Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.


Science 16 February 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5814, pp. 980 - 983
DOI: 10.1126/science.1136154

Reports

Magmatic and Crustal Differentiation History of Granitic Rocks from Hf-O Isotopes in Zircon

A. I. S. Kemp,1,2* C. J. Hawkesworth,1 G. L. Foster,1 B. A. Paterson,1 J. D. Woodhead,3 J. M. Hergt,3 C. M. Gray,4 M. J. Whitehouse5

Granitic plutonism is the principal agent of crustal differentiation, but linking granite emplacement to crust formation requires knowledge of the magmatic evolution, which is notoriously difficult to reconstruct from bulk rock compositions. We unlocked the plutonic archive through hafnium (Hf) and oxygen (O) isotope analysis of zoned zircon crystals from the classic hornblende-bearing (I-type) granites of eastern Australia. This granite type forms by the reworking of sedimentary materials by mantle-like magmas instead of by remelting ancient metamorphosed igneous rocks as widely believed. I-type magmatism thus drives the coupled growth and differentiation of continental crust.

1 Bristol Isotope Group, Earth Sciences Department, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK.
2 School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, 4811, Australia.
3 School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
4 Centre for Theoretical Isotope Studies, Greensborough, Victoria, 3088, Australia.
5 Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tony.kemp{at}jcu.edu.au

Read the Full Text



THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Apatite Composition: Tracing Petrogenetic Processes in Transhimalayan Granitoids.
M.-F. Chu, K.-L. Wang, W. L. Griffin, S.-L. Chung, S. Y. O'Reilly, N. J. Pearson, and Y. Iizuka (2009)
J. Petrology 50, 1829-1855
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
U-Pb geochronology of mid-Paleozoic plutonism in western New Zealand: Implications for S-type granite generation and growth of the east Gondwana margin.
A.J. Tulloch, J. Ramezani, D.L. Kimbrough, K. Faure, and A.H. Allibone (2009)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 121, 1236-1261
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Complex Hydrothermal History of Granitic Rocks: Multiple Feldspar Replacement Reactions under Subsolidus Conditions.
O. Plumper and A. Putnis (2009)
J. Petrology
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Granite-lamprophyre connection in the latest stages of the early Paleozoic Ross Orogeny (Victoria Land, Antarctica).
S. Rocchi, G. Di Vincenzo, C. Ghezzo, and I. Nardini (2009)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 121, 801-819
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Granitic magmatism by melting of juvenile continental crust: new constraints on the source of Palaeoproterozoic granitoids in Fennoscandia from Hf isotopes in zircon.
T. Andersen, U. B. Andersson, S. Graham, G. Aberg, and S. L. Simonsen (2009)
Journal of the Geological Society 166, 233-247
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Zircon Hf Isotopic Evidence for Mixing of Crustal and Silicic Mantle-derived Magmas in a Zoned Granite Pluton, Eastern Australia.
S. E. Shaw and R. H. Flood (2009)
J. Petrology
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Accretionary orogens through Earth history.
P. A. Cawood, A. Kroner, W. J. Collins, T. M. Kusky, W. D. Mooney, and B. F. Windley (2009)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 318, 1-36
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Palaeoproterozoic supercontinents and global evolution: correlations from core to atmosphere.
S. M. Reddy and D. A. D. Evans (2009)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 323, 1-26
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Palaeozoic Lachlan orogen, Australia; accretion and construction of continental crust in a marginal ocean setting: isotopic evidence from Cambrian metavolcanic rocks.
D. A. Foster, D. R. Gray, C. Spaggiari, G. Kamenov, and F. P. Bierlein (2009)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 318, 329-349
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mineral evolution.
R. M. Hazen, D. Papineau, W. Bleeker, R. T. Downs, J. M. Ferry, T. J. McCoy, D. A. Sverjensky, and H. Yang (2008)
American Mineralogist 93, 1693-1720
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Processes and Sources during Late Variscan Dioritic-Tonalitic Magmatism: Insights from Plagioclase Chemistry (Gesiniec Intrusion, NE Bohemian Massif, Poland).
A. Pietranik and T. E. Waight (2008)
J. Petrology 49, 1619-1645
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Geochronology and geodynamics of Scottish granitoids from the late Neoproterozoic break-up of Rodinia to Palaeozoic collision.
G. J.H. OLIVER, S. A. WILDE, and Y. WAN (2008)
Journal of the Geological Society 165, 661-674
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Regulating continent growth and composition by chemical weathering.
C.-T. A. Lee, D. M. Morton, M. G. Little, R. Kistler, U. N. Horodyskyj, W. P. Leeman, and A. Agranier (2008)
PNAS 105, 4981-4986
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Long-term geochemical variability of the Late Cretaceous Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, central Sierra Nevada, California.
W. Gray, A. F. Glazner, D. S. Coleman, and J. M. Bartley (2008)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 304, 183-201
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
High-precision oxygen isotope analysis of picogram samples reveals 2 {micro}m gradients and slow diffusion in zircon.
F. Z. Page, T. Ushikubo, N.T. Kita, L.R. Riciputi, and J.W. Valley (2007)
American Mineralogist 92, 1772-1775
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »



To Advertise     Find Products


Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)