Decoding Mafic Dykes in Southern Yilgarn and East Antarctica: Implications for the Supercontinent Cycle
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Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Earth and Planetary Sciences Decoding Mafic Dykes in Southern Yilgarn and East Antarctica: Implications for the Supercontinent Cycle Jutta Camilla Stark This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University November 2018 DECLARATION To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgement has been made. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. The author acknowledges that copyright of published works contained within this thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of those works. I warrant that I have obtained, where necessary, permission from the copyright owners to use any third- party copyright material reproduced in the thesis (e.g. questionnaires, artwork, unpublished letters), or to use any of my own published work (e.g. journal articles) in which the copyright is held by another party (e.g. publisher, co-author). 22 November 2018 Jutta Camilla Stark Date i ABSTRACT Mafic dyke swarms are ubiquitous in cratons worldwide and preserve snapshots of their tectonic and magmatic evolution. Mafic dykes also provide important targets for paleomagnetic studies and act as barcodes in paleogeographic reconstructions. Their utility is often hampered by the lack of high precision geochronology because dating mafic rocks can be difficult due to their mineralogy. This PhD study applies a two-step U-Pb geochronology technique to date suboptimal samples and presents the discoveries of three previously unknown mafic dykes swarms in southwestern Yilgarn Craton and the first U-Pb age for a mafic dyke swarm at Bunger Hills in East Antarctica. The discovery of the 2615 Ma Yandinilling dyke swarm provides the first evidence of Archean mafic dykes in the Yilgarn Craton. Their emplacement supports a model involving post-orogenic collapse and lithospheric delamination following a Neoarchean orogeny and cratonisation, possibly associated with assembly of Superia. Paleogeographic reconstructions suggest that the Yilgarn and Zimbabwe cratons may have been neighbours during the Neoarchean and coeval Stockford dykes in the Central Zone of the Limpopo Belt may thus have been produced by the same tectonic event. Mafic dykes of this age are rare worldwide and have so far only been reported from the Limpopo Belt and the São Francisco Craton in South America. The newly identified 1888 Ma Boonadgin dyke swarm is synchronous with a global episode of major crustal growth. This event is present in most Archean cratons worldwide but has been unknown in the Yilgarn Craton until now. On a regional scale, the emplacement of the dyke swarm coincides with lithospheric extension in the northern and southern margins of the craton. Paleogeographic evidence suggests that the West Australian Craton was adjacent to India during the Paleoproterozoic and raises the possibility that the Boonadgin dykes are part of the 1890 Ma Bastar- Cuddapah LIP in India. However, new paleomagnetic evidence does not support ii assembly of Nuna at 1890 Ma and indicates that whereas the West Australian Craton was adjacent to the India, it was separated from other free-drifting cratonic blocks by oceans. Preliminary geochemical analysis indicates involvement of a predominantly depleted mantle source with contribution from the subcontinental lithosphere and/or the lower crust. The 1390 Ma Biberkine dyke swarm coincides with renewed subduction along the southern margin of the West Australian Craton after a prolonged period of tectonic quiescence. Whereas it is difficult to directly link the dykes to other tectonothermal episodes regionally, current models suggest that this was a direct consequence of plate reorganisation during transition from Nuna to Rodinia. Initial geochemical evidence indicates that the predominant source was the subcontinental lithospheric mantle and/or lower crust. The Biberkine dykes are synchronous with mafic dyke swarms in many other cratons worldwide. The first U-Pb age of 1134 Ma for a major mafic dyke swarm at Bunger Hills in East Antarctica confirms a previous Rb-Sr age of ca. 1140 Ma. The Bunger Hills, and the Windmill Islands 400 km further east, have been interpreted as part of the Yilgarn Craton during the Mesoproterozoic and the dykes were emplaced during the final stages of the Albany-Fraser Orogeny, which marks the collision of the West Australian and Mawson cratons during assembly of Rodinia. Existing and new geochemical data suggest that the source of the dykes involved an EMORB-like source reservoir that was contaminated by a lower crust-like component. Similar but undated dykes at Windmill Islands may be of same age and if this is the case, the presence of a dyke swarm of at least 400 km in extent suggests a possible mantle plume source. The new dyke swarm ages presented in this study fall in key periods of supercontinent assembly and breakup/reconfiguration between the Neoarchean and the Mesoproterozoic and make an important contribution to the global database of mafic dyke swarms. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the following people - • My main supervisors Zheng-Xiang Li and Xuan-Ce Wang - thank you for your ongoing support and advice along the way - I am very grateful for being given the opportunity to work on this exciting project and to find my scientific feet • My supervisors Sergei Pisarevskiy and Fred Jourdan - thank you for your help, encouragement and advice, and for reminding me to keep smiling when things were difficult; thank you also for the excellent and at times humorous discussions that helped lighten the day • Collaborative researchers Jian-Wei Zi and Stephen Sheppard - I am truly grateful for the steady and unwavering support you provided throughout this project, regardless of how many times I asked for help, comments and feedback (this includes the SHRIMP mounts and the nth iterations of the various manuscripts that landed in your inbox) • Collaborative researcher Simon Wilde - thank you for your support, unwavering and inspiring enthusiasm about science and for all the excellent discussions on a such a wide range of topics • Collaborative researchers Steven Denyszyn and Ulf Söderlund - thank you for the opportunity to work with you and for the excellent discussions on TIMS dating and the use of the Wilfley table on how to best extract those pesky minute grains • John de Laeter Centre/SHRIMP personnel Cristina Talavera and Hao Gao - thank you so much for your assistance and support with the SHRIMP; all the times I needed help with setups and beam tuning or when the coater wasn't collaborating, you were always happy to assist nomatter what the time • Technical staff at the Earth and Planetary Science Department: Celia Mayers, Zdenka Martinelli and Andrew Wieczorek - thank you for always being so happy to help and for being just the nicest bunch of people around iv • My friends in Australia and in the various other parts of the world - thank you for your support and for listening to me for hours on end, and for putting up with me when I disappeared from the radar for weeks on end! • My family back in Europe - thank you for your unconditional love, support and understanding, and for all the encouragement and humour that kept me going • My husband Birger - it is needless to say that without your support, patience and love I would have never made it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. "Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up." Stephen Hawking v LIST OF PUBLICATIONS INCLUDED AS PART OF THIS THESIS This thesis contains the following published research papers: Paper 1: Stark, J.C., Wang, X.-C., Denyszyn, S.W., Li, Z.-X., Rasmussen, B., Zi, J.-W., Sheppard, S., Liu, Y., 2017. Newly identified 1.89 Ga mafic dyke swarm in the Archean Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia suggests a connection with India. Precambrian Res., In Press. Available at http://10.1016/j.precamres.2017.12.036 Paper 2: Stark, J.C., Wang, X.-C., Li, Z.-X., Rasmussen, B., Sheppard, S., Xi, J.-W., Clark, C., Hand, M., Li, W.-X., 2018. In situ U-Pb geochronology and geochemistry of a 1.13 Ga mafic dyke suite at Bunger Hills, East Antarctica: the end of the Albany-Fraser Orogeny. Precambrian Res. 310, 76–92. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2018.02.023 Paper 3: Stark, J.C., Wilde, S.A., Söderlund, U., Li, Z.-X., Rasmussen, B., Zi, J.-W., 2018. First evidence of Archean mafic dykes at 2.62 Ga in the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia: links to cratonisation and the Zimbabwe Craton. Precambrian Res. 317, 1-13. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2018.08.004 Paper 4: Stark, J.C., Wang, X.-C., Li, Z.-X., Denyszyn, S.W., Rasmussen, B., Zi, J.-W., Sheppard, S., 2018. 1.39 Ga mafic dyke swarm in southwestern Yilgarn Craton marks Nuna to Rodinia transition in the West Australian Craton. Precambrian Res. 316, 291-304. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2018.08.014 LIST OF RELEVANT CO-AUTHORED PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Paper 5: Liu, Y., Li, Z.-X., Pisarevsky, S.A., Kirscher, U., Mitchell, R.N., Stark, J.C., 2018. Palaeomagnetism of the 1.89 Ga Boonadgin dykes of the Yilgarn Craton: Possible connection with India. Precambrian Res., In Press. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2018.05.021 Paper 6: Liu, Y., Li, Z.-X., Pisarevsky, S.A., Kirscher, U., Mitchell, R.N., Stark, J.C., Clark, C., Hand, M., 2018.