PETROGRAPHY, GEOCHEMISTRY AND GEOCHRONOLOGY OF PARGUAZA GRANITE IN COLOMBIA

Abstract

The Parguaza Granite outcrops in the Vichada department of Colombia, towards the Orinoco River margin, where it conforms a portion of the large batholith described in Venezuela as Granito de El Parguaza. This intrusion outcrops in Colombia as isolated inselberg hills and moderately extended mountain chains with abrupt slopes that protrude through Tertiary plains. It represents one of largest anorogenic granites worldwide and is one of the oldest colombian units (Mesoproterozoic) without tectonic deformation. The granite exhibits both typical Wiborgite and Pyterlite rapakivi texture, with a monzogranitic to alkali feldspar granitic composition.
Among the compositional and textural variations, we find fine-grain zones, pegmatitic and aplitic dikes as well as quartz veins. Geochemically, it conforms a metaluminous to peralkaline A-type granite, intruded under post-collisional to rifting anorogenic conditions. New U/Pb measurements with LA-ICP-MS in zircons show hither to unknown concordant ages of 1392 ± 5 My to 1402 ± 2 My, respectively in the more distal zones; much younger than 1545 My ages reported in Venezuela, which may be explained or by a more complex intrusion and crystallization history or by a very slow crystallization process from the core to the edge; on the other hand, these ages are in concordance to similar anorogenic granites from the W Amazonian Craton in Brazil and with other rapakivi outcrops studied in the Guainía Department in the south-east of Colombia.