The petrology, geochronology and tectono-magmatic setting of igneous rocks in the Suckling-Dayman metamorphic core complex, Papua New Guinea
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Date
2020-03-03
Authors
Ӧsterle, J. E.
Little, T. A.
Seward, D.
Stockli, D. F.
Gamble, John A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
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Abstract
Southeastern Papua New Guinea has hosted magmatism throughout the Cenozoic, with the latest phase being concurrent with active extension in the Woodlark Rift. There, the Suckling-Dayman metamorphic core complex (SDMCC) has exhumed middle-crustal rocks in the past few million years along a still-active low-angle normal fault, the Mai'iu Fault. Uplift of the SDMCC has exposed metasedimentary and metaigneous rocks of Late Cretaceous-Pleistocene age that record an evolution from oceanic spreading to subduction, to collision, and finally to subduction-inversion and extensional exhumation. We present new petrographic, whole-rock geochemical and geochronologic (outcrop and detrital zircon UPb) data from the SDMCC to reconstruct its long-term evolution. The dominant footwall-lithology of the SDMCC, the Goropu Metabasalt, has a MORB composition. Detrital zircons from metasedimentary beds intercalated with these basalts yield U–Pb-based maximum estimates for deposition of ~103 and ~72 Ma, suggesting a Late Cretaceous spreading age of the oceanic protolith. Bulk compositions of low-grade tholeiitic meta-gabbroic and -tonalitic rocks (Yau Igneous Complex) that intrude the Goropu Metabasalt reveal both enriched and depleted light rare earth element patterns. Zircon UPb ages from the Yau Igneous Complex range between ~60 and ~57 Ma, providing a minimum age for the formation of the Goropu Metabasalt. Much younger syn-extensional granitoids in the mafic footwall of the SDMCC have calc-alkaline to high-K compositions and UPb ages on zircon between ~3.7 and ~2.0 Ma. Our data indicate that the Mai'iu Fault had re-activated a Paleogene thrust as an extensional detachment fault by 3.7 ± 0.2 Ma. UPb ages of detrital zircons in modern streams draining the footwall of the SDMCC are essentially restricted to the ages revealed by the Paleocene and Plio-Pleistocene intrusions. Xenocrystic zircons in the Plio-Pleistocene granitoids imply that the crust underlying the metabasaltic carapace of the SDMCC consists chiefly of Australian-continent derived sedimentary rocks.
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Keywords
Zircon , Southwest Pacific , Gondwana , U–Pb depth-profile dating , Suckling-Dayman metamorphic core complex
Citation
Ӧsterle, J. E., Little, T. A., Seward, D., Stockli, D. F. and Gamble, J. (2020) 'The petrology, geochronology and tectono-magmatic setting of igneous rocks in the Suckling-Dayman metamorphic core complex, Papua New Guinea', Gondwana Research, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2020.01.014