Early Paleozoic rifting in the Ossa Morena Complex (SW Iberian Massif)geochemistry and geochronology of a pre-Variscan event in the Sierra Albarrana Domain and La Cardenchosa Pluton

Abstract

Recognition of preorogenic geological features in the internal zones of polyorogenic areas, like the Sierra Albarrana Domain and La Cardenchosa Pluton, is difficult. New SHRIMP ages indicate that the main tectonomagmatic event recorded in these areas occurred between Late Cambrian (granite emplacement; 481±2 Ma) and Lower Ordovician (migmatization; 478±2 Ma). These ages also suggest that the intrusion of the igneous body is closely related with the low-pressure partial melting and the deformation of the structurally lower detrital formations. Geochemical data show that the granite from La Cardenchosa Plu- ton is peraluminous with a slight tendency towards an alkaline geochemical character, and a within-plate setting for the mag- matism. Sr-Nd isotope data indicate an igneous origin with a strong upper crustal component, compatible with an extensional environment in the middle-upper crustal levels that marked the early stages of a continental rift development. These data are in agreement with the magmatism reported in other zones from the Iberian Peninsula, and are compatible with the latest magmatic event of the Early Paleozoic rifting. Our results, together with the main regional fabrics, suggest that the granitic magmatism and the migmatization are part of a single event, only slightly modified by Variscan reworking