News Release

New GSA Bulletin articles published ahead of print in April

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Geological Society of America

Boulder, Colo., USA: The Geological Society of America regularly publishes articles online ahead of print. For April, GSA Bulletin topics include multiple articles about the dynamics of China and Tibet; the Bell River hypothesis that proposes that an ancestral, transcontinental river occupied much of northern North America during the Cenozoic Era; new findings in the climatic history during one of the Earth’s coldest periods: The Late Paleozoic Ice Age; and the age an nature of the Chicxulub impact crater. You can find these articles at https://bulletin.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/recent .

Evidence of Carboniferous arc magmatism preserved in the Chicxulub impact structure
Catherine H. Ross; Daniel F. Stockli; Cornelia Rasmussen; Sean P.S. Gulick; Sietze J. de Graaff ...
Abstract: Determining the nature and age of the 200-km-wide Chicxulub impact target rock is an essential step in advancing our understanding of the Maya Block basement. Few age constraints exist for the northern Maya Block crust, specifically the basement underlying the 66 Ma, 200 km-wide Chicxulub impact structure. The International Ocean Discovery Program-International Continental Scientific Drilling Program Expedition 364 core recovered a continuous section of basement rocks from the Chicxulub target rocks, which provides a unique opportunity to illuminate the pre-impact tectonic evolution of a terrane key to the development of the Gulf of Mexico. Sparse published ages for the Maya Block point to Mesoproterozoic, Ediacaran, Ordovician to Devonian crust are consistent with plate reconstruction models. In contrast, granitic basement recovered from the Chicxulub peak ring during Expedition 364 yielded new zircon U-Pb laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) concordant dates clustering around 334 ± 2.3 Ma. Zircon rare earth element (REE) chemistry is consistent with the granitoids having formed in a continental arc setting. Inherited zircon grains fall into three groups: 400−435 Ma, 500−635 Ma, and 940−1400 Ma, which are consistent with the incorporation of Peri-Gondwanan, Pan-African, and Grenvillian crust, respectively. Carboniferous U-Pb ages, trace element compositions, and inherited zircon grains indicate a pre-collisional continental volcanic arc located along the Maya Block’s northern margin before NW Gondwana collided with Laurentia. The existence of a continental arc along NW Gondwana suggests southward-directed subduction of Rheic oceanic crust beneath the Maya Block and is similar to evidence for a continental arc along the northern margin of Gondwana that is documented in the Suwannee terrane, Florida, USA, and Coahuila Block of NE México.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/B35831.1/596574/Evidence-of-Carboniferous-arc-magmatism-preserved

Detrital zircons from Late Paleozoic Ice Age sequences in Victoria Land (Antarctica): New constraints on the glaciation of southern Gondwana
Luca Zurli; Gianluca Cornamusini; Jusun Woo; Giovanni Pio Liberato; Seunghee Han ...
Abstract: The Lower Permian tillites of the Beacon Supergroup, cropping out in Victoria Land (Antarctica), record climatic history during one of the Earth’s coldest periods: the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. Reconstruction of ice-extent and paleo-flow directions, as well as geochronological and petrographic data, are poorly constrained in this sector of Gondwana. Here, we provide the first detrital zircon U-Pb age analyses of both the Metschel Tillite in southern Victoria Land and some tillites correlatable with the Lanterman Formation in northern Victoria Land to identify the source regions of these glaciogenic deposits. Six-hundred detrital zircon grains from four diamictite samples were analyzed using laser ablation−inductively coupled plasma−mass spectrometry. Geochronological and petrographic compositional data of the Metschel Tillite indicate a widespread reworking of older Devonian Beacon Supergroup sedimentary strata, with minor contribution from Cambro-Ordovician granitoids and meta-sedimentary units as well as Neoproterozoic metamorphic rocks. Euhedral to subhedral Carboniferous−Devonian zircon grains match coeval magmatic units of northern Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land. This implies, in accordance with published paleo-ice directions, a provenance from the east-southeast sectors. In contrast, the two samples from northern Victoria Land tillite reflect the local basement provenance; their geochronological age and petrographic composition indicates a restricted catchment area with multiple ice centers. This shows that numerous ice centers were present in southern Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. While northern Victoria Land hosted discrete glaciers closely linked with the northern Victoria Land-Tasmania ice cap, the west-northwestward flowing southern Victoria Land ice cap contributed most of the sediments comprising the Metschel Tillite.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/B35905.1/596482/Detrital-zircons-from-Late-Paleozoic-Ice-Age

Generation of Cretaceous high-silica granite by complementary crystal accumulation and silicic melt extraction in the coastal region of southeastern China
Jing-Yuan Chen; Jin-Hui Yang; Ji-Heng Zhang; Jin-Feng Sun; Yu-Sheng Zhu ...
Abstract: It is generally hypothesized that high-silica (SiO2 > 75 wt%) granite (HSG) originates from crystal fractionation in the shallow crust. Yet, identifying the complementary cumulate residue of HSG within plutons remains difficult. In this work, we examine the genetic links between the porphyritic monzogranite and HSG (including porphyritic granite, monzogranite, and alkali feldspar granite) from the coastal area of southeastern China using detailed zircon U-Pb ages, trace elements, Hf-O isotopes, and whole-rock geochemistry and Nd-Hf isotopic compositions. Zircon U-Pb ages indicate that the porphyritic monzogranite and HSG are coeval (ca. 96−99 Ma). The HSG and porphyritic monzogranite have similar formation ages within analytic error, identical mineral assemblages, similar Nd-Hf isotopic compositions, and consistent variations in their zircon compositions (i.e., Eu/Eu*, Zr/Hf, and Sm/Yb), which suggests that their parental magma came from a common silicic magma reservoir and that the lithological differences are the result of melt extraction processes. The porphyritic monzogranite has relatively high SiO2 (70.0−73.4 wt%), Ba (718−1070 ppm), and Sr (493−657 ppm) contents, low K2O and Rb concentrations and low Rb/Sr ratios (0.1−0.2), and it displays weak Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 0.57−0.90). Together with the petrographic features of the porphyritic monzogranite, these geochemical variations indicate that the porphyritic monzongranite is the residual silicic cumulate of the crystal mush column. The HSG (SiO2 = 75.0−78.4) has variable Rb/Sr ratios (2−490) and very low Sr (1−109 ppm) and Ba (9−323 ppm) contents. Zircon from the HSG and porphyritic monzogranite overlap in Eu/Eu*, Zr/Hf, and Sm/Yb ratios and Hf contents; however, some zircon from the HSG show very low Eu/Eu* (<0.1) and Zr/Hf ratios. These features suggest that the HSG represents the high-silica melt that was extracted from a crystal-rich mush. The injection of mantle-derived hotter mafic magma into the mush column and the exsolution of F/Cl-enriched volatiles (or fluids) from the interstitial melt rejuvenated the pre-existing highly crystalline mush. Subsequent extraction and upward migration of silicic melt resulting from compaction of the mush column formed the HSG at shallow crustal levels, which left the complementary crystal residue solidified as porphyritic monzogranite at the bottom.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/B35745.1/596469/Generation-of-Cretaceous-high-silica-granite-by

A newly discovered Late Cretaceous metamorphic belt along the active continental margin of the Neo-Tethys ocean
Dan Wang; Fu-Lai Liu; Richard Palin; Jia-Min Wang; Mathias Wolf ...
Abstract: High-grade metamorphic rocks and crustal melts provide crucial evidence for growth and differentiation of the continental crust, and are widespread in collisional orogens. However, their importance in the evolution of continental arcs remains poorly understood. Metamorphism and related anatexis in the preserved continental margin of the Neo-Tethys ocean serves as a key natural laboratory to investigate this process. Along the Neo-Tethyan arc margin, the Gaoligong shear zone, Yunnan region of China, is an important locality for linking Lhasa in the north with Sibumasu and Burma in the south. Here, Late Cretaceous granulite-facies metamorphism and crustal anatexis have been identified for the first time in the Gaoligong area. Zircon and monazite U-Pb dating indicates that S-type granites formed at 87−73 Ma, granites and buried pelitic sediments were simultaneously metamorphosed at 75−70 Ma during Neo-Tethyan subduction, and all lithologies were overprinted by a younger 40−30 Ma magmatic and strike-slip event related to India-Asia collision. Phase equilibria modeling of high-grade anatectic gneiss in the MnO-Na2O-CaO-K2 O-FeO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O-TiO 2 system indicates peak pressure-temperature (P−T) conditions of 780−800 °C and 6.5−7.5 kbar and defines a cooling and decompressional P−T path for the metapelites. This demonstrates that sediments within the Neo-Tethyan active continental arc were buried to >20 km depth at 75−70 Ma. In combination with the metamorphic record of the Lhasa, Burma, and Sibumasu blocks, an extensive Late Cretaceous metamorphic belt must have formed along the Neo-Tethyan subduction zone. This spatially correlates with coeval gabbro-diorite suites exposed in the Gangdese, Sibumasu and Burma terranes that were triggered by thinning of the lithospheric mantle. This prolonged Late Cretaceous mantle-derived magmatism and lithospheric thinning may have provided a regional-scale heat source for high-grade metamorphism and crustal anatexis along the active continental margin of the Neo-Tethys ocean.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/B35900.1/596470/A-newly-discovered-Late-Cretaceous-metamorphic

