeling, and enriched Hf isotopic composition suggest fractional crystallization of a basaltic magma that was produced by melting of an enriched mantle reservoir. However, zircon inheritance ages of ca. 1.3 Ga and 1.26–1.15 Ga are consistent with a minor contribution from felsic crustal basement. Our data and regional geology are consistent with a post-collisional slab break-off that facilitated asthenospheric upwelling and partial melting of the enriched mantle, possibly subcontinental lithospheric mantle, extending from Llano Uplift, Texas, in the southeast to California to the northwest. Magma thus generated upon differentiation produced ferroan and A-type granitoids.","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44091858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using discordant U-Pb zircon data to re-evaluate the El Paso terrane: Late Paleozoic tectonomagmatic evolution of east-central California (USA) and intense hydrothermal activity in the Jurassic Sierra Nevada arc","authors":"D. Clemens-Knott, M. Gevedon","doi":"10.1130/ges02547.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02547.1","url":null,"abstract":"Quantitative modeling of discordant detrital zircon U-Pb isotope data from the northern El Paso terrane reveals metamorphosed Laurentian passive-margin strata within the Kern Plateau (southeastern Sierra Nevada), resolving a 40-year-long debate regarding this terrane’s origin. Previous studies of Kern Plateau pendants identify deep-water metasediments containing detrital zircon populations similar to the Roberts Mountains allochthon; yet structural observations seemingly contradict proposed correlations to the Mississippian Roberts Mountains thrust, which juxtaposes exotic deep-water rocks over shallow-water, passive-margin strata in central Nevada. Here, new samples are combined with published data to identify segments of the thrust within the Kern Plateau, demonstrating that the El Paso terrane was offset ~350 km by late Paleozoic sinistral translation along the braided Kern Plateau shear zone, an abandoned model first proposed more than 20 years ago.\u0000 New U-Pb-Hf isotope data from plutons intruding the Kern Plateau shear zone are virtually identical to published data from the El Paso Mountains, indicating that the Sierra Nevada–Mojave arc initiated in the late Early Permian (ca. 274 Ma) along the entire length of the El Paso terrane and was active into the Middle Triassic (ca. 240 Ma). Previously implicated Late Triassic arc activity within the Kern Plateau is not corroborated by single-crystal U-Pb data. Published structural evidence indicating reactivation of the late Paleozoic Kern Plateau shear zone is reinterpreted as indicating sinistral-oblique relative plate motion during Permian arc initiation followed by Middle Jurassic extension in the southeastern Sierra Nevada arc, which facilitated intense hydrothermal activity and zircon lead loss.","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43086960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thermal history modeling techniques and interpretation strategies: Applications using QTQt","authors":"Alyssa L. Abbey, Mark Wildman, Andrea L. Stevens Goddard, Kendra E. Murray","doi":"10.1130/ges02528.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02528.1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Advances in low-temperature thermochronology have made it applicable to a plethora of geoscience investigations. The development of modeling programs (e.g., QTQt and HeFTy) that extract thermal histories from thermochronologic data has facilitated growth of this field. However, the increasingly wide range of scientists who apply these tools requires an accessible entry point to thermal history modeling and how these models develop our understanding of complex geological processes. This contribution offers a discussion of modeling strategies, using QTQt, including making decisions about model design, data input, kinetic parameters, and other factors that may influence the model output. We present a suite of synthetic data sets derived from known thermal histories with accompanying tutorial exercises in the Supplemental Material1. These data sets illustrate the opportunities and limitations of thermal history modeling. Examining these synthetic data helps to develop intuition about which thermochronometric data are most sensitive to different thermal events and to what extent user decisions on data handling and model setup can control the recovery of the true solution. We also use real data to demonstrate the importance of incorporating sensitivity testing into thermal history modeling and suggest several best practices for exploring model sensitivity to factors including, but not limited to, the model design