Generation and age of early Archaean greenstone belt remnants in the southeastern Kaapvaal craton of South Africa

该项目将调查在Piet Retief镇附近Kaapvaal克拉通东南部暴露的几块小绿岩残余物中的上地壳和相关花岗岩。使用的方法将是实地调查、单锆石定年、地球化学以及Hf和Nd同位素系统分析。我们之前的工作已经确定了巴伯顿绿岩带约3530-3550和约3445 Ma的长英质变质火山单元，以及斯瓦斯兰的一些绿岩残留物，而在Piet Retief附近没有上述绿岩残留物的年龄数据。我们的目的是确定上述绿岩残余物的年龄、岩石成因和合适岩性的演化，并验证这样一种假设，即这些绿岩和巴伯顿绿岩带曾经是覆盖Kaapvaal克拉通东南部大部分地区的一个广泛的早太古宙大陆洪水玄武岩序列的一部分，类似于西澳大利亚的东皮尔巴拉地体。

This project will investigate supracrustal and associated granitoid rocks in several small greenstone remnants exposed in the southeastern Kaapvaal craton near the town of Piet Retief. Methods used will be field investigations, single zircon dating, geochemistry, as well as the analysis of Hf and Nd isotopic systems. Our previous work has identified ca. 3530-3550 and ca. 3445 Ma felsic metavolcanic units in the Barberton Greenstone Belt and several greenstone remnants in Swaziland, whereas there are no age data for the above greenstone remnants near Piet Retief. Our aim is to establish the age, petrogenesis and evolution of suitable lithologies in the above greenstone remnants and to test the hypothesis that these, together with the Barberton Greenstone Belt, were once part of an extensive early Archaean continental flood basalt sequence covering a large part of the southeastern Kaapvaal craton, similar to what has been proposed for the East Pilbara terrane in Western Australia.