Aluminous gneiss derived by weathering of basaltic source rocks in the Neoarchean Storo Supracrustal Belt, southern West Greenland

摘要

The origin of amphibolite-facies aluminous gneiss from the gold-hosting Neoarchean Storo Supracrustal Belt in the Nuuk region of southern West Greenland is investigated in this study. An improved understanding of the formation of such aluminous gneiss has implications for genetic models (epithermal vs. orogenic style) for a local gold occurrence, which is hosted by sheeted quartz-veins within amphibolite in the hanging wall adjacent to the aluminous gneiss on the island of Storo. The aluminous gneiss mainly consists of garnet, plagioclase, sillimanite, quartz and biotite, which suggest a pelitic protolith. However, it has previously been postulated that the aluminous gneiss represents a hydrothermal alteration product, formed by leaching of a mafic precursor that was subsequently transformed to the current mineral assemblage during later regional metamorphism. In support of this hypothesis are decimeter-scale relicts of amphibolite, found within the decameter-wide aluminous gneiss, that share similar ratios of commonly fluid immobile elements, such as Al, Ti, Zr, Hf, Nb and Lu.