or inversion algorithm, geologic constraints, data trends, the spatial relationship between samples, or the choice of kinetics model. Finally, we provide a detailed and explicit workflow and an applied example for a method of interrogating vague model results or low observation-prediction fits that we call the “Path Structure Approach.” Our explicit examination of thermal history modeling practices is designed to guide modelers to identify the factors controlling model results and demonstrate reproducible approaches for the interpretation of thermal histories.","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":"179 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135744415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ibex Hollow Tuff from ca. 12 Ma supereruption, southern Idaho, identified across North America, eastern Pacific Ocean, and Gulf of Mexico","authors":"A. Sarna‐Wojcicki, Jefferey R. Knott, J. Westgate, J. Budahn, J. Barron, C. J. Bray, G. Ludvigson, C. Meyer, David M. Miller, Rick E. Otto, N. Pearce, C. Smith, Laura C. Walkup, E. Wan, J. Yount","doi":"10.1130/ges02593.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02593.1","url":null,"abstract":"The Ibex Hollow Tuff, 12.08 ± 0.03 Ma (40Ar/39Ar), is a widespread tephra layer erupted from the Bruneau-Jarbidge volcanic field of southern Idaho. Tephra from this eruption was deposited across much of western and central North America and adjacent ocean areas. We identified the Ibex Hollow Tuff at Trapper Creek, Idaho, near its eruption site, and at 15 distal sites, from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, by the chemical composition of its glass shards, using electron-microprobe analysis, instrumental neutron activation analysis, and laser-ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry. By these methods, we distinguished the Ibex Hollow Tuff from overlying and underlying tephra layers near its source and at distal sites. Fluvially reworked Ibex Hollow Tuff ash was transported by the ancestral Mississippi River drainage from the interior of the North American continent to the Gulf of Mexico, where it is present within an ~50-m-thick deposit in marine sediments in the subsurface. The minimum fallout area covered by the ash is ~2.7 million km2, with a minimum volume of ~800 km3, and potential dispersal farther to the north and northeast. The areal distribution for the Ibex Hollow Tuff is similar to that of the Lava Creek B (0.63 Ma) supereruption. The Ibex Hollow Tuff represents a unique chronostratigraphic marker allowing a synoptic view of paleoenvironments at a virtual moment in time across a large terrestrial and marine region. The Ibex Hollow Tuff is also an important marker bed for North American Land Mammal Ages, and it coincides with climatic cooling in the middle to late Miocene documented in marine cores.","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44383112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Making sense of brittle deformation in rhyolitic lavas: Insights from Obsidian Dome, California, USA","authors":"S. Isom, G. Andrews, S. Kenderes, A. Whittington","doi":"10.1130/ges02499.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02499.1","url":null,"abstract":"The scarcity of observed active extrusive rhyolitic lava flows has skewed research to extensively focus on prehistoric lavas for information about their eruptive and emplacement dynamics. The first ever witnessed silicic lava eruptive events, Chaitén (2008) and Cordón Caulle (2011–2012) in Chile, were illuminating to the volcanology community because they featured a range of emplacement processes (endogenous versus exogenous), movement limiting modes, and eruptive behaviors (explosive versus effusive) that were often regarded as acting independently throughout an eruptive event. In this study, we documented evidence of a continuum of brittle and brittle-ductile deformation and fracture-induced outgassing during the emplacement of the ~600-yr-old silicic lava from Obsidian Dome, California, USA. This study focused on mapping the textural-structural relationships of the upper surface of the lava onto high-resolution (<10 cm2/pixel) orthorectified color base maps. We found that the upper surface is characterized by small (<1 m) mode 1 tensile fractures that grew and initiated new cracks, which linked together to form larger tensile fractures (1–5 m), which in turn penetrated deeper into the lava. We recorded ornamentations on these fracture surfaces that allow snapshot views into the rheological and outgassing conditions during the lava’s effusion. The largest fractures developed during single, large fracture events in the final stages of the lava’s emplacement. Ornamentations preserved on the fractured surfaces record degassing and explosive fragmentation away from the vent throughout the lava’s emplacement, suggesting explosive activity was occurring during the effusive emplacement. Field-based cataloguing of the complexities of fracture surfaces provides qualitative constraints for the future mechanical modeling of effusive lavas.","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42576913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identifying sources of non-unique detrital age distributions through integrated provenance analysis: An example from the Paleozoic Central Colorado Trough","authors":"Tyson M. Smith, J. Saylor, T. Lapen, Kendall Hatfield, K. Sundell","doi":"10.1130/ges02541.