BLUE AMPHIBOLES, METAMORPHIC REGIME AND PLATE TECTONIC MODELING IN THE IBERIAN PYRITE BELT

Riebeckite-arfvedsonite amphiboles occur in very low-grade metamorphosed doleritic sills at various localities within the Iberian Pyrite Belt. The alkali-amphiboles grew during sub-solidus hydrothermal 'spilitization' of basalt associated with submarine massive sulphide ore formation. The riebeckite-arfvedsonite is only very rarely preserved, being converted to albite-chlorite during regional metamorphism. In the South Portuguese zone Hercynian regional metamorphic grade increases in a northward direction from zeolite facies south of the Pyrite Belt through prehnite-pumpellyite facies to the greenschist facies in its northernmost zone. Compositional and mineralogical data indicate a geothermal gradient in the order of 40-50 °C/km. Volcanism in the Pyrite Belt is essentially representative of a bimodal association of twoleiitic to alkalic basalt and dacite/rhyolite. Geochemical data for the Pyrite Belt mafic meta-volcanics contrast with available data for subduction related volcanic suites in orogenic belts but exhibit similarities with the basaltic members of basalt-rhyolite associations found in areas of extensional tectonics. It is proposed that the Iberian Pyrite Belt volcanism represents magmatic activity in an intra-continental basin undergoing rifting during the late Devonian and lower Carboniferous times. © 1979 Springer-Verlag.