LIU Liang, SUN Yong, LUO Jinhai, WANG Yan, CHEN Danling & ZHANG Anda The Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Ministry of Education,Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi抋n 710069, China
The exsolution of clinopyroxene and rutile in coarse-grain garnet is found in the gneissic K-feldspar(-bearing) garnet clinopyroxenite from Yinggelisayi in the Altyn Tagh, NW China. The maximum content of the exsolved clinopyroxene in the garnet is up to >5% by volume. The reconstructed precursor garnet (Grt1) before exsolution has a maximum Si content of 3.061 per formula uint, being of supersilicic or majoritic garnet. The peak-stage metamorphic pressure of >7 GPa is estimated using the geobarometer for volume percentage of exsolved pyroxene in garnet and the Si-(Al+Cr) geobarometer for majoritic garnet, and the temperature of about 1000℃ using the ternary alkali-feldspar geothermometer and the experimental data of ilmen- ite-magnetite solid solution. The protoliths of the rocks are intra-plate basic and intermediate ig- neous rocks, of which the geochemical features indicate that they are probably the products of the evolution of basic magma deriving from the continental lithosphere mantle. The rocks are in outcrops associated with ultrahigh pressure garnet-bearing lherzolite and ultrahigh pressure garnet granitoid gneiss. All of these data suggest that the ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks in the Altyn Tagh are the products of deep-subduction of the continental crust, and such deep- subduction probably reaches to >200 km in depth. This may provide new evidence for further discussion of the dynamic mechanism of the formation and evolvement of the Altyn Tagh and the other collision orogenic belts in western China.
LIU Liang1,3, CHEN Danling1, ZHANG Anda1, SUN Yong1, WANG Yan1, YANG Jiaxi1,2 & LUO Jinhai1 1. Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics of the Ministry of Education of China, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China