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02541.1","url":null,"abstract":"To address the longstanding issue of provenance interpretation of non-unique detrital zircon age populations, we integrated zircon U-Pb, rare earth element (REE), and εHf(t) data from upper Paleozoic strata in the northern Central Colorado Trough and Cambrian intrusions with petrography, paleocurrent data, and structural and stratigraphic observations. This data set indicates that Cambrian sediment was shed by multiple local sources instead of distant sources hundreds of kilometers away, and it reveals a detailed history of tectonic drainage reorganization in the northern Central Colorado Trough during Ancestral Rocky Mountain deformation. During the Early–Middle Pennsylvanian, Cambrian detrital zircons were a minor constituent of northern Central Colorado Trough sediment. However, during the Late Pennsylvanian–early Permian, westward advancement of the adjacent Apishapa Uplift deformation front precipitated drainage reorganization, which resulted in an episode of dominant Cambrian detrital zircon sourcing. Paleocurrent and petrographic data indicate that the source of Cambrian detritus was shed by an igneous rock body that was ≤15 km northeast of the depocenter, which has since been eroded away or mantled by Tertiary volcanic rocks. The addition of zircon petrochronology to the data set applied here was critical in confirming this hidden source of detritus and elucidating the compositional characteristics of that igneous rock. Zircon εHf(t) provided a regional provenance indicator of a western Laurentian affinity, and REE composition aided in discriminating possible local sources of Cambrian zircon. Furthermore, this work serves as a case study of a dominant Cambrian detrital zircon signature sourced from outside of the well-known Amarillo-Wichita Uplift, and it has implications for the interpretation of such detrital spectra in the context of a direct-from-basement source or the recycling of Cambrian zircon-dominated rocks. In summary, we demonstrate the utility of this multi-provenance proxy approach in interpreting a complex structural history of a dynamic hinterland and concomitant drainage reorganization through an in-depth investigation into the basin record.","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49287614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Boudinage and the rheology of syntectonic migmatites in the high-strain Taili deformation zone, NE China","authors":"Zhiyong Li, Z. Zeng, Yong‐jiang Liu","doi":"10.1130/ges02523.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02523.1","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a detailed field characterization of boudinage in a high-strain zone several kilometers wide in Northern China to establish relationships between boudin types and rheological contrasts between different parts of migmatites during the migmatization process. This zone contains nearly all types of boudins: foliation boudins, block-torn boudins, pinch-and-swell structures, tapering boudins, object boudins, and modified boudins. These boudinage structures record the different stages of melt-involved and solid-state deformation.\u0000 The boudinage of migmatites is significantly controlled by the evolving rheological contrasts between the leucosome and melanosome. During the melting stage, the deformation and boudinage of rocks are controlled by the melt fraction. Migmatite strength progressively decreases with increasing melt fraction. The occurrence of melt-filled foliation boudins and melanosome block boudins suggests that the residuum and melanosome are more competent than the leucosome. During solid-state deformation after crystallization, the existence of recrystallized solid-state leucosomes and the intrusion of pegmatites cause the migmatite strength to increase. The relationship is reversed: the leucosome is much more competent than the melanosome. The type and geometry of boudins and pinch-and-swell structures are correlated to the fraction of leucosome in the migmatites. The mechanical strength and strain localization of migmatites after crystallization depend on the presence and volume fraction of the different mineral phases, as well as the mineral grain size. The type and geometry of boudins suggest that the effective viscosity of migmatite can be ranked, from high to low, as: quartz veins; coarse-grained, thick pegmatite; coarse-grained, diatexite migmatite; medium-grained leucosome; and fine-grained melanosome.