Archean magmatic granulites, diapirism, and Proterozoic reworking in the Northern Marginal Zone of the Limpopo Belt

Blenkinsop, Thomas G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9684-0749 2011. Archean magmatic granulites, diapirism, and Proterozoic reworking in the Northern Marginal Zone of the Limpopo Belt. Van Reenen, D. D., ed. Origin and Evolution of Precambrian High-Grade Gneiss Terranes, with Special Emphasis on the Limpopo Complex of Southern Africa, Memoir, vol. 207. Boulder, CO.: Geological Society of America, pp. 245-267. (10.1130/2011.1207(13))

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Abstract

The Northern Marginal Zone (NMZ) of the Limpopo Belt, southern Africa, is a high-grade gneiss belt dominated by magmatic granulites of the charnoenderbite suite, which intruded minor mafic-ultramafic and metasedimentary rocks between 2.74 and 2.57 Ga. The intrusive rocks have crustal and mantle components, and occur as elliptical bodies interpreted as diapirs. Peak metamorphism (P ≤800 MPa, T = 800–850 °C) occurred at ca. 2.59 Ga. The highly radiogenic nature of the rocks in the NMZ, supplemented by heat from mantle melts, led to heating and diapirism, culminating in the intrusion of distinctive porphyritic charnockites and granites. Horizontal shortening and steep extrusion of the NMZ, during which crustal thickening was limited by high geothermal gradients, contrast with overthickening and gravitational collapse observed particularly in more recent orogens. The granulites were exhumed by the end of the Archean. The pervasive late Archean shortening over the whole of the NMZ contrasts with limited deformation on the Zimbabwe Craton, possibly owing to the strengthening effect of early crust in the craton. In the southeast of the NMZ, strike-slip kinematic indicators occur within the Transition Zone and the Triangle Shear Zone, where dextral shearing reworked the Archean crust at ca. 1.97 Ga.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QE Geology
Additional Information:	Memoirs of the Geological Society of America, ISSN: 0072-1069
Publisher:	Geological Society of America
ISBN:	9780813712079
ISSN:	0072-1069
Last Modified:	25 Oct 2022 09:01
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/56858

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