We report U-Pb crystallization ages from four metavolcanic rocks and two granitic gneiss samples as well as whole-rock chemical analyses and Sm-Nd isotopic ratios from 25 metaigneous and metasedimentary rocks from the Chopawamsic and Milton terranes, southern Appalachian Orogen. A metarhyolite sample from the Chopawamsic Formation and a metabasalt sample from the Ta River Formation in the Chopawamsic terrane have indistinguishable U-Pb crystallization ages of 471.4+/-1.3 Ma and 470.0+1.3/-1.5 Ma, respectively. A sample from the Prospect granite that intruded metavolcanic rocks of the Ta River Formation yields a younger U-Pb date of 458.0+/-1 Ma. Metarhyolite and granitic gneiss samples from the northern part of the Milton terrane yield U-Pb dates of 458.5+3.8/-1.0 Ma and 450+/-1.8 Ma, respectively. Metavolcanic and metaplutonic rocks from both terranes span a range in major element composition from basalt to rhyolite. Trace element concentrations in these samples show enrichment in large-ion lithophile elements K, Ba, and Rb and depletion in high field strength elements Ti and Nb, similar to those from island arc volcanic rocks. Initial epsilon(Nd) values and T(DM) ages of the metaigneous and metasedimentary samples range from 0.2 to -7.2 and from 1200 to 1700 Ma for the Chopawamsic terrane and from 3.7 to -7.2 and from 850 to 1650 Ma for the Milton terrane. The crystallization ages for the metavolcanic and metaplutonic samples from both terranes indicate that Ordovician magmatism occurred in both. Similar epsilon(Nd) values from representative samples from both terranes suggest that both were generated from an isotopically similar source. Xenocrystic zircons from metavolcanic rocks in the Chopawamsic terrane have predominately Mesoproterozoic (207)Pb/(206)Pb ages (600-1300 Ma), but a single Archean (2.56 Ga) core was also present. The xenocrystic zircons and the generally negative epsilon(Nd) values indicate that both terranes are composed of isotopically evolved continental crust.

Ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism in the Madurai Block of the southern Indian granulite terrain has been verified using the calcite-graphite isotope exchange thermometer. Carbon isotope thermometry has been applied to marbles from a locality near the reported occurrence of sapphirine granulites that have yielded temperature estimates of around 1000 degrees C. The delta(13)C and delta(18)O values of calcite are homogenous, implying equilibration of the isotopes during metamorphism. However, the delta(13)C values of single graphite crystals show variations in the order of 1 per thousand within a hand specimen. Detailed isotopic zonation studies indicate that graphite preserves either the time-integrated crystal growth history or reequilibrium fractionation during its cooling history. The graphite cores preserve higher delta(13)C values than the rims. The fractionation between calcite and graphite cores gives the highest metamorphic temperature of about 1060 degrees C, which matches the petrologically inferred temperature estimates in the high-magnesian pelites. The fractionation between graphite rims and calcite suggests a temperature of around 750 degrees C, which is interpreted to reflect retrograde cooling. This event is also observed in the sapphirine granulites. Calcite-graphite thermometry thus provides a useful tool to define UHT metamorphism in granulite terrains.

A paleomagnetic study of the late Middle to possibly early Late Cambrian Liberty Hills Formation in the Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica, reveals a stable magnetization with positive fold and reversal tests. The paleopole is based on 16 sites from volcanic and sedimentary rocks and lies at lat 7.3 degrees N and long 326.3 degrees E (A95=6.0&j0;). The new paleomagnetic data support the view that the Ellsworth Mountains are part of a microplate-the Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains crustal block-that rotated independently of the main Gondwana continental blocks during breakup. The Liberty Hills pole differs from both previous poles recovered from Cambrian rocks in the Ellsworth Mountains and from the available Gondwana reference pole data. Our pole indicates a more northerly prebreakup position for the Ellsworth Mountains than previously suggested, contradicting the overwhelming geologic evidence for a prebreakup position close to southern Africa. The reasons for this are uncertain, but we suggest that problems with the Gondwana apparent polar wander path may be important. More well constrained, early Paleozoic paleomagnetic data are required from the Ellsworth Mountains and the Gondwana continents if the data are to constrain further the Middle-Late Cambrian location of the Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains block.

This article reports the first joint paleomagnetic and U-Pb geochronologic study of Precambrian diabase dikes in the Anabar Shield and adjacent Riphean cover of Siberia. It was undertaken to allow comparison with similar published studies in Laurentia and to test Proterozoic reconstructions of Siberia and Laurentia. An east-trending Kuonamka dike yielded a provisional U-Pb baddeleyite emplacement age of 1503+/-5 Ma and a virtual geomagnetic pole at 16 degrees S, 221 degrees E (dm=17&j0;, dp=10&j0;). A paleomagnetic pole at 6 degrees N, 234 degrees E (dm=28&j0;, dp=14&j0;) was obtained from five Kuonamka dikes. An east-southeast-trending Chieress dike yielded a U-Pb baddeleyite emplacement age of 1384+/-2 Ma and a virtual geomagnetic pole at 4 degrees N, 258 degrees E (dm=9&j0;, dp=5&j0;). Kuonamka and Chieress poles are interpreted to be primary but do not average out secular variation. Assuming that the Siberian Plate has remained intact since the Mesoproterozoic, except for mid-Paleozoic opening of the Viljuy Rift, then the above results indicate that the Siberian Plate was in low latitudes at ca. 1503 and 1384 Ma, broadly similar to low latitudes determined for Laurentia from well-dated paleopoles at 1460-1420, 1320-1290, and 1267 Ma. This would allow Laurentia and Siberia to have been attached in the Mesoproterozoic, as suggested in several recent studies based on geological criteria. However, because paleomagnetic results from the Anabar Shield region do not average out secular variation and the ages of poles from Siberia and Laurentia are not well matched, it is not yet possible to distinguish between these reconstructions or to rule out other configurations that also maintain the two cratons at low paleolatitudes.

