Age and origin of coeval TTG, I- and S-type granites in the Famatinian belt of NW Argentina

Full text: Located on the Palaeozoic Pacific margin of Gondwana, at the opposite extreme to the Lachlan Fold Belt, the Sierras Pampeanas of central and NW Argentina also constitute a large granitic province displaying the coeval concurrence of I and S-type magmas. The Famatinian magmatic belt consists mostly of granitoids emplaced in Early Ordovician times, after Cambrian accretion of the Pampean terrane and before the Late Ordovician/Silurian accretion of the Precordillera terrane. New SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages, isotope and geochemical data are used to interpret the petrogenesis of this belt. Three types of granitoid are recognized in the Famatinian belt, based on lithology and geochemical data. These are (a) a minor trondhjemite-tonalite-granodiorite (TTG) group, which occurs only in the Pampean foreland, (b) a metaluminous I-type gabbromonzogranite suite, and (c) S-type granites, which occur both as small cordieritic intrusions associated with l-type granodiorites and as large batholithic masses. Twelve new SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages establish the contemporaneity of all three types in Early Ordovician times (mainly 470-490 Ma ago). Sr- and Nd-isotopic data suggest that, apart from some TTG plutons with asthenospheric characteristics, the remaining magmas were derived from a Proterozoic crust-lithospheric mantle section (Nd model ages of 1500-1700 Ma). Granulite xenoliths in Cretaceous alkalic rocks that have been described by other authors may represent samples of this source region. Trace element modelling suggests that the TTG and I-type gabbros originated by variable melting of a lithospheric gabbroid source at 10-12 kbar and ca. 5 kbar, respectively. The voluminous intermediate and acidic I-types, which show a trend to slightly more evolved isotopic signatures than the inferred source, probably represent hybridization of the most primitive magmas with lower and middle crustal melts. The highly peraluminous S-type granites have similar isotopic and inherited zircon patterns to Cambrian supracrustal metasedimentary rocks deposited in the Pampean cycle, and were derived from them by local anatexis. Other major components of the S-type batholiths, including porphyritic biotite granites, probably involved melting of deeper crust and mixing with the l-type magmas, leading to an isotopic and geochemical continuum. This model is similar to others that have been advanced for the I- and S-type granites of the Lachlan Fold Belt of Australia and the Hercynian granites of Spain, but we argue that in the Famatinian belt at least no juvenile mantle source was involved. Copyright (1999) Geological Society of Australia