Examples of convective fractionation in high‐temperature granites from the Lachlan Fold Belt

Igneous rocks derived from high‐temperature, crystal‐poor magmas of intermediate potassic composition are widespread in the central Lachlan Fold Belt, and have been assigned to the Boggy Plain Supersuite. These rocks range in composition from 45 to 78% SiO₂, with a marked paucity of examples in the range 65–70% SiO₂, the composition dominant in most other granites of the Lachlan Fold Belt. Evidence is presented from two units of the Boggy Plain Supersuite, the Boggy Plain zoned pluton and the Nallawa complex, to demonstrate that these high‐temperature magmas solidified under a regime of convective fractionation. By this process, a magma body solidified from margin to centre as the zone of solidification moved progressively inwards. High‐temperature near‐liquidus minerals with a certain proportion of trapped interstitial differentiated melt, separated from the buoyant differentiated melt during solidification. In most cases much of this differentiated melt buoyantly rose to the top of the magma chamber to form felsic sheets that overly the solidifying main magma chamber beneath. Some of these felsic tops erupted as volcanic rocks, but they mainly form extensive high‐level intrusive bodies, the largest being the granitic part of the Yeoval complex, with an area of over 200 km². Back‐mixing of fractionated melt into the main magma chamber progressively changed the composition of the main melt, resulting in highly zoned plutons. In the more felsic part of the Boggy Plain zoned pluton back‐mixing was dominant, if not exclusive, forming an intrusive body cryptically zoned from 63% SiO₂ on the margin to 72% SiO₂ in the core. It is suggested that tonalitic bodies do not generally crystallise through convective fractionation because the differentiated melt is volumetrically small and totally trapped within the interstitial space: back‐mixing is excluded and homogeneous plutons with essentially the composition of the parental melt are formed.     

Understanding Effectiveness in its Broader Context: Assessing Case Study Methodologies for Evaluating Collaborative Conservation Governance

Abstract

Collaborative forms of governance are increasingly favored in conservation and potentially offer a range of practical and outcome-based benefits. However, tools for critically assessing whether and how collaboration enhances the attainment of conservation objectives are lagging behind the enthusiasm. We use a framework that considers effectiveness in relation to capacity of key actors and institutions to achieve outcomes and respond to emergent problems, robustness over time (i.e. adapting to changes while still achieving objectives), context-specific drivers of change, and the structure of networks and institutions to assess common approaches for evaluating effectiveness. Network analysis performs well in terms of structure, while action research and the diagnostic method offer deep insights into capacity and context. Scenario planning performs well in understanding robustness and context but performs better when combined with a diagnostic. The evaluation reveals important insights for approaching and standardizing investigations of collaborative governance regimes and their effectiveness.     

Cumulate and Cumulative Granites and Associated Rocks

Abstract. Processes that move crystals relative to melt, that is crystal fractionation, are of major importance in producing variations that are observed within cogenetic suites of granites. In low‐temperature granite suites, crystal fractionation initially involves the progressive separation of crystals residual from partial melting from that partial melt. Once separation of those crystals, or restite, has been completed, further fractionation may occur through the separation of crystals that had precipitated from the melt, the process known as fractional crystallization. High‐temperature granite magmas are largely or completely molten and elements such as Ca, Mg and Fe, and their associated minor elements, are in that case dissolved in the melt. Such magmas, particularly those that are more potassic and hence contain a higher fraction of low temperature melt, may evolve compositionally through fractional crystallization. Cumulate rocks result, comprising a framework of cumulus minerals with interstitial melt. In this process some of the melt is also displaced to form more felsic rocks. Such cumulate rocks may have distinctive chemical compositions, but that is often not the case. Distinctive features include SiC>2 contents near or below 50 % in rocks that are transitional in the field to more felsic granites, very high Cr and Ni, very low K, P, Ba, Rb and Zr, and anomalous abundances of the anorthite components Ca and Al. These rocks may also have positive Eu anomalies. Cumulate rocks do not necessarily have distinctive textures, at least as such features are understood at this time. Fractional crystallization can also involve the movement of precipitated crystals relative to melt. We refer to rocks as cumulative when formed from the fractions in which the abundance of crystals has increased. The production of cumulative granites typically occurs at more felsic melt compositions than is the case for cumulate granites, and this process may have its greatest significance in the fractional crystallization of the felsic haplogranites. Relative to felsic granites of broadly similar compositions lying on a liquid line of descent, cumulative granites contain more Ca, reflecting the addition from elsewhere of plagioclase crystals with solidus compositions. The abundances of Sr and Ba may be high to very high, and sometimes there are positive Eu anomalies. Cumulative I‐type granites may have low abundances of Y and the heavy REE, while the S‐type granites can be very distinctive with anomalously high abundances of Th and the heavy REE resulting from the concentrating of monazite. Generally, but not always, those who propose fractional crystallization as a mechanism for producing compositional variation within a suite of granites do not state whether the rocks in that particular case are thought to lie on a liquid line of descent or are cumulates/cumulative, although it is generally presumed that they were melts. Our experiences in eastern Australia have shown that the mechanism of fractional crystallization was quantitatively not as important during granite evolution as many workers would expect. However, there are some excellent examples of that process, most notably the Boggy Plain Supersuite. Overall in eastern Australia, varying degrees of separation of restite is a much more common mode of crystal fractionation, and that may also be seen to be the case for some other granite provinces if they are examined with that possibility in mind.     

Ti in zircon from the Boggy Plain zoned pluton: implications for zircon petrology and Hadean tectonics

The understanding of zircon crystallization, and of the Ti-in-zircon thermometer, has been enhanced by Ti concentration measurements of zircon from a small, concentrically zoned pluton in south-eastern Australia, the Boggy Plain zoned pluton (BPZP). Zircon crystals from rocks ranging in composition from gabbro to aplite were analysed for U–Th–Pb dating and Ti concentrations by an ion microprobe. Geochronological data yield a ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age of 417.2 ± 2.0 Ma (95% confidence) and demonstrate the presence of older inherited or xenocrystic zircon. Titanium measurements (n = 158) yield a mean Ti concentration of 11.7 ± 6.1 ppm (2SD) which corresponds to a mean crystallization temperature of 790°C for an α-TiO₂ = 0.74 (estimated using mineral equilibria), or 760°C for an α-TiO₂ = 1.0. Apparent zircon crystallization temperatures are similar in all intrusive phases, although the gabbro yields slightly higher values, indicating that crystallization occurred at the same temperature in all rock types. This finding is consistent with previous work on the BPZP, which indicates that liquid–crystal sorting (crystal fractionation) was the dominant control on chemical differentiation, and that late, differentiated liquids were similar in composition for all rock types. A simple forward model approximately predicts the range of crystallization temperatures, but not the shape of the distributions, due to sampling biases and complexities in the cooling and crystallization history of the pluton. The distribution of Ti concentrations has a mode at a higher Ti (higher temperature) than the sample set of Hadean detrital zircon. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the skew to low-T in the Hadean dataset is due to the presence of zircon that crystallized from wet anatectic melts.