Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T13:12:01.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geochemical characteristics and geotectonic setting of early Ordovician basalt lavas in the Ballantrae Complex ophiolite, SW Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

J. L. Smellie  and
P. Stone
J. L. Smellie
Affiliation:
J. L. Smellie, British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, England, U.K.
P. Stone
Affiliation:
P. Stone, British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, Scotland, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The consensus of several geochemical studies is a polygenetic origin for the basic volcanic sequence within the Ballantrae Complex ophiolite. This overall agreement masks differences of opinion regarding local geochemical interpretation, the possible correlation of structurally isolated lava tracts, and the degree of structural imbrication responsible for the juxtaposition of the various lava types. Newly acquired data (XRF, INAA, ICP-MS) provide the best evidence yet obtained for the presence of a MORB component and establish a wider distribution for primitive tholeiitic basalts with plate-margin characteristics than had been previously reported. The two principal within-plate sequences (well established from extensive coastal outcrop) are geochemically indistinguishable, with one considered to be the deeper water equivalent of the other. Lithofacies and geochemical similarities encourage correlation of some inland and sparsely exposed examples of within-plate basalt with the well-exposed coastal sequences, and all of this lava type may have originated from a single, ocean island volcano. The diversity of outcrops formed in within-plate and plate-margin geotectonic settings is combined within a dynamic reconstruction of a Tremadoc to Arenig arc-trench system with an active back-arc spreading region. The new reconstruction reconciles for the first time all of the known geochemical and published isotopic age evidence.

Keywords

back-arc spreadingboniniteisland arcmarginal basinisland arcMORBocean island
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 91 , Issue 3-4: The Southern Uplands Terrane: Tectonics and Biostratigraphy within the Caledonian Orogen , 2000 , pp. 539 - 555
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antonini, P., Piccirillo, E. M., Petrini, R., Civetta, L., D'Antonio, M. & Orsi, G. 1999. Enriched mantle – Dupal signature in the genesis of the Jurassic Ferrar tholeiites from Prince Albert Mountains (Victoria Land, Antarctica). Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 136, 1–19.Google Scholar
Ayres, L. D., van, Wagoner N. A. & Ferreira, W. S. 1991. Voluminous shallow-water to emergent phreatomagmatic basaltic volcani-clastic rocks, Proterozoic (c. 1886 Ma) Amisk Lake composite volcano, Flin Flon greenstone belt, Canada. Society of Economic Palaeontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 45, 175–87.Google Scholar
Beccaluva, L., Macciotta, G., Savelli, C. et al. 1980. Geochemistry and K–Ar ages of volcanics dredged in the Philippine Sea (Mariana, Yap, and Palau Trenches, and Parece Vela Basin). In Hayes, D. E. (ed.) The tectonic and geologic evolution of southeast Asian seas and islands, American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Monograph 23, 247–68.Google Scholar
Bloxam, T. W. 1968. Petrology of Byne Hill, Ayrshire. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 68, 105–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloxam, T. W. 1981. Trondhjemite in the Girvan–Ballantrae complex, Ayrshire, Scotland. Journal of Geology 89, 754–64.Google Scholar
Bloxam, T. W. & Allen, J. B. 1960. Glaucophane schist, eclogite and associated rocks from Knockormal in the Girvan–Ballantrae Complex, south Ayrshire. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 64, 1–27.Google Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1978. Geology of a continental margin 1: the Ballantrae Complex. In Bowes, D. R. & Leake, B. E. (eds) Crustal evolution in northwestern Britain and adjacent regions. Geological Journal Special Issue 10, 151–62.Google Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1982. Hyalotuff deltaic deposits in the Ballantrae ophiolite of SW Scotland: evidence for crustal position of the lava sequence. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 72 (for 1981), 217–28.Google Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1992. The Ballantrae Complex and Pinbain Block. In Lawson, J. D. & Weedon, D. S. (eds) Geological excursions around Glasgow and Girvan. Glasgow: Geological Society of Glasgow, 309–38.Google Scholar
Bluck, B. J., Halliday, A. N., Aftalion, M. & Macintyre, R. M. 1980. Age and origin of Ballantrae ophiolite and its significance to the Caledonian orogeny and Ordovician time scale. Geology 8, 492–5.Google Scholar
