SUBDUCTION-RELATED P-T PATH FOR ECLOGITES AND GARNET GLAUCOPHANITES FROM THE SAMANÁ PENINSULA BASEMENT COMPLEX, NORTHERN HISPANIOLA

Abstract

Eclogite and garnet glaucophanite lenses from the Punta Balandra unit of the Samaná basement complex (northern Hispaniola) preserve information of the early metamorphic and tectonic history of subduction in the Caribbean island-arc and its collision with the North America plate. For this reason, P-T paths were reconstructed from the interpretation of meso- and microfabrics, mineral assemblages and chemistry, with the aid of equilibrium phase diagrams calculated for specific bulk compositions in the CKNFMASH system and isopleths for selected solution end-members. The obtained results suggest that the subduction-related prograde path evolved from garnet-free and garnet-bearing lawsonite-blueschist facies, to phengite eclogite facies conditions at P=22-24 kbar and T=610-625°C, with a probable intermediate stage of low-P lawsonite eclogite facies. The subsequent retrograde P-T path entered the epidote-blueschist (garnet-free) facies and ended within the greenschist facies field, similar to the prograde evolution at low-P. Eclogites and garnet glaucophanites formed in a subduction zone in which oceanic lithosphere was subducted WSW/W beneath the Caribbean plate. © Springer-Verlag 2006.