Abstract:
The SE-flank of the Luswishi Dome belongs to the Domes Region that constitutes the metamorphic core of the Pan-African Lufilian Belt in Zambia. The stratigraphic, structural, and petrological data from the SE-flank of the Luswishi Dome prove a polyphase overprint during the Lufilian Orogeny, manifested in a tectonostratigraphic sequence that comprises biotite gneisses and granites in the internal Dome, intruded by pegmatites during the Lufilian reactivation. These basement rocks are discordantly overlain by metamorphosed and in parts strongly metasomatized sediments of the Neoproterozoic Katanga Sequence. The Lower Katanga sequence consists of biotite schists. It further contains the 'Biotite Spangled Schist' (BSS), biotite quartzites, graphitic schists, and metabasites. The metapsammopelites and local, hydrothermal breccias of the Upper Katanga Sequence follow upon a tectonic contact. The tectonic contact between Basement Complex und Katanga Sequence is accommodated by a major shear zone, in which adjacent rocks became imprecated and metasomatized.
The tectonostratigraphic sequence at the SE-flank of the Luswishi Dome represents former levels of the middle and upper crust, which were transferred into their present position during the second deformational phase of the Lufilian Orogeny. The correlation with the neighbouring Chingola and Solwezi areas shows westwards increasing metamorphism, reflecting stronger exhumation in the central orogen, induced by the gravitational spreading towards the foreland. This way, the second Lufilian deformational phase has contributed to the allochthonous nappe structure.
The first prograde deformational phase (D1) is associated with layering-parallel shorting, suggesting crustal thickening due to thrusting and nappe stacking. Isostatic compensation led to the exhumation of the Basement Complex by detachment and gravitational spreading of the Katanga sequence during the second deformational phase (D2). Ongoing compression and extension caused a complex deformation, subdivided in a first mainly ductile (D2a) and a second manly brittle state (D2b). The deformational pattern reflects NW-directed, compressional and NE-trending, left-lateral increments that delineate a transpression along the cover-basement contact. Moreover, the pattern exhibits N-verging folds in Lufilian trend, partly reoriented by back folding and back thrusting as well as by normal faulting towards southeastern directions. The overall tectonic transport during the Lufilian Orogeny is inferred to have been northwards directed.
The peak-metamorphic conditions refer to a Barrovian metamorphism, rising form lower greenschist facies in the external envelope to middle amphibolite facies in the internal dome. The successive growth of mineral assemblages in whiteschists, containing (1) kyanite + magnesium-chlorite (2) sillimanite + talc (3) andalusite, indicates decompression in agreement with the exhumation of the internal dome accommodated by the detaching envelope during D2. Within the detachment zone between cover and basement, the circulation of hydrous fluids caused an intense metasomatism, during which the fault rocks became depleted of the elements Na, K, and Fe(II) and the feldspar-mica lithologies underwent massive silification. In the Katanga sequence, metasomatism led to alteration, manifested in the widespread occurrence of rocks, consisting entirely of albite, scapolite or talc.