1. The origin of Late Ediacaran post-collisional granites near the Chad Lineament, Saharan Metacraton, South-Central Chad
- Author
-
Ngoc Ha T. Pham, Chih Cheng Yang, Meng Wan Yeh, Yoshiyuki Iizuka, Tung Yi Lee, and J. Gregory Shellnutt
- Subjects
geography ,geography.geographical_feature_category ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Lineament ,Geochemistry ,Geology ,Crust ,Massif ,010502 geochemistry & geophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Craton ,Gondwana ,Geochemistry and Petrology ,Geochronology ,Shear zone ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Zircon - Abstract
The southern Saharan Metacraton is one of the least geologically constrained regions in the world as bedrock exposures are rare. To the west of Lake Fitri near the communities of Ngoura and Moyto in south-central Chad there are two granitic inliers that form a series of lenticular to ellipsoidal low laying hills. Very little is known about the Lake Fitri inliers and their regional correlation to larger massifs in Chad is undetermined. The granites yielded weighted-mean zircon 206Pb/238U ages of 554 ± 8 Ma and 546 ± 8 Ma indicating they were emplaced ~45 million years after the cessation of arc-related magmatism and the subsequent collision between the Congo-Sao Francisco Craton and the Saharan Metacraton. The rocks have distinct groupings of inherited zircons with ages of ~580 Ma and ~635 Ma suggesting they are at least in part derived by recycling of older crustal rocks. The biotite mineral chemistry, whole rock compositions and petrological modeling indicate the granites were derived by melting of crustal lithologies but the whole rock Nd isotopes (eNd(t) = +1.3–+2.9) are characteristic of a mantle source. The contrasting inheritance-rich nature of the granites with a juvenile Nd isotopic signature is likely due to mixing between magmas derived from juvenile (Neoproterozoic) arc-related crust and asthenospheric magmas. Asthenospheric upwelling was probably a response to post-orogenic lithospheric delamination related to fault movement along the Chad Lineament, a possible extension of the Tchollire-Banyo shear zone that extended to the interior of the Saharan Metacraton. The implications are that lithospheric delamination may not have occurred immediately after collision but rather propagated along a narrow belt that extended well into the central regions of the Saharan Metacraton.
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF