A felsic MASH zone of crustal magmas - Feedback between granite magma intrusion and in situ crustal anatexis

Magma mixing and mingling are described from different tectonic environments and are key mechanisms in the evolution of granitoids. The literature focuses on the interaction between mafic and felsic magmas with only limited research on the interaction between similar magmas. Here, we investigate instead hybridization processes between felsic magmas formed during the ~ 500 Ma Delamerian Orogeny on the south coast of Kangaroo Island. Field relations suggest that a coarse, megacrystic granite intruded and interacted with a fine-grained diatexite that resulted from combined muscovite dehydration and water-fluxed melting of Kanmantoo Group turbidites. The two magmas hybridized during syn-magmatic deformation, explaining the complexity of relationships and variability of granitoids exposed. We suggest that granite intrusion enhanced melting of the turbidites by bringing in heat and H2O. With rising melt fraction, intrusive magmas became increasingly unable to traverse the partially molten terrane, creating a positive feedback between intrusion and anatexis. This feedback loop generated the exposed mid-crustal zone where magmas mixed and homogenized. Thus, the outcrops on Kangaroo Island represent a crustal and felsic melting-assimilation-storage-homogenization (felsic MASH) zone where, instead of having direct mantle magma involvement, as originally proposed, these processes developed in a purely crustal environment formed by felsic magmas.