The Encantadas Complex is a unit composed of dioritic, tonalitic and trondhjemitic gneisses with minor hornblendite. This complex is intruded by granites of Neoproterozoic age. Major and trace element data indicate metaluminous to slightly peraluminous composition related to the medium-K calc-alkaline series. Compositional parameters are consistent with a common evolution from less differentiated magmas, probably through fractional crystallization. The orthogneisses show LaN/YbN ratios from 10 to 50, K2O/Na2O varying from 1.1 to 3.0, Y contents from 3 to 39 ppm, Yb from 0.3 to 3.7, and Lu with contents in the range 0.06 and 0.54 ppm. Such geochemical features are similar to those of Archaean tonalitic rocks and are usually described in rocks formed by partial melting of mafic rocks under high-pressure conditions leaving an eclogitic residue. The presence of diorites and hornblendites, associated to tonalitic and trondhjemitic gneisses suggests, on the other hand, that tonalitic magmas could be formed by hornblende-controlled fractionation of hydrous basaltic magmas. Tonalitic gneisses show U-PbSHRIMP zircon age of 2, 263 ± 6 Ma for igneous crystallization and 2, 045 ± 10 Ma for the metamorphism. The geochemical parameters, tectonic and geochronological features of Encantadas Complex are consistent with magmas derived from mantle metasomatized by subduction-related fluids in a continental-arc.
continental arch; crustal evolution; Encantadas gneisses; Paleoproterozoic; Petrology; TTG
