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Journal of Petrology Volume 41 Number 12 Pages 1653-1671 2000
© Oxford University Press 2000

The Archaean High-Mg Diorite Suite: Links to Tonalite–Trondhjemite–Granodiorite Magmatism and Implications for Early Archaean Crustal Growth

R. H. SMITHIES1,* and D. C. CHAMPION2

1GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA, 100 PLAIN STREET, EAST PERTH, WA 6004, AUSTRALIA
2AUSTRALIAN GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ORGANISATION, GPO BOX 378, CANBERRA, ACT 2601, AUSTRALIA

The 2·95 Ga Pilbara high-Mg diorite suite intrudes the central part of the Archaean granite–greenstone terrain of the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, and shows many features typical of high-Mg diorite (sanukitoid) suites from other late Archaean terrains. Such suites form a minor component of Archaean felsic crust. They are typically emplaced in late- to post-kinematic settings, sometimes in association with felsic alkaline magmatism, and are either unaccompanied by, or post-date, tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) magmatism, which comprises a much greater proportion of Archaean felsic crust. The TTG series comprises sodic, Sr-rich rocks with high La/Yb and Sr/Y ratios, thought to result from partial melting of eclogite facies basaltic crust. High-Mg diorite shares these characteristics but has significantly higher mg-number (~60), and Cr and Ni concentrations, suggesting a mantle source. Many compositional features of TTGs are also shared by Cenozoic felsic magmas called adakites. Adakites form by melting of a young, hot, subducting slab and provide an a priori reason to invoke a subduction origin for TTG. During ascent through the mantle wedge, adakite commonly assimilates, or is contaminated by, peridotite, and the resulting ‘wedge-modified adakite’ bears strong compositional similarity to Archaean high-Mg diorite. Nevertheless, the latter are not simply an Archaean analogue of ‘wedge-modified adakite’ (i.e. ‘wedge-modified TTG’) because their intrusion is post-tectonic and unaccompanied by TTG magmatism. The petrogenesis of the Pilbara high-Mg diorite suite requires remelting of a mantle source, extensively metasomatized by addition of about 40% TTG-like melt. However, although the generation of this metasomatized source appears to require a subduction environment, many Archaean TTG suites show no clear chemical evidence of having interacted with a mantle wedge, and on that basis are more likely to represent partial melts of basaltic lower crust rather than of subducted slab. High-Mg diorite suites appear to concentrate in the Late Archaean, suggesting that subduction may have become an important process only after ~3·0 Ga.

KEY WORDS: Archaean; high-Mg diorite; sanukitoid; TTG; adakite; crustal evolution; Pilbara Craton


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