A new mechanism of granite emplacement: intrusion in active extensional shear zones

ONE of the principal ways in which continental crust grows is by the incorporation, from deeper within the Earth, of large volumes of granitic magma. A 'space problem' exists 1 as to how these magmas are accommodated in the crust. Traditionally two main emplacement mechanisms have been emphasized: 'forceful' intrusion, whereby buoyancy-driven magmas physically push the crust aside, creating granitic diapirs and balloons; and 'passive' emplacement characterized by replacive mechanisms such as cauldron subsidence and stoping. Although more recent work 2,3 has demonstrated that space for granites may be created within bends and offsets of large transcurrent faults, the simple view of either forceful or passive still fails to account for the intrusive mechanisms of many granites. Here we report the discovery of a new igneous intrusion mechanism. In the superbly exposed Proterozoic continental crust of South Greenland we have observed that rapakivi granite was intruded as large-scale sheets along ductile extensional shear zones that were active during emplacement. In such a process the space problem seems to be simply resolved.