Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Granulite formation during continental extension in Fiordland, New Zealand

  • Letter
  • Published:

From Nature

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Abstract

THE formation of the high-pressure, high-temperature rocks known as granulites has traditionally been attributed to metamorphism in the deeper parts of continental collision zones and magmatic arcs1-3. More recently, greater consideration has been given to the possibility of granulite formation during continental rifting4-6, and in particular4 to whether granulites are forming today beneath the North American Basin and Range province. Here we report thermobarometric data and single-zircon U-Pb ages for an analogous, but much more deeply exhumed, extensional terrain in Fiord-land, New Zealand7,8, where Early Cretaceous granulites underwent renewed granulite-facies metamorphism at significantly shallower crustal levels following the extensional collapse of magmatically thickened continental crust. Our data show that granulite-facies metamorphism can take place during continental extension, and demonstrate that in western New Zealand it was accompanied at higher structural levels by the emplacement of one or more metamorphic core complexes7-9, in keeping with the model postulated4 for the Basin and Range province.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Windley, B. F. J. geol. Soc. Lond. 138, 745–751 (1981).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bohlen, S. R. J. Geol. 95, 617–632 (1987).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ellis, D. J. Geology 15, 167–170 (1987).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Sandiford, M. A. & Powell, R. Earth planet. Sci. Lett. 79, 151–158 (1986).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Harley, S. L. Geol. Mag. 126, 215–247 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Sandiford, M. A. Geology 17, 449–452 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Gibson, G. M., McDougall, I. & Ireland, T. R. Geology 16, 405–408 (1988).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Gibson, G. M. in Exposed Cross-sections of the Continental Crust (eds Salisbury, M. H. & Fountain, D. M.) 71–101 (Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1990).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  9. Tulloch, A. J. & Kimbrough, D. I. Tectonics 8, 1217–1234 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Mattinson, J. M., Kimbrough, D. L. & Bradshaw, J. Y. Contr. Miner. Petrol. 92, 383–392 (1986).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. McCulloch, M. T., Bradshaw, J. Y. & Taylor, S. R. Contr. Miner. Petrol. 97, 183–195 (1987).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Oliver, G. J. H. N.Z. Jl Geol. Geophys. 23, 27–41 (1980).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Oliver, G. J. H. & Coggon, J. H. Tectonophysics 54, 253–292 (1979).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Newton, R. C. & Perkins, D. Am. Miner. 67, 203–222 (1982).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Bradshaw, J. Y. Contr. Miner. Petrol. 103, 346–360 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Moecher, D. P., Essene, E. J. & Anovitz, L. M. Contr. Miner. Petrol. 100, 92–106 (1988).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Oliver, G. J. H. Contr. Miner. Petrol. 65, 111–121 (1977).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Bradshaw, J. Y. J. Geol. 97, 697–717 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Bohlen, S. R. J. metamorphic Geol. 9, 223–229 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. England, P. C. & Thompson, A. B. J. Petrology 25, 894–928 (1984).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Nathan, S. et al. Basin Studies Vol. 1 (N. Z. Geol. Surv., Wellington, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Bradshaw, J. D. Tectonics 8, 803–820 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Muir, R. J., Ireland, T. R., Weaver, S. D. & Bradshaw, J. D. Chem. Geol. 113, 171–189 (1994).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Gans, P. P., Mahood, G. A. & Schermer, E. Spec. Pap. geol. Soc. Am. 233, 1–53 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Tulloch, A. J. in Circum Pacific Plutonic Terranes (ed. Roddick, J. A.) 5–20 (Mem. 159, Geol. Soc. Am., Boulder, Colorado, 1983).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  26. Oliver, G. J. H. in Exposed Cross-sections of the Continental Crust (eds Salisbury, M. H. & Fountain, D. M.) 43–69 (Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 1990).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  27. Ellis, D. J. & Green, D. H. Contr. Miner. Petrol. 71, 13–22 (1979).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Powell, R. & Holland, T. J. B. J. metamorphic Geol. 6, 173–204 (1988).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Tarney, J. in The Early History of the Earth (ed. Windley, B. F.) 405–417 (Wiley, London, 1976).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Williams, I. S. & Claesson, S. Contr. Miner. Petrol. 97, 205–217 (1987).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia, 4350

    G. M. Gibson

  2. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 0200

    T. R. Ireland

Authors
  1. G. M. Gibson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. T. R. Ireland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gibson, G., Ireland, T. Granulite formation during continental extension in Fiordland, New Zealand. Nature 375, 479–482 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/375479a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/375479a0

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation