The P-T record of synchronous magmatism, metamorphism and deformation at Petrel Cove, southern Adelaide Fold Belt

Abstract

Porphyroblastic schists in the thermal aureole of the Victor Harbor Granite at Petrel Cove, in the southern Adelaide Fold Belt, South Australia, preserve a record of sequential cordierite, andalusite, staurolite, fibrolite, chlorite and muscovite growth (along with biotite+plagioclase+quartz+ilmenite) during progressive deformation. A P–T pseudo-section appropriate to biotite-saturated assemblages in KFMASH shows that the sequence of mineral reactions records increasing pressure of at least 1 kbar (from c. 3 to c. 4 kbar) during cooling from around 580 °C. Heating at pressures below c. 3 kbar is inferred for growth of early formed cordierite porphyroblasts, and is attributed in part to the thermal effects of granite emplacement, while the pressure increase is attributed to tectonic burial accruing from ongoing deformation. The 'anticlockwise' P–T path is consistent with convergent deformation being focussed as a consequence of heating, as to be expected for a lithospheric rheology that is strongly temperature dependent.