Geochemistry, petrogenesis and structural setting of the meta-igneous Strathy Complex: a unique basement block within the Scottish Caledonides?

• Published in: Geological magazine 2004-03, Vol.141 (2), p.209-223
• Main Authors: BURNS, I. M., FOWLER, M. B., STRACHAN, R. A., GREENWOOD, P. B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: amphibolites; basement; bimodal; bimodal composition; Caledonides; crystal fractionation; Crystallization; deformation; depletion; Devonian; Europe; faults; Fractionation; Geochemistry; Geological time; granites; Great Britain; Grenville; Grenvillian Orogeny; hydrothermal; ICP mass spectra; igneous and metamorphic rocks; igneous rocks; isotope ratios; isotopes; magmas; major elements; mantle; mass spectra; metaigneous rocks; metals; metamorphic core complexes; Metamorphic rocks; metamorphism; mineral assemblages; mineral composition; Moine; Moine Supergroup; nappes; Nd-144/Nd-143; neodymium; Neoproterozoic; O-18/O-16; Old Red Sandstone; Original Article; orogeny; oxygen; paleogeography; Paleozoic; petrography; Petrology; Plate tectonics; plutonic rocks; Precambrian; Proterozoic; protoliths; rare earths; Rodinia; Scotland; spectra; stable isotopes; Strathy Complex; tectonics; thrust faults; Trace elements; United Kingdom; upper Precambrian; volcanic; volcanic rocks; Volcanoes; Western Europe; X-ray fluorescence spectra
• ISSN: 0016-7568; 1469-5081
• DOI: 10.1017/S0016756804009070

The Strathy Complex of the Scottish Caledonides is a bimodal association of amphibolites and siliceous grey gneisses that structurally underlies adjacent metasediments of the Moine Supergroup. Both rock units record a common polyphase Caledonian tectonometamorphic history. New elemental and radiogenic isotope data indicate that both end-members of the Strathy suite were derived from a depleted mantle source, that they are cogenetic and that they may have been related by crystal fractionation. δ18O values and their correlations with major and trace elements suggest that the protoliths were hydrothermally altered at temperatures below 200 °C. Tectonomagmatic discrimination based on relatively immobile elements and isotope systems, plus comparison with geochemically similar bimodal supracrustal associations elsewhere, strongly support the conclusion that the igneous protoliths of the Strathy Complex formed in an oceanic destructive margin setting. If TDM model ages of c. 1000 Ma approximate protolith crystallization, the Strathy Complex may have formed as juvenile crust in the peri-Rodinian ocean broadly contemporaneous with the Grenville orogenic cycle.