Cas, R. A. F., Landis, C. A. & Fordyce, R. E. 1989. A monogenetic, Surtla-type, Surtseyan volcano from the Eocene–Oligocene Waiareka–Deborah volcanics, Otago, New Zealand: a model. Bulletin of Volcanology 51, 281–98.Google Scholar
Chen, C-Y. & Frey, F. A. 1985. Trace element and isotopic geochemistry of lavas from Haleakala volcano, east Maui, Hawaii: implications for the origin of Hawaiian basalts. Journal of Geophysical Research 90, 8743–68.Google Scholar
Church, W. R. & Gayer, R. A. 1973. The Ballantrae ophiolite. Geological Magazine 110, 497–510.Google Scholar
Crawford, A. J. 1989. Boninites. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Crisp, J. A. 1984. Rates of magma emplacement and volcanic output. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 20, 177–211.Google Scholar
Doubleday, P. A., Leat, P. T., Alabaster, T. A., Nell, P. A. R. & Tranter, T. H. 1994. Allochthonous oceanic basalts within the Mesozoic accretionary complex of Alexander Island, Antarctica: remnants of proto-Pacific oceanic crust. Journal of the Geological Society, London 151, 65–78.Google Scholar
Ewart, A., Brothers, R. N. & Mateen, A. 1977. An outline of the geology and geochemistry, and the possible petrogenetic evolution of the volcanic rocks of the Tonga–Kermadec arc. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 2, 205–50.Google Scholar
Ewart, A., Bryan, W. B., Chappell, B. W. & Rudnick, R. L. 1994. Regional geochemistry of the Lau–Tonga arc and backarc systems. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 135, 385–125.Google Scholar
Falloon, T. J., Malahoff, A., Zonenshain, L. P. & Bogdanov, Y. 1992. Petrology and geochemistry of back-arc basin basalts from the Lau Basin spreading ridges at 15°, 18° and 19°S. Mineralogy and Petrology 47, 1–35.Google Scholar
Fitton, J. G., Saunders, A. D., Larsen, L. M., Hardarson, B. S. & Norry, M. J. 1998. Volcanic rocks from the East Greenland margin at 63°N: composition, petrogenesis and mantle sources. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 152, 331–50.Google Scholar
Floyd, P. A. 1986. Petrology and geochemistry of oceanic intraplate sheet-flow basalts, Nauru Basin, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 89, Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project 89, 471–97.Google Scholar
Gamble, J. A., Wright, J. D., Woodhead, J. D. & McCulloch, M. T. 1995. Arc and back-arc geochemistry in the southern Kermadec arc–Ngatoro Basin and offshore Taupo Volcanic Zone, SW Pacific. In Smellie, J.L. (ed.) Volcanism associated with extension at consuming plate margins, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 81, 193–212.Google Scholar
Hamilton, P. J., Bluck, B. J. & Halliday, A. N. 1984. Sm–Nd ages from the Ballantrae complex, SW Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 75, 183–7.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J. W. 1994. Petrologic synthesis: Lau Basin transect (Leg 135). Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 135, 879–905.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J. W., Lonsdale, P. F., MacDougall, J. D. & Volpe, A. M. 1990. Petrology of the axial ridge of the Mariana Trough back-arc spreading centre. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 100, 226–50.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J. W. & Allan, J. F. 1994. Petrologic evolution of Lau Basin Sites 834 through 839. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program 135, 427–70.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J. W. & Melchior, J. T. 1985. Petrology of Mariana Trough and Lau Basin basalts. Journal of Geophysical Research 90, 11,431–68.Google Scholar
Hergt, J. M. & Farley, K. N. 1994. Major element, trace element, and isotope (Pb, Sr and Nd) variations in Site 834 basalts: implications for the initiation of backarc opening. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 135, 471–85.Google Scholar
Hochstaedter, A. G., Gill, J. B. & Morris, J. D. 1990. Volcanism in the Sumizu Rift, II. Subduction and non-subduction related components. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 100, 179–209.Google Scholar
Holub, F.V., Klapova, H., Bluck, B. J. & Bowes, D. R. 1984. Petrology and geochemistry of post-obduction dykes of the Ballantrae complex, SW Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 75, 211–23.Google Scholar
Hynes, A. 1980. Carbonatization and mobility of Ti, Y, and Zr in Ascot Formation metabasalts, SW Quebec. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 75, 79–87.Google Scholar
Ince, D. 1984. Sedimentation and tectonism in the Middle Ordovician of the Girvan district. SW Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 75, 225–37.Google Scholar
Jelinek, E., Soucek, J., Bluck, B. J., Bowes, D. R. & Treloar, P. J. 1980. Nature and significance of beerbachites in the Ballantrae ophiolite, SW Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 71, 159–80.Google Scholar