Early Cenozoic partial melting of meta-sedimentary rocks of the eastern Gangdese arc, southern Tibet, and its contribution to syn-collisional magmatism
Yuan-Yuan Jiang; Ze-Ming Zhang; Richard M. Palin; Hui-Xia Ding; Xuan-Xue Mo
Abstract: Continental magmatic arcs are characterized by the accretion of voluminous mantle-derived magmatic rocks and the growth of juvenile crust. However, significant volumes of meta-sedimentary rocks occur in the middle and lower arc crust, and the contributions of these rocks to the evolution of arc crust remain unclear. In this paper, we conduct a systematic study of petrology, geochronology, and geochemistry of migmatitic paragneisses from the eastern Gangdese magmatic arc, southern Tibet. The results show that the paragneisses were derived from late Carboniferous greywacke, and underwent an early Cenozoic (69−41 Ma) upper amphibolite-facies metamorphism and partial melting at pressure-temperature conditions of ∼11 kbar and ∼740 °C, and generated granitic melts with enriched Hf isotopic compositions (anatectic zircon εHf(t) = −10.57 to +0.78). Combined with the existing results, we conclude that the widely distributed meta-sedimentary rocks in the eastern Gangdese arc deep crust have the same protolith ages of late Carboniferous, and record northwestward-decreasing metamorphic conditions. We consider that the deeply buried sedimentary rocks resulted in the compositional change of juvenile lower crust from mafic to felsic and the formation of syn-collisional S-type granitoids. The mixing of melts derived from mantle, juvenile lower crust, and ancient crustal materials resulted in the isotopic enrichment of the syn-collisional arc-type magmatic rocks of the Gangdese arc. We suggest that crustal shortening and underthrusting, and the accretion of mantle-derived magma during the Indo-Asian collision transported the supracrustal rocks to the deep crust of the Gangdese arc.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/B35763.1/596331/Early-Cenozoic-partial-melting-of-meta-sedimentary

Subduction initiation of the western Proto-Tethys Ocean: New evidence from the Cambrian intra-oceanic forearc ophiolitic mélange in the western Kunlun Orogen, NW Tibetan Plateau
Qichao Zhang; Zhong-Hai Li; Zhenhan Wu; Xuanhua Chen; Ji’en Zhang ...
Abstract: The supra-subduction zone ophiolite or ophiolitic mélange formed in the forearc setting is generally considered to be a key geological record for subduction initiation (SI) with petrological characteristics comparable to the SI-related rock sequence from forearc basalt (FAB) to boninite in the Izu-Bonin-Mariana subduction zone. Nevertheless, the standard FAB and boninite are generally difficult to observe in the forearc rocks generated during SI. Yet, a typical rock sequence indicating the SI of the western Proto-Tethys Ocean is reported for the first time in the Qimanyute intra-oceanic forearc system in the western Kunlun Orogen, Northwest Tibetan Plateau. The magmatic compositions, which range from less to more high field strength element (HFSE)-depleted and large ion lithophile element (LILE)-enriched, are changing from oceanic plagiogranites (ca. 494 Ma) to forearc basalt-like gabbros (FAB-Gs, ca. 487 Ma), boninites, and subsequent Nb-enriched gabbros (NEGs, ca. 485 Ma), which are thus consistent with the Izu-Bonin-Mariana forearc rocks as well as the Troodos and Semail supra-subduction zone-type ophiolites. The geochemical data from the chemostratigraphic succession indicate a subduction initiation process from a depleted mid-oceanic-ridge (MORB)-type mantle source with no detectable subduction input to gradual increasing involvement of subduction-derived materials (fluid/melts and sediments). The new petrological, geochemical, and geochronological data, combined with the regional geology, indicate that the well-sustained FAB-like intrusive magmas with associated boninites could provide crucial evidence for SI and further reveal that the SI of the western Proto-Tethys Ocean occurred in the Late Cambrian (494−485 Ma).
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/B35922.1/596240/Subduction-initiation-of-the-western-Proto-Tethys

