Author's personal copy Lithos 109 (2009) 223–239 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Lithos journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lithos Petrology of the eclogites from western Tasmania: Insights into the Cambro-Ordovician evolution of the paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana R. Palmeri a,⁎, R. Chmielowski b, S. Sandroni c, F. Talarico c, C.A. Ricci a,c a Museo Nazionale dell'Antartide, via Laterina 8, 53100 Siena, Italy b Centre for Ore Deposit Research, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 79, Hobart, Australia c Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, via Laterina 8, 53100 Siena, Italy ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Eclogite facies rocks along the Paleozoic active margin of Gondwana are rare. They are limited to isolated segments Received 28 January 2008 of Northern Victoria Land (Antarctica), western Tasmania, and southeastern Australia. New petrological data for Accepted 27 June 2008 mafic rocks and their host garnet-kyanite schists from the Franklin Metamorphic Complex (western Tasmania) Available online 8 July 2008 permit reconstruction of six main stages of mineral growth for the eclogite. Stages I and II occurred at greenschist/ amphibolite-facies conditions (ca. 500–600 °C; 0.55–0.7 GPa for stage II) before attaining high-pressure Keywords: conditions (at ≈600–650 °C; N1.5 GPa for stage III). The following stages, IV and V, record the decompression from Eclogite – – High-pressure metamorphism high-pressure conditions to amphibolite-facies (ca. 500 600 °C; 0.4 1.0 GPa). Finally, stage VI represents the late Tasmania greenschist-facies retrogression. However, the pelitic schist surrounding the eclogite records only the medium- Antarctica pressure amphibolite-facies stage. The P–T evolution over time outlines a clockwise path that is quite steep in both Gondwana the prograde and retrograde segments. The latter shows a nearly isothermal decompression between the eclogite Ross/Tyennan orogen and the high-pressure amphibolite-facies stage IV, which was achieved at deep crustal levels (≈30 km), and a final decrease in both pressure and temperature from deep/intermediate to shallow crustal levels, with a typical cooling-unloading path. The lack of a complete re-equilibration during the different stages and the high dP/dT for both the prograde and retrograde paths are indicative of a rapid burial and initially rapid exhumation. The similarity of the mafic whole-rock chemical composition, including N, T to E-MORB and of the peak metamorphic age (≈500 Ma) between the Tasmanian eclogites and the UHP rocks from Northern Victoria Land, supports the idea that they formed in the context of the same contractional event. However, the different P–T conditions and dP/dT point to different tectono-metamorphic settings for the two sectors of the paleo-PacificmarginofGondwana during the Ross/Tyennan orogeny. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction mania and southeastern Australia, and they formed at an early Paleo- zoic convergent plate boundary close to the eastern margin of From the late Precambrian to the early Paleozoic, the East Gond- Gondwana (Turner et al., 1998; Palmeri et al., 2007 and reference wana margin changed from a passive to an active margin. Subduction- therein; Och et al., 2003). related orogenic activity produced the Cambrian/Ordovician deforma- Tyennan Orogeny rocks of Tasmania represent an important link tion, metamorphism, and magmatism known as the Ross, Delamerian, between the Cambro-Ordovician rocks in Antarctica and southern and Tyennan orogeny in Antarctica, southern Australia, and Tasmania, Australia. According to Meffre et al. (2000), there is no agreement respectively (Kleinschmidt and Tessensohn, 1987; Flöttmann et al., among various authors as to whether Tasmania should be displaced — 1993; Borg and DePaolo, 1994; Ricci et al., 1997; Foster et al., 2005; from its present position — westwards to line up the western edge of Squire and Wilson, 2005). Eclogite facies rocks in metamorphic the Lachlan Fold Belt in both Tasmania and the mainland Australia, or terrains are important indicators of paleo-plate sutures and provide eastwards, so that Tasmania becomes an allochthonous terrane. valuable constraints on tectonic and thermal models for the evolution The aim of this paper is to define the metamorphic character of the of plate subduction/collision zones (Carswell, 1990). Eclogite facies eclogites and of their hosting pelitic schists cropping out in the rocks along the paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana are rare. They have Franklin Metamorphic Complex of western Tasmania through fabric been described in Northern Victoria Land (Antarctica), western Tas- relationships, mineral compositions, assemblages, and thermobaro- metric estimates. These characteristics, and the comparison with similar coeval rocks from Northern Victoria Land (Di Vincenzo et al., 1997; Palmeri et al., 2003) form the basis of a discussion about the ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 577 233893; fax: +39 577 233890. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (R. Palmeri), [email protected] (R. Chmielowski), tectono-metamorphic evolution of high-pressure rocks along the [email protected] (S. Sandroni), [email protected] (F. Talarico), [email protected] (C.A. Ricci). early Paleozoic paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana. 0024-4937/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2008.06.016 Author's personal copy 224 R. Palmeri et al. / Lithos 109 (2009) 223–239 2. Geological setting of Tasmania areas contain eclogite facies rocks, which are rare along the Paleozoic active margin of Gondwana (Goodge, 2007; Foster et al., 2005). Tasmania is a key region located between the Cambro-Ordovician In Tasmania, the Neoproterozoic–Cambrian metamorphic rocks rocks of the Ross Orogen in Northern Victoria Land and the Lachlan Fold involved in the Tyennan Orogeny are confined to the western and Belt in southern mainland Australia (Fig.1A, B, C). In addition, these three northern areas (Fig. 1C). In western Tasmania, the Neoproterozoic–early Fig. 1. (A) Configuration of Antarctica, Australia, and Tasmania during Cambro-Ordovician times (modified after Foden et al., 2006); (B) tectonic sketch map showing the different structural zones of Northern Victoria Land (Antarctica), Tasmania, and southeast Australia (after Flöttmann et al., 1993, Foden et al., 2006); (C) geological map of western Tasmania (modified after Meffre et al., 2000). Author's personal copy R. Palmeri et al. / Lithos 109 (2009) 223–239 225 Cambrian passive margin consists of continental-derived turbidite (Crawford & Berry, 1992; Foster et al., 2005; Foden et al., 2006). The intercalated with basalt and intruded by dolerite dykes and sills, and it collision generated a Tethyan-style ophiolite complex containing overlies early Neoproterozoic shallow-water sedimentary rocks (Fig. 2C; abundant mafic–ultramafic rocks including boninities. High-pressure Meffre et al., 2000). The passive margin of Tasmania was involved in a metamorphic rocks in this complex formed from fragments of the collision with an island arc system at the beginning of the convergent continental margin (Berry and Crawford, 1988; Crawford and Berry, stage of the Delamerian-Tyennan-Ross Orogeny (520 to 505 Ma) 1992; Turner et al., 1998; Meffre et al., 2000; Foster et al., 2005). This Fig. 2. Geological sketch map of the Collingwood River–Lyell Highway area of the Franklin Metamorphic Complex showing sample locations. A–B: Location of the geological section. Map adapted from (Brown et al., 2005). Author's personal copy 226 R. Palmeri et al. / Lithos 109 (2009) 223–239 Fig. 3. Photomicrographs of microstructures in eclogite from the Collingwood River (Tasmania). Mineral symbols after Kretz (1983) and Phe for phengite. (A) Euhedral porphyroblastic garnet with abundant inclusions in a partly retrogressed matrix. Crossed nicols, sample RCO611. (B) Fine-grained layer showing textural equilibrium among Grt, Omp, Cam, and Ep. Crossed nicols, sample RO380. (C) Backscattered scanning electron microscope (BSE-SEM) image showing the good textural equilibrium among the mineral phases defining the eclogite facies stage III. Sample RO380. (D) Porphyroblastic garnet and the Di+Pl symplectite after omphacite. Crossed nicols, sample RCO611. (E) BSE-SEM image of a phengite relic surrounded by its destabilization products (Bt+Pl symplectite). Sample RO380. (F) Anhedral garnet relics, together with abundant porphyroblastic amphiboles. Crossed nicols, sample RO289. (G) BSE image of a porphyroblastic amphibole with a garnet relic as inclusion. Sample RO380. (H) BSE image of a late vein cross-cutting a porphyroblastic amphibole. The vein consists of an association of chlorite, tremolite, and calcite. Sample RO380. Author's personal copy Table 1 Representative garnet analyses for eclogite. Sample RC611 RO380 Grt1 Grt2 Grt3 No. P3-r P11-r P24-m P41-m P70-c P83-c P102-m P144-r P13-rim P24-m P37-c P40-c P49-m P74-m P85-r P4-r P15-m P37-c P55-m P78-r R. Palmeri et al. / Lithos 109 (2009) 223 SiO2 39.77 39.86 39.09 39.11 38.03 38.25 38.89 39.49 39.39 38.31 39.00 39.00 39.07 38.46 39.63 39.82 39.28 39.55 39.65 39.93 Al2O3 22.34 22.37 21.87 21.85 21.60 21.45 22.01 22.16 22.23 21.81 22.01 22.27 22.06 21.78 22.54 22.34 22.09 21.88 22.08 22.33 TiO2 0.09 0.03 0.09 0.15 0.06 0.08 0.14 0.09 0.07 0.03 0.14 0.09 0.26 0.08 0.00 0.09 0.06 0.22 0.13 0.02 Cr2O3 0.02 0.04 0.07 0.06 0.01 0.07 0.05 0.12 0.09 0.04 0.02 0.03 0.00 0.02 0.07 0.09 0.07 0.02 0.03 0.06 FeO 20.58 21.03 21.75 20.51 25.39 25.58 21.86 22.18 18.50 23.43 20.80 19.27