Epizonal I- and A-type granites and associated ash-flow tuffs, Fogo Island, northeast Newfoundland

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Sandeman, Hamish A., Malpas, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1995
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Fogo; Fogo Island; Rogers Cove; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e95-141; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e95-141

Magmatic activity of Silurian–Devonian age is widespread in the Appalachian–Caledonian Orogen. A marked characteristic of this magmatism is the composite nature of the igneous suites, which range from peridotite to granodiorite in single plutonic bodies. The origin of these suites is still enigmatic, and the assumption that all are the same not proven. Such a suite of intrusive rocks, ranging in composition from minor peridotite to granodiorite, intrudes an openly folded sequence of Silurian volcanogenic sandstones and ash-flow tuffs on Fogo Island, northeast Newfoundland. Two units, the Rogers Cove and Hare Bay microgranites, consist of fine-grained hastingsite granites with spherulitic and flow-banded textures, and exhibit drusy cavities and microfractures that contain the mineral assemblage hastingsitic hornblende + plagioclase + magnetite + zircon. These rocks are characterized by elevated high field strength element contents (e.g., Zr = 74–672 and Y = 21–103 ppm), very high FeO*/MgO ratios (FeO*/MgO = 2.4–93.5), and 10 000 Ga/Al ratios of 1.67–10.52, indicating an A-type granitoid affinity. A third and the most voluminous granitic unit, the Shoal Bay granite, is an alkali-feldspar-phyric, medium-grained, equigranular biotite–hastingsite granite with hastingsite and annitic biotite interstitial to euhedral plagioclase, anhedral quartz, and perthite crystals. The Shoal Bay granite exhibits mineral parageneses similar to the microgranites, but chemical characteristics more typical of calc-alkaline, I-type granitoids. Volcanic–sedimentary sequences spatially associated with the granitic rocks include dense, welded, high-silica, hastingsite-bearing ash-flow tuffs with compositions that suggest they represent erupted equivalents of fractionated end members of the Shoal Bay granite. The rocks making up the Fogo Island batholith have been directly equated with the bimodal, calc-alkaline Mount Peyton batholith of northeast Newfoundland, but the specialized A-type nature of the Fogo granites suggests differing source ...