Browsing by Author "Grosch, Eugene Gerald"

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    Determining the physico-chemical conditions on the early earth : Barberton scientific drilling project, South Africa
    (2011) Grosch, Eugene Gerald; Richardson, Steve
    Low-grade metabasites and hydrothermally altered ultramafic rocks comprise most of the ca. 3.5-3.2 Ga, Paleoarchean Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB) of South Africa. However, PT-constraints and detailed petrological information on the variably altered mafic-ultramafic rocks are sparse and the nature of greenschist facies metamorphism is poorly characterized. In addition, alteration and silicification associated with distinct emerald green, fuchsite-(Crmica)- carbonate-quartz alteration zones is commonly found beneath chert horizons in the mafic-ultramafic rocks of the Onverwacht Group of the BGB. The origin of this silicification is highly debated and has important bearing on the nature of Paleoarchean geodynamic models, crustal geothermal gradients, hydrothermal oceanic regimes, as well as potential early life-sustaining environments. Over the past four decades, widely varying interpretations have been reported for the origin of these silica-rich fuchsitic alteration zones in the BGB, ranging from very low temperature (less than 60oC) atmospheric weathering of komatiites (Lowe and Byerly, 1986; 1999); low-temperature (less than 125oC) seafloor alteration (Hofmann and Harris, 2008); to bedding-parallel ‘flaser-banded gneissesschists’ in oceanic ‘extensionaloverthrust glide planes’ (de Wit, 1982a; 1986a,b; de Wit et al., 1982b; 1987b; 2011). Consequently, these fuchsitic-alteration zones have been at the centre of much debate surrounding stratigraphy models and the possible operation of early Paleoarchean platetectonic processes in the BGB.
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    A metamorphic and geochemical study of mafic rocks across the Pencksökket-Jutulstraumen Discontinuity, western Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica
    (2005) Grosch, Eugene Gerald; Frimmel, Hartwig E
    A petrological and metamorphic comparison of Mesoproterozoic metabasic rocks on the easern margin of the Archaean Grunehogna Craton and the adjacent Maud Belt in western Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, revealed a difference in peak metamorphic conditions from T = ~275° to 730°C and P=2 to 10.7 kbar over a distance of only 30 km across a major glacial valley. The lower grade constraints were derived from average P-T calculations using THER-MOCALC and thermodynamic modeling of phase equilibria together with chlorite geothermometry. The high-grade P-T constraint for the westernmost part of the Maud Belt closest to the glacier, derived from hornblende-plagioclase thermometry and geobarometric calculations with a garnet amphibolite assemblage, is very similar to that reported for the eastern Maud Belt and, therefore, does not support the concept of a westward decreasing metamorphic field gradient as previously proposed. In conjunction with a recent geochronological study on the eastern Maud Belt, this study suggests that the inferred sub-glacial boundary between the Grunehogna Craton and the Maud Belt, known as the Pencksökket-Jutulstraumen Discontinuity, may represent a major thrust that developed during Pan-African orogenesis (possibly as the continuation of the East African Mozambique Belt into East Antarctica) prior to extension and its development as a normal listric fault or succession of fault slices during the Mesozoic break-up of Gondwana.