The Evolution of High-T-Low-P Granulites in the Northern Marginal Zone Sensu-Stricto, Limpopo Belt, Zimbabwe - The Case for Petrography

The Limpopo Belt of southern Africa is generally believed to represent the root of a late Archaean continental collision zone, and has been used to demonstrate the validity of the uniformitarian concept in tectonics Large scale tectonic models have been applied in spite of the fact that large portions of the belt yet await the most basic investigations. Here we report the first detailed field and petrographic study of the northernmost part of the Limpopo Belt, the Northern Marginal Zone sensu stricto (NMZ s.s) and conclude, on the basis of relative age relation, nature of PT evolution and deformation, that none of the current models can correctly explain the evolution of the study area. The evolution of NMZ s.s, is complex and includes four metamorphic stages, two major plutonic episodes and at least three deformation events. The oldest rocks, mafic granulites, record all four stages of metamorphic mineral growth. The first two stages predate deposition of sediments and the intrusion of voluminous enderbite and charnockite between 2.72 and 2.62 Ga. The bulk of our observations relate to the late Archaean (stage 3) granulite facies event. Abundant reaction textures are preserved in mafic granulite, metasediments, metamorphosed charnockite and enderbite and allow us to qualitatively reconstruct the PT evolution. Prograde heating occurred in the sillimanite stability held. During peak temperature conditions vapour-absent melting is observed in most felsic lithologies,Temperatures between 800 and 850 degrees C at pressures as low as 0.4-0.5 GPa are indicated by various mineral assemblages. The thermal peak was followed by an increase in pressure. Typical reactions of anti-clockwise PT evolution, like breakdown of cordierite + spinel to sapphirine and orthopyroxene + plagioclase to garnet + quartz, are frequently found. Maximum pressure is constraint to ca. 0.85 GPa by the complete absence of garnet in mafic granulites. Initial cooling was rapid, and is indicated by the back reaction of melt + orthopyroxene to biotite + quartz symplectites preserved in migmatites. This metamorphic event was accompanied by intrusion of porphyritic charnockite and granite, and by coeval compressional deformation. The observed evolution, especially the combination of an anti-clockwise PT loop and compressional tectonics, requires a strong, transient heat-source affecting the base of the crust. Neither the thermal evolution nor the relative timing is correctly predicted by existing collision models. The NMZ s.s. granulites were finally exhumed in a separate event along upper greenschist-facies thrusts, in response to a transpressive orogeny affecting the units further south at 2.0 Ga. In spite of potential ambiguities inherent to a qualitative approach, our observations show that petrography and field work, if used in conjunction with dating of a few key age relations and structural interpretation, are a pre-requisite to the erection of realistic tectonic models. The example of the NMZ s.s. may encourage geoscientists with limited access to analytical facilities to reassess the geological evolution of terrains which lack basic description.