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Timing and sources of late Archean magmatism, Kolar area, south India: Implications for Archean tectonics

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:7164484

The N-S trending 80 km long by 4-8 km wide Kolar Schist Belt in the Achean Dharwar craton of south India is bounded on its east and west by gneiss terranes. The contacts between the schist belt and surrounding gneisses are tectonic, rather than intrusive or unconformable. On the west side of the schist belt, monzodioritic to granitic gneisses have U-Pb zircon ages of 2631 +6.5/{minus}6 Ma, 2610 +10/{minus}10 Ma, and 2551 +3/{minus}3 Ma. The U-Pb sphene ages of these orthogneisses are between 2553 and 2551 Ma. Later granitic intrusions have U-Pb sphene and garnet ages as young as 2400 Ma. Gneisses occurring as tectonic and magmatic inclusions in the area contain zircons older than 3140 Ma. The dominant gneiss unit on the east side of the schist belt has a U-Pb zircon age of 2532 +3.5/{minus}3Ma; U-Pb sphene ages east of the belt range from 2520 to 2500 Ma. The last major shearing episode, probably represented by Pb-Pb K-feldspar-whole rock ages on both sides of the schist belt, and by an {sup 40}Ar/{sup 39}Ar muscovite plateau age from sheared gneisses, occurred between 2520 and 2420 Ma. Pb, Nd and Sr initial ratios for the western gneisses suggest that their parent magmas were mantle-derived, but were contaminated by continental crust older than 3200 Ma. Nd, Sr and Pb initial ratios for the eastern gneisses show no evidence of older continental crust either having contaminated the magmas, or acting as part of the source materials. The Kolar Schist Belt is interpreted as the site of a latest Archean or earliest Proterozoic (2520 to 2420 Ma) suture zone where newly generated continental crust on the east was tectonically accreted to the margin of an older (3400 to 2550 Ma) continental nucleus to the west.

Research Organization:
State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook, NY (USA)
OSTI ID:
7164484
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English