Contemporary Trends in Geochemical Studies of Early Precambrian Greenstone-Granite Complexes
Authors
-
Atomic Minerals Division, Hyderabad
S. Viswanathan
Abstract
Modern geochemical studies of > 2600 m.y. old greenstone-granite complexes involving isotopic dating, isotope tracer studies, and major- and trace-element investigations have clarified several enigmatic aspects of the earth's early evolution, and of Precambrian petrogenesis and metallogenesis. Results show that:
The ancient greenstone belts (age, 2700-3400 m.y.) are relatively younger than the ancient granulite belts (age, 2900-3800 m.y.), The greenstone belts developed dichronously, those in southern Africa forming before the ones in Canada, India, and Australia. Sedimentary rocks as old as 3375 m.y. and 3760 m.y. occur in South Africa and Greenland, respectively.
The protocrust was possibly composed of 'komatiite' (a rock type more primitive than oceanic tholeiite), and an ultramafic variant of it ('peridotitic komatiite ') could fairly represent the composition of the protomantIe. A major differentiation episode within the earth's upper mantle generated a distinctive tonalitic magma as a complementary response to the immediately preceding vast outpouring of the large pristine komatiites. The protocore was much less developed than at present.
Ancient volcanic rocks evolved in an environment dominated by multiple thin oceanic plates with arc-trench boundaries, and shallow subduction zones. Problems of Early Precambrian greenstone belts may be solved if the first sialic crust comprised small masses concentrated by plate tectonic processes similar to those still operating.
Early Precambrian basalts are products of magma derivation from very shallow depths (less than 50 km) by high degrees (more than 30%) of partial melting. Some of the associated granitic rocks originated from mantle depths by partial melting of eclogite. Early Precambrian greenstone-granite complexes may be deformed terrestrial equivalents of lunar maria. The occurrence in charnockitic terrains of southern India of rocks of komatiitic chemistry suggests that these terrains evolved from Barberton type Early Precambrian greenstone belts that were subjected to granulite-facies metamorphism.
The principal metals of ancient ores were derived from sources in the mantle, and their accumulation as ore deposits is related to the two dominant processes of the restless and mobile Early Precambrian crust, namely, mafic magmatism, and granite formation. As far back as 3000 m.y. ago, however, there was no secular trend of relative enrichment in the light rare-earth elements (La-Sm) relative to the heavy REE (Gd-Lu) in sedimentary rocks.
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