STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY OF

PLUTONS

J.K. ARAVIND,
SENIOR GEOLOGIST
 HOW TO CLASSIFY THE
PLUTONS BASED ON THEIR
DEPTH ZONES?

 EPIZONAL PLUTONS
 MESOZONAL PLUTONS
 CATAZONAL PLUTONS
 EPIZONAL PLUTONS
 0-10 km
 Passive intrusion i.e., stoping of roof rock.
 Contact discordant with country rocks
 Chilled margins against hornfelsed or baked
contact
 No structure or foliation
 Rare inclusions
 Vapour-phase crystallisation common
 No coeval regional metamorphism in
country rock
 MESOZONAL PLUTONS
 7- 16 km
 Forceful intrusion
 Contact may concordant or discordant with
country rocks
 Chilled contacts rare
 Contact metamorphic aureoles common
 May be foliated near contacts
 Mafic inclusions common near margins
 No vapour phase crystallisation
 Coeval greenschist to amphibolite facies
metamorphism
 CATAZONAL PLUTONS
 >12 km
 Forceful intrusion with plastic flow of country
rock
 No chilled margins
 Broad zone of regional contact migmatite
 Contacts with country rocks concordant
 May be foliated internally
 Inclusions common
 No vapour phase crystallisation
 Coeval garnet amphibolite facies metamorphism
 Migmatite formation.
HOW DO WE KNOW PLUTONIC ROCKS
FORMED FROM LIQUID MAGMA?

Unlike volcanic rocks, plutonic igneous

rocks cannot be observed in the process of
formation. Therefore, we must infer how
these formed based on field and laboratory
studies.
 What are the field evidences?
 Chilled margins in the plutonic rocks
 Shallow or intermediate depths only.
 Baked contacts in adjacent sedimentary
rocks (Shallow depths)
 Contact metamorphism of adjacent wall
rocks (Intermediate depths)
 Discordant contacts which truncate
sedimentary layering or other pre-existing
fabric.
 What are the field evidences?
 Rotated fragments of wall rock within the
pluton
 Xenoliths or schlieren within the pluton,
which cannot be derived from the
adjacent wall rock.
 Satellite dikes or apotheoses which root
in the main pluton and penetrate the
adjacent wall rock.
 Dilatational offset of pre-existing layers by
a tabular intrusion.
What are the laboratory evidences?
 Textures of plutonic igneous rocks can be
duplicated in the laboratory by melting
rocks of the appropriate composition and
letting them cool.
 The crystallisation order observed in
plutonic rocks consistent with
experimental phase relations on
analogous compositions.
 Passive Intrusion Forceful Intrusion

 Magma flows passively into  Magma forced into zones of

void space created by weakness in pre-existing
external process or force rocks by lithostatic
(tension or gravity) pressure.
 Stoping  Lifting
 Extension  Shouldering aside
 Plastic flow