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Polymetamorphic evolution of the granulite-facies Paleoproterozoic basement of the Kabul Block, Afghanistan

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Abstract

The Kabul Block is an elongate crustal fragment which cuts across the Afghan Central Blocks, adjoining the Indian and Eurasian continents. Bounded by major strike slip faults and ophiolitic material thrust onto either side, the block contains a strongly metamorphosed basement consisting of some of the only quantifiably Proterozoic rocks south of the Herat-Panjshir Suture Zone. The basement rocks crop-out extensively in the vicinity of Kabul City and consist predominantly of migmatites, gneisses, schists and small amounts of higher-grade granulite-facies rocks. Granulite-facies assemblages were identified in felsic and mafic siliceous rocks as well as impure carbonates. Granulite-facies conditions are recorded by the presence of orthopyroxene overgrowing biotite in felsic rocks; by orthopyroxene overgrowing amphibole in mafic rocks and by the presence of olivine and clinohumite in the marbles. The granulite-facies assemblages are overprinted by a younger amphibolite-facies event that is characterized by the growth of garnet at the expense of the granulite-facies phases. Pressure-temperature (P-T) conditions for the granulite-facies event of around 850 °C and up to 7 kbar were calculated through conventional thermobarometry and phase equilibria modeling. The younger, amphibolite-facies event shows moderately higher pressures of up to 8.5 kbar at around 600 °C. This metamorphism likely corresponds to the dominant metamorphic event within the basement of the Kabul Block. The results of this work are combined with the litho-stratigraphic relations and recent geochronological dating to analyze envisaged Paleoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic metamorphic events in the Kabul Block.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the assistance of Afghanistan Geological Survey for allowing access to unpublished archive material. This project was funded by research project P 13-06958S (Czech Sciences Foundation) and 680214 (Grant Agency of Charles University). We would like to thank H. Ur Rehman for reading an earlier version of this paper. The paper was improved by thoughtful review of P. Tropper and two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Petrology and Structural Geology, Charles University, Prague, Albertov 6, 12843, Prague 2, Czech Republic

    Stephen Collett & Shah Wali Faryad

  2. Department of Geology and Mines, Kabul Polytechnic University, Kabul, Afghanistan

    Amir Mohammad Mosazai

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  1. Stephen Collett
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  2. Shah Wali Faryad
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Correspondence to Stephen Collett.

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Editorial handling: G. Hoinkes

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Collett, S., Faryad, S.W. & Mosazai, A.M. Polymetamorphic evolution of the granulite-facies Paleoproterozoic basement of the Kabul Block, Afghanistan. Miner Petrol 109, 463–484 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-015-0371-9

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