HR: 14:55h
AN: V43G-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Enigmatic Connection Between Rhyolites and Shallow Granites in a Cambrian Rift
AU: * Gilbert, M C
EM: mcgilbert@ou.edu
AF: University of Oklahoma, School of Geology & Geophysics, Norman, OK 73019, United States
AB: The Cambrian Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen (SOA) exposes shallow-seated, A-type sheet granites emplaced on top of layered mafic bodies and under cover of A-type rhyolites, this gabbro-rhyolite boundary being a crustal magma trap. Granites and rhyolites appear to overlap in age, although rhyolites built up first, with the rhyolite pile thickening as later granites coarsened texturally to medium-grained types from earlier fine-grained sheets. Outcrop relations + widespread subsurface data, including regional gravity, indicate rhyolite volume exceeds granite volume. Both silicic and mafic members of the SOA sequence have the same positive Nd signature showing a fundamental genetic relationship between the rifting process and the development of new crust in the SOA. Major element geochemistry of rhyolites (~76% SiO2) and granites (73-76% SiO2) is similar, as are many trace element abundances and signatures. However, some indices are different: Zr in rhyolites is ~600-700ppm, in granites ~300-500; Zr/Nb in rhyolites 8-11, in granites 4-8; K/Rb in rhyolites 300's, in granites 200's. In only one locality can a continuous connection between fine-grained granite and a texturally rhyolitic lobe be seen. Thus, it is clear that none of the rhyolites and granites are directly related at their emplacement level. Conclusions: 1)Silicic magma, both rhyolitic and granitic, was fractionated from mafic sources in the middle rift crust. 2)Magma driving pressures for silicic liquids must have been higher for those becoming rhyolites than for those that became granites. 3)These differences imply that rhyolitic magma generally came from a deeper depth in the mid-crust, although the ultimate mafic sources may have been similar. 4)More generally as this case shows, spatially near, and chemically similar, rhyolite and granite bodies in the same tectonic setting may not be directly related.
DE: 3619 Magma genesis and partial melting (1037)
DE: 3640 Igneous petrology
DE: 8178 Tectonics and magmatism
DE: 9350 North America
DE: 9621 Cambrian
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting