The Evolution of the Rheic Ocean: From Avalonian-Cadomian Active Margin to Alleghenian-Variscan Collision
Ordovician calc-alkaline granitoids in the Acatlán Complex, southern México: Geochemical and geochronologic data and implications for the tectonics of the Gondwanan margin of the Rheic Ocean
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Published:January 01, 2007
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CiteCitation
Brent V. Miller, Jaroslav Dostal, J. Duncan Keppie, R. Damian Nance, Amabel Ortega-Rivera, James K.W. Lee, 2007. "Ordovician calc-alkaline granitoids in the Acatlán Complex, southern México: Geochemical and geochronologic data and implications for the tectonics of the Gondwanan margin of the Rheic Ocean", The Evolution of the Rheic Ocean: From Avalonian-Cadomian Active Margin to Alleghenian-Variscan Collision, Ulf Linnemann, R. Damian Nance, Petr Kraft, Gernold Zulauf
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U-Pb zircon data from three undeformed to slightly deformed, megacrystic, granitoid plutons in the northern Acatlán Complex of southern México has indicated that all three are part of a larger suite of late Ordovician plutons. 40Ar/39Ar data from hornblende and biotite show mainly disturbed spectra, but biotite from the Palo Liso and Los Hornos plutons yields plateaus with ages of 305 ± 26 Ma and 157 ± 12 Ma, respectively. These thermal events may be correlated, respectively, with Permo-Triassic and Jurassic tectonothermal events recorded elsewhere in the Acatlán Complex. All three plutons are peraluminous with calc-alkaline affinities, characteristics that are consistent with inherited zircon ages and together suggest a source in Mesoproterozoic calc-alkaline rocks similar to those exposed in the neighboring Oaxaca terrane. We interpret these granites to be related to the early Ordovician separation of peri-Gondwanan terranes from Gondwana during the opening of the Rheic Ocean. Elsewhere in the Acatlán Complex, Ordovician megacrystic granitoids of the Piaxtla Suite were subjected to high-grade metamorphism, which we infer to be related to subduction along the Gondwanan margin during the Devonian–Carboniferous. The three plutons reported here were not affected by Devono-Carboniferous metamorphism and thus are inferred to have remained outside the subduction zone.
- absolute age
- Acatlan Complex
- Ar/Ar
- calc-alkalic composition
- chemical composition
- continental margin
- dates
- geochemistry
- Gondwana
- igneous rocks
- intrusions
- ion probe data
- mass spectra
- Mesozoic
- Mexico
- nesosilicates
- Ordovician
- orthosilicates
- paleogeography
- Paleozoic
- petrography
- plate tectonics
- plutonic rocks
- plutons
- Puebla Mexico
- Rheic Ocean
- SHRIMP data
- silicates
- spectra
- subduction
- thermal ionization mass spectra
- Triassic
- U/Pb
- whole rock
- zircon
- zircon group
- Oaxaca Terrane
- Tecomate Formation
- Xayacatlan Formation
- Cosoltepec Formation
- Patlanoaya Formation
- Totoltepec Pluton
- Esperanza Granite
- La Noria Pluton
- Los Hornos Pluton
- Palo Liso Pluton
- Petlalcingo Suite