Nearly contemporaneous evolution of the A- and S-type fractionated granites in the Krušné hory/Erzgebirge Mts., Central Europe

The Krušné hory/Erzgebirge Mountains is one of the best-known provinces of granite magmatism and associated metallogenesis in Europe. Variscan magmatic activity in the Krušné hory/Erzgebirge area spanned the period from 330 to 295 Ma. For much of this time, two types of magma were generated and emplaced in close proximity in this province. Strongly peraluminous P-rich (S-type) melts were formed alongside slightly peraluminous P-poor melts (A-type). Two suites of strongly peraluminous P, F, Li, Rb, Cs, U, Sn-rich and Zr, Th, Y, HREE-poor magmas were intruded in rapid succession over a period of about 10 Ma (about 330–320 Ma) over the entire region of the Krušné hory. Several peraluminous rhyolitic dykes near Gottesberg mark an isolated event at about 295 Ma. Slightly peraluminous F, Li, Rb, Cs, Sn, Zr, Y, HREE-rich and P-poor magmas were intruded in several events separated in space and time (325–295 Ma). Both magmatic episodes culminated with strongly fractionated subvolcanic granite intrusions, accompanied by explosive brecciation and followed by Sn + W mineralization of greisen type. Successive volcanic eruption of rhyolites and dacites of S-type, and rhyolites of A-type form the fill of the Altenberg-Teplice Caldera (ATC), thus demonstrating the close temporal and spatial relationship between these two types of magma. When these two geochemically distinct types of rock are in direct contact, then the rocks of A-type are always younger. The absolute time difference between the two types can range from less than 1 Ma (the first eruption of the Teplice rhyolite versus the Schönfeld dacite in the ATC) to about 15 Ma (eruption of rhyolites at Gottesberg versus emplacement of the Eibenstock granite). The assumed protolith of all late-Variscan granites in the area of Krušné hory/Erzgebirge is a mixture of fertile quartzo-feldspathic rocks with micaceous metapelites enriched in LILE and Sn + W. The differences in chemical composition of S- and A-type melts originated from local changes in the proportion of quartzo-feldspathic and pelitic lithologies, different pT-conditions of melting, the degree of melting, and the degree of metamorphic dehydratation of the protolith prior to the melting.

► Chemical and mineralogical features of Variscan magmatism in Erzgebirge are described.
► Suites of granites and rhyolites of S- and A-type were emplaced simultaneously.
► A-type rocks are enriched in F, Li, Rb, Cs, Sn, Zr, Y, HREE and are P-poor.
► S-type rocks are enriched in P, F, Li, Rb, Cs, U, Sn, and are poor in Zr, Th, Y and HREE.
► Both types of magmas produced similar types of Sn–W mineralization.