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Scale of pluton/wall rock interaction near May Lake, Yosemite National Park, CA, USA

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Abstract

Interaction of magma with wall rock is an important process in igneous petrology, but the mechanisms by which interactions occur are poorly known. The western outer granodiorite of the Cretaceous Tuolumne Intrusive Suite of Yosemite National Park, California, intruded a variety of metasedimentary and igneous wall rocks at 93.1 Ma. The May Lake metamorphic screen is a metasedimentary remnant whose contact zone exhibits a variety of interaction phenomena including xenolith incorporation, disaggregation, and partial melting. The chemical contrast of these metasedimentary rocks with the invading pluton provides an excellent measure of pluton/wall rock interactions. Wall rock xenoliths (mostly pelitic quartzite) are predominantly located in an elongate horizon surrounded by a hybridized fine-grained granodiorite. Initial Sr and Nd isotopic ratios of the hybridized granodiorite indicate significant local incorporation of crustal material. Major- and trace-element geochemical data indicate that contamination of the granodiorite occurred via selective assimilation of both high-K and low-K, high-silica partial melts derived from pelitic quartzite. Although the hybridized granodiorite shows significant amounts of contamination, adjacent to xenoliths the proportion of contamination is undetectable more than a meter away. These results indicate that the chemical and isotopic variability of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite is not caused by magma contamination via in situ wall rock assimilation.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (EAR-9814789, EAR-0336070, and EAR-0538129) and by a student grants from the University of California’s White Mountain Research Station, and the University of North Carolina Martin and Bartlett Funds. The manuscript was greatly improved by incorporation of suggestions from reviewers James Beard, an anonymous reviewer and editor Jon Blundy. Our work greatly benefited by field time spent with numerous colleagues and students, including John Bartley, Breck Johnson, Jesse Davis, Walt Gray, John Templeton, and Sam Coleman. We gratefully acknowledge generous cooperation and logistical support from the U.S. National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey, in particular Jan van Wagtendonk, Peggy Moore, and Greg Stock. We also want to thank Jeff Grossman for his help with the large dataset of geochemistry we used in several figures.

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  1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3315, USA

    Ryan D. Mills, Allen F. Glazner & Drew S. Coleman

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  1. Ryan D. Mills
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  2. Allen F. Glazner
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Correspondence to Ryan D. Mills.

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Communicated by J. Blundy.

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Mills, R.D., Glazner, A.F. & Coleman, D.S. Scale of pluton/wall rock interaction near May Lake, Yosemite National Park, CA, USA. Contrib Mineral Petrol 158, 263–281 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-009-0381-x

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