Johnson, L. E. & Fryer, P. 1990. The first evidence for MORB-like lavas from the outer Mariana forearc: geochemistry, petrography and tectonic implications. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 100, 304–16.Google Scholar
Jones, C. M. 1977. The Ballantrae complex as compared to the ophio-lites of Newfoundland (Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wales).Google Scholar
Keller, R. A., Fisk, M. R., White, W. M. & Birkenmajer, K. 1992. Isotopic and trace element constraints on mixing and melting models of marginal basin volcanism, Bransfield Strait, Antarctica. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 111, 287–303.Google Scholar
Keppie, J. D., Dostal, J., Murphy, J. B. & Cousens, B. L. 1997. Palaeozoic within-plate volcanic rocks in Nova Scotia (Canada) reinterpreted: isotopic constraints on magmatic source and palaeocontinental reconstructions. Geological Magazine 134, 425–47.Google Scholar
Kokelaar, P. & Romagnoli, C. 1995. Sector collapse, sedimentation and clast population evolution at an active island-arc volcano: Stromboli, Italy. Bulletin of Volcanology 57, 240–62.Google Scholar
Leat, P. T., Livermore, R. A., Millar, I. L. & Pearce, J.A. 2000. Magma supply in back-arc spreading segment E2, East Scotia Ridge. Journal of Petrology 41, 845–66.Google Scholar
Leeman, W. P., Gerlach, D. C., Garcia, M. O. & West, H. B. 1994. Geo-chemical variations in lavas from Kahoolawe volcano, Hawaii: evidence for open system evolution of plume-derived magmas. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 116, 62–77.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. D. 1975. The geochemisry and geology of the Girvan–Ballantrae ophiolite and related Ordovician volcanics in the Southern Uplands of Scotland (Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wales).Google Scholar
Lewis, A. D. & Bloxam, T. W. 1977. Petrotectonic environments of the Girvan–Ballantrae lavas from rare-earth element distributions. Scottish Journal of Geology 13, 211–22.Google Scholar
Moore, J. G., Clague, D. A., Holcomb, R. T., Lipman, P. W., Normark, W. R. & Torresan, M. E. 1989. Prodigious submarine landslides on the Hawaiian Ridge. Journal of Geophysical Research 94, 17,465–84.Google Scholar
Natland, J. H. & Tarney, J. 1982. Petrologic evolution of the Mariana arc and backarc basin system—a synthesis of drilling results in the South Philippine Sea. Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project 60, 877–908.Google Scholar
Oliver, G. J. H., Smellie, J. L., Thomas, L. J., Casey, D. M., Kemp, A. E. S., Evans, L. J., Baldwin, J. R. & Hepworth, B. C. 1984. Early Palaeozoic metamorphic history of the Midland Valley, Southern Uplands–Longford Down massif and the Lake District, British Isles. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 75, 245–58.Google Scholar
Panter, K. S., McIntosh, W. C. & Smellie, J. L. 1994. Volcanic history of Mount Sidley, a major alkaline volcano in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. Bulletin of Volcanology 56, 361–76.Google Scholar
Pearce, J. A., Harris, N. B. W. & Tindle, A. G. 1984. Trace element discrimination diagrams for the tectonic interpretation of granitic rocks. Journal of Petrology 25, 956–83.Google Scholar
Pearce, J. A., Baker, P. E., Harvey, P. K. & Luff, I. W. 1995. Geochemical evidence for subduction fluxes, mantle melting and fractional crystallization beneath the South Sandwich Island arc. Journal of Petrology 36, 1073–109.Google Scholar
Pearce, J. A., Ernewin, M., Bloomer, S. H., Parson, L. M., Murton, B. J. & Johnson, L.E. 1995. Geochemistry of Lau Basin volcanic rocks: influence of ridge segmentation and arc proximity. In Smellie, J. L. (ed.) Volcanism associated with extension at consuming plate margins, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 81, 53–75.Google Scholar
Pearce, J. A. & Norry, M. J. 1979. Petrogenetic implications of Ti, Zr, Y and Nb variations in volcanic rocks. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 69, 33–47.Google Scholar
Rollinson, H. R. 1993. Using geochemical data. Harlow: Longman Scientific & Technical.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A., Stone, P., Smellie, J. L. & Tunnicliff, S. P. 1986. An early Arenig age for the Pinbain sequence, Ballantrae Complex. Scottish Journal of Geology 22, 41–54.Google Scholar
Saunders, A. D., Tarney, J., Weaver, S. D. & Barker, P. F. 1982. Scotia Sea floor: geochemistry of basalts from the Drake Passage and South Sandwich spreading centers. In Craddock, C. (ed.) Antarctic geoscience, pp. 213–22. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Saunders, A. D. & Tarney, J. 1984. Geochemical characteristics of basaltic volcanism within back-arc basins. In Kokelaar, B. P. & Howells, M. F. (eds) Marginal basin geology. Volcanic and associated sedimentary and tectonic processes in modern and ancient marginal basins, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 16, 59–76.Google Scholar
