S-type granite formation in the Dalradian rocks of Connemara, W. Ireland

Abstract

AbstractThe vicinity of the 490 Ma Cashel gabbroic intrusion experienced pressures of about 4.05 ± 0.2 kbar and temperatures in excess of 850 °C. These conditions caused intense hornfelsing and partial melting of the surrounding Dalradian metasediments. From the study of the progressively changed composition of the aureole hornfelses it is deduced that elements were fractionated into the melts as follows: Si>K>Na>Ca>Mn>Al>Fe>Mg and Rb>Ba>Sr>Ga>Cr,Ni,Co. This order of fractionation, which is the opposite to that in magmatic crystallization, provides a detailed picture of the mode of interaction between a mantle derived basic magma and mid-crustal rocks, illustrating how one type of S-type granite can be produced. The rare earth elements (REE) were both removed and fractionated but Eu largely remained in the crystal fractions giving increasing positive Eu anomalies with rising partial melting and these trends can be explained by the extraction of a granitic melt from the hornfelses. Fission track mapping of U is used to study the behaviour of U within the aureole and the metamorphic recrystallization of detrital brown zircon to pink new zircon. The S-type Cashel microgranite sill is shown to have been derived by anatexis from the Dalradian rocks, to have preserved the Sr isotope ratios of the metasediments at 490 Ma, and not to be of the same composition as the leucosomes in the metasediments.