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The Late Neoproterozoic magmatism in the Ediacaran series of the Eastern Pyrenees: new ages and isotope geochemistry

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Abstract

Geochronological U–Pb (LA-ICP-MS), geochemical and isotopic data from metavolcanic felsic rocks of the Canigó and Cap de Creus massifs in the Eastern Pyrenees provide evidence of an Ediacaran magmatic event lasting 30 Ma in NE Iberia. These data also constrain the age of the Late Neoproterozoic succession in the Cap de Creus massif, where depositional ages range from 577 to 558 Ma, and in the Canigó massif, where the data (575–568 Ma) represent minimum ages. The geochemistry of the felsic rocks indicates that they were formed in a back-arc environment and they record a fragment of a long-lived subduction-related magmatic arc (620–520 Ma) in the active northern Gondwana margin. The homogeneity shown by all these crustal fragments along this margin suggests that the individualization of the Pyrenean basement from the Iberian Massif started later, probably during its transition from an active to a passive margin in Cambro–Ordovician times.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by projects CGL2010-21298 and Consolider-Ingenio 2010, under CSD2006-00041 “Topoiberia.” Detailed comments of R. Kryza, the editor and an anonymous reviewer greatly improved a first version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Geodinàmica i Geofísica-Institut de Recerca GEOMODELS, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Martí i Franquès s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    J. M. Casas

  2. Departamento de Petrología y Geoquímica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    M. Navidad & P. Castiñeiras

  3. Departament de Geoquímica, Petrologia i Prospecció Geològica, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Martí i Franquès s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    M. Liesa

  4. Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Prêto, MG, 35400-00, Brazil

    C. Aguilar

  5. Departament de Geologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola Del Vallès), Spain

    J. Carreras

  6. Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, Museum für Mineralogie und Geologie, Sektion Geochronologie, Königsbrücker Landstraße 159, 01109, Dresden, Germany

    M. Hofmann, A. Gärtner & U. Linnemann

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  1. J. M. Casas
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Casas, J.M., Navidad, M., Castiñeiras, P. et al. The Late Neoproterozoic magmatism in the Ediacaran series of the Eastern Pyrenees: new ages and isotope geochemistry. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 104, 909–925 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-014-1127-1

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