Smellie, J. L. 1984a. Accretionary lapilli and highly vesiculated pumice in the Ballantrae ophiolite complex: ash-fall products of subaerial eruptions. British Geological Survey Reports 16, 36–40.Google Scholar
Smellie, J. L. 1984b. Metamorphism in the Ballantrae Complex, southwest Scotland: a preliminary study. British Geological Survey Reports 16, 13–17.Google Scholar
Smellie, J. L., Stone, P. & Evans, J. 1995. Petrogenesis of boninites in the Ordovician Ballantrae Complex ophiolite, SW Scotland. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 69, 323–42.Google Scholar
Smellie, J. L. & Stone, P. 1992. Geochemical control on the evolutionary history of the Ballantrae Complex, SW Scotland, from comparisons with recent analogues. In Parson, L. M., Murton, B. J. & Browning, P. (eds) Ophiolites and their modern oceanic analogues. Geological Society, London, Special Publication 60, 171–8.Google Scholar
Smith, R. A. 1995. The Siluro-Devonian evolution of the southern Midland Valley of Scotland. Geological Magazine 132, 503–13.Google Scholar
Staudigel, H. & Schmincke, H.-U. 1984. The Pliocene seamount series of La Palma/Canary Islands. Journal of Geophysical Research 89, 11,195–215.Google Scholar
Stern, R. J., Lin, P.-N., Morris, J. D., Jackson, M. C., Fryer, P., Bloomer, S. H. & Ito, E. 1990. Enriched back-arc basin basalts from the northern Mariana Trough: implications for the magmatic evolution of back-arc basins. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 100, 210–25.Google Scholar
Stone, P. 1982. Clastic rocks within the Ballantrae Complex: borehole evidence. Reports of the Institute of Geological Sciences 82/1, 45–7.Google Scholar
Stone, P. 1984. Constraints on genetic models for the Ballantrae complex, SW Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 75, 189–91.Google Scholar
Stone, P., Gunn, A. G., Coats, J. S. & Carruthers, R. M. 1986. Mineral exploration in the Ordovician Ballantrae Complex, SW Scotland. In Gallagher, M.J. (ed.) Metallogeny of basic and ultrabasic rocks, pp. 265–78. London: Institution of Mining and Metallurgy.Google Scholar
Stone, P. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1983. Graptolite faunas from the Ballantrae ophiolite complex and their structural implications. Scottish Journal of Geology 19, 297–310.Google Scholar
Stone, P. & Smellie, J. L. 1988. Classical areas of British geology: the Ballantrae area: a description of the solid geology of parts of 1:25000 sheets NX 08, 18 and 19. London: HMSO for British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Stone, P. & Smellie, J. L. 1990. The Ballantrae ophiolite, Scotland: an Ordovician island arc-marginal basin assemblage. In Malpas, J., Moores, E. M. & Panayiotou, A. (eds) Proceedings of the Troodos 87 “Ophiolites and oceanic lithosphere” symposium, Nicosia, Cyprus, October 1987, pp. 535–46. Nicosia, Cyprus: Geological Survey Department.Google Scholar
Stone, P. & Strachan, I. 1981. A fossiliferous borehole section within the Ballantrae ophiolite. Nature, London 293, 455–7.Google Scholar
Sun, S.-S. & McDonough, W. F. 1989. Chemical and isotopic systematics of oceanic basalts: implications for mantle composition and processes. In Saunders, A.D. & Norry, M.J. (eds) Magmatism in the ocean basins. Geological Society, London, Special Publication 42, 313–45.Google Scholar
Taylor, B. & Karner, G. D. 1983. On the evolution of marginal basins. Reviews in Geophysics and Space Physics 21, 1727–41.Google Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F. & Bluck, B.J. 1984. Sr–Nd isotope and geological evidence that the Ballantrae “ophiolite”, SW Scotland, is polygenetic. In Gass, I.G., Lippard, S.J. & Shelton, A.W. (eds) Ophiolites and oceanic lithosphere, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 13, 215–30.Google Scholar
Tucker, R. D. & McKerrow, W. S. 1995. Early Palaeozoic chronology: a review in light of new U–Pb zircon ages from Newfoundland and Britain. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 32, 368–79.Google Scholar
Van, Staal C. R., Ravenhurst, C. E., Winchester, J. A., Roddick, J. C. & Langton, J. P. 1990. Post-Taconic blueschist suture in the northern Appalachians of northern New Brunswick, Canada. Geology 18, 1073–7.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, J. M. & Cann, J. R. 1974. Trace elements and tectonic relationships of basaltic rocks in the Ballantrae igneous complex, Ayrshire. Geological Magazine 111, 35–41.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1959. A structural history of the Girvan district of southwest Ayrshire. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 63, 629–7.Google Scholar
Winchester, J. A. & Floyd, P. A. 1976. Geochemical magma type discrimination: application to altered and metamorphosed basic igneous rocks. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 28, 459–69.Google Scholar
Woodhead, J. D. 1988. The origin of geochemical variations in the Mariana lavas: a general model for petrogenesis in intra-oceanic island arcs. Journal of Petrology 29, 805–30.Google Scholar