\u0000 While experiencing partial melting and migmatization, a rheologically homogeneous protolith is turned into two dominant lithologic domains: a competent diatexite migmatite domain and an incompetent melanosome migmatite domain. Spatially, with the increasing leucosome fraction in migmatites, the migmatite rheology of rock changes from homogeneous to heterogeneous and anisotropic, and then back to homogeneous. The strain distribution likewise changes from uniform to partitioned, and then back to uniform. This evolutionary process of strength and rheological properties of rocks during migmatization may promote strain localization at mid crustal conditions.","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45711908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tectonics, geochronology, and petrology of the Walker Top Granite, Appalachian Inner Piedmont, North Carolina (USA): Implications for Acadian and Neoacadian orogenesis","authors":"A. Merschat, R. Hatcher, S. Giorgis, Heather E. Byars, Russel W. Mapes, C. Wilson, M. Gatewood","doi":"10.1130/ges02315.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1130/ges02315.1","url":null,"abstract":"The Walker Top Granite (here formally named) is a peraluminous megacrystic granite that occurs in the Cat Square terrane, Inner Piedmont, part of the southern Appalachian Acadian-Neoacadian deformational and metamorphic core. The granite occurs as disconnected concordant to semi-concordant plutons in migmatitic, sillimanite zone rocks of the Brindle Creek thrust sheet. Locally garnet-bearing, the Walker Top Granite contains blocky alkali feldspar megacrysts 1–10 cm long in a groundmass of muscovite-biotite-quartz-plagioclase-alkali feldspar and accessory to trace zircon, titanite, epidote, sillimanite (xenocrysts), and apatite. It varies from granite to granodiorite and contains several xenoliths of biotite gneiss, amphibolite, quartzite, and in one location encloses charnockite (here formally named Vale Charnockite). New sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe U-Pb zircon magmatic crystallization ages obtained from the plutons of the Walker Top Granite are: 407 ± 1 Ma in the Brushy Mountains; 366 ± 2 Ma in the South Mountains; and 358 ± 5 Ma in the Vale–Cat Square area. An age of 366 ± 3 Ma was obtained from the Vale Charnockite at its type locality. Major-, trace-element, and isotopic chemistry indicates that Walker Top is a high-K, peraluminous granite, plotting as volcanic arc or syn-collisional on tectonic discrimination diagrams and suggests that it represents deep-seated anatectic magma with S- to I-type affinity. The alkali calcic, ferroan Vale Charnockite likely formed by deep crustal melting, and similar geochemical and trace-element compositions suggest a similar tectonic origin as Walker Top Granite. The discontinuous nature of the Walker Top Granite plutons precludes it intruded as a volcanic arc. Instead, the peraluminous nature, common xenoliths of surrounding country rock, and geochemical and isotopic signatures suggest it formed by partial melting of Cat Square and Tugaloo terrane rocks. Following emplacement and crystallization, Walker Top plutons were deformed into elliptical to linear shapes—SW-directed sheath folds—enveloped by partially melted, pelitic and quartzofeldspathic rocks. Collectively, Walker Top and other plutons helped weaken the crust and facilitate lateral crustal flow in a SW-directed, tectonically driven orogenic channel during the Acadian-Neoacadian event. A comparison with the northern Appalachians recognizes a similar temporal magmatic and deformational history during the Acadian and Neoacadian orogenies, although while the Walker Top Granite intruded the lower plate during eastward subduction beneath the peri-Gondwanan Carolina superterrane, the northern Appalachian plutons intruded the upper plate during subduction of the Avalon superterrane westward beneath Laurentia. We hypothesize that a transform fault, located near the southern end of the New York promontory, accommodated oppositely directed lateral plate motion and different subduction polarity between the Carolina and Avalon superterranes during ","PeriodicalId":55100,"journal":{"name":"Geosphere","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48636780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}