Ancestral trans–North American Bell River system recorded in late Oligocene to early Miocene sediments in the Labrador Sea and Canadian Great Plains
Julia I. Corradino; Alex Pullen; Andrew L. Leier; David L. Barbeau Jr.; Howie D. Scher ...
Abstract: The Bell River hypothesis proposes that an ancestral, transcontinental river occupied much of northern North America during the Cenozoic Era, transporting water and sediment from the North American Cordillera to the Saglek Basin on the eastern margin of the Labrador Sea. To explore this hypothesis and reconstruct Cenozoic North American drainage patterns, we analyzed detrital zircon grains from the Oligocene−Miocene Mokami and Saglek formations of the Saglek Basin and Oligocene−Miocene fluvial conglomerates in the Great Plains of western Canada. U-Pb detrital zircon age populations in the Mokami and Saglek formations include clusters at <250 Ma, 950−1250 Ma, 1600−2000 Ma, and 2400−3200 Ma. Detrital zircons with ages of <250 Ma were derived from the North American Cordillera, supporting the transcontinental Bell River hypothesis. Oligocene−Miocene fluvial strata in western Canada contain detrital zircon age populations similar to those in the Saglek Basin and are interpreted to represent the western headwaters of the ancient Bell River drainage. Strontium-isotope ratios of marine shell fragments from the Mokami and Saglek formations yielded ages between 25.63 and 18.08 Ma. The same shells have εNd values of −10.2 to −12.0 (average = −11.2), which are consistent with values of Paleozoic strata in western North America but are more radiogenic than the modern Labrador Current, Labrador Sea Water, and North Atlantic Deep Water values (εNd ∼−12 to −25). As a freshwater source, the existence and termination of the Bell River may have been important for Labrador Sea circulation, stratification, and chemistry.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/B35903.1/596241/Ancestral-trans-North-American-Bell-River-system

Origin and age of the Shenshan tectonic mélange in the Jiangshan-Shaoxing-Pingxiang Fault and late Early Paleozoic juxtaposition of the Yangtze Block and the West Cathaysia terrane, South China
Lijun Wang; Kexin Zhang; Shoufa Lin; Weihong He; Leiming Yin
Abstract: When and how the Yangtze Block (Yangtze) and the West Cathaysia terrane (West Cathaysia) in South China were amalgamated are critical to a better understanding of the Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic tectonic evolution of South China and remain highly debatable. A key to this debate is the tectonic significance of the Jiangshan-Shaoxing-Pingxiang (JSP) Fault, the boundary between Yangtze and West Cathaysia. The Shenshan mélange along the JSP Fault has the typical block-in-matrix structure and is composed of numerous shear zone-bounded slivers/lenses of rocks of different types and ages that formed in different tectonic environments, including middle to late Tonian volcanic and volcanogenic sedimentary rocks (turbidite) of arc/back-arc affinity, a series of middle Tonian ultramafic to mafic plutonic rocks of oceanic island basalt affinity, a carbonaceous shale that was deposited in a deep marine environment, and a red mudstone. U-Pb zircon ages and acritarch assemblages (Leiosphaeridia-Brocholaminaria association) found in the turbidite confirm its Tonian age, and fossils from the carbonaceous shale (Asteridium-Comasphaeridium and Skiagia-Celtiberium-Leiofusa) constrains its age to the Early to Middle Cambrian. Field relationships and available age data leave no doubt that the ultramafic-mafic rocks are exotic blocks (rather than intrusions) in the younger metasedimentary rocks. We conclude that the Shenshan mélange is not an ophiolitic mélange, but rather a tectonic mélange that formed as a result of movement along the JSP Fault in the early Paleozoic. We suggest that Yangtze and West Cathaysia were two separate microcontinents, were accreted to two different parts of the northern margin of Gondwana in the early Early Paleozoic, and juxtaposed in the late Early Paleozoic through strike-slip movement along the JSP Fault. We further suggest that the ca. 820 Ma collision in the Jiangnan Orogen took place between Yangtze and a (micro)continent that is now partly preserved as the Huaiyu terrane and was not related to West Cathaysia. We compare our model for South China with the accretion of terranes in the North American Cordillera and propose a similar model for the relationship between the Avalon and Meguma terranes in the Canadian Appalachians, i.e., the two terranes were accreted to two different parts of the Laurentian margin and were later juxtaposed through margin-parallel strike slip faulting.
View article: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/doi/10.1130/B35963.1/595995/Origin-and-age-of-the-Shenshan-tectonic-melange-in

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GSA BULLETIN articles published ahead of print are online at https://bulletin.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/recent . Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary copies of articles by contacting Kea Giles. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to The Geological Society of America Bulletin in articles published. Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.

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