We analyze the structure and assess the deformation history of the Tierra Caliente Metamorphic Complex (TCMC) of southern Mexico, where Laramide accretion of exotic terranes is in debate. The TCMC consists of a south-plunging antiform fault that is bounded on both its eastern and western flanks. Tierra Caliente Metamorphic Complex rocks show at least two phases of compressional deformation. The first and most prominent records a mean tectonic transport direction of 068 degrees. This phase is responsible for east-verging asymmetrical folding and thrusting of both metamorphic and superjacent sedimentary rocks. The second phase has an average transport direction of 232 degrees and is restricted to the western portion of the TCMC. A third phase is responsible for normal faulting. Lack of discernible deformation before Late Cretaceous time indicates that the main deformation phase is coincident with Laramide orogenesis elsewhere in the North American Cordillera. The stratigraphy, structure, and deformational history of the TCMC do not require accretion of exotic terranes. We explain the Mesozoic tectonostratigraphic evolution of the TCMC in terms of deposition and deformation of Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary strata over the attenuated continental crust of the North American plate.

The Malaguide-Ghomaride Complex is capped by Upper Oligocene-Aquitanian clastic deposits postdating early Alpine orogenesis but predating the main tectonic-metamorphic evolution, end of nappe emplacement, unroofing, and exhumation of the metamorphic units of the Betic-Rif Orogen. Two conglomerate intervals within these deposits are characterized by clasts of sedimentary, epimetamorphic, and mafic volcanic rocks derived from Malaguide-Ghomaride units and by clasts of acidic magmatic and orthogneissic rocks of unknown provenance, here studied. Magmatic rocks originated from late-Variscan two-mica cordierite-bearing granitoids and, subordinately, from aplitic dikes. Orthogneisses derive from similar plutonic rocks but are affected by an Alpine metamorphic overprint evolving from greenschist (T=510&j0;-530 degrees C and P=5-6 kbar) to low-temperature amphibolite facies (T>550&j0;C and P<3 kbar). Such a plutonic rock suite is unknown in any Betic-Rif unit or in the basement of the Alboran Sea, and the metamorphic evolution in the orthogneisses is different from (and older than) that of Alpujarride-Sebtide rocks to which they were formerly ascribed. Magmatic and metamorphic rocks very similar to those studied characterize the basements of some Kabylia and Calabria-Peloritani units. Therefore, the source area is a currently lost continental-crust realm of Calabria-Peloritani-Kabylia type, located to the ESE of the Malaguide-Ghomaride Domain and affected by a pre-latest Oligocene Alpine metamorphism. Increasingly active tectonics transformed this realm into rising areas from which erosion fed small subsiding synorogenic basins formed on the Malaguide-Ghomaride Complex. This provenance analysis demonstrates that all these domains constituted a single continental-crust block until Aquitanian-Burdigalian times, before its dispersal around nascent western Mediterranean basins.

The crustal-scale Kyonggi shear zone of central Korea has been identified as a major boundary between the Precambrian Kyonggi massif in the south and the Imjingang belt in the north. The latter is an eastward extension of the Qinling-Dabie-Sulu collisional belt of China. Field observations and microstructural analysis indicate that the extensional shear zone evolved from a deep crustal ductile regime to a shallow crustal brittle regime, associated with a rapid uplift of the Kyonggi massif following the Late Permian-Early Triassic collision between the Sino-Korean and Yangtze cratons. A Rb-Sr muscovite age (226+/-1.2 Ma) of the mylonite suggests that the extensional ductile shearing occurred during the Late Triassic.

A body of komatiitic amphibolite, an enclave within the Archean high-grade orthogneisses in southern India, shows mild chemical weathering under semiarid conditions. Along fractures, chemical weathering has advanced (Chemical Index of Alteration &sqbl0;CIA&sqbr0;=53; CIA of fresh rock approximately 26) to the extent that secondary Mg-Fe-Al clay minerals have formed and the rock has turned brownish red, soft, and fine grained. The weathering process has resulted in the mobilization and redistribution of the so-called immobile elements Fe, Al, Ti, and REE effected by the nature of secondary mineral formation (talc vs. aluminous clay minerals) and also possibly by soil microbes. In the initial stages of secondary mineral formation, there is a small loss of Fe, Al, and REE (noticeably Eu). However, in the fracture zone as well as in the incipiently altered zone, there is significant REE enrichment, probably affected by a different precipitation mechanism. Mobilized REE may have come from a minor alteration of clinopyroxene.

Upper Cretaceous strata of the Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar, yield some of the most significant and exquisitely preserved vertebrate fossils known from Gondwana. The sedimentology of these strata and their stratigraphic relations have been the focus of renewed geological investigations during the course of five expeditions since 1993. We here designate stratotypes and formalize the terrestrial Maevarano Formation, with three new members (Masorobe, Anembalemba, Miadana), and the overlying marine Berivotra Formation. The Maevarano Formation accumulated on a broad, semiarid alluvial plain bounded to the southeast by crystalline highlands and to the northwest by the Mozambique Channel. The Berivotra Formation was deposited in an open marine setting that evolved from a clastic- to a carbonate-dominated shelf, resulting in deposition of the overlying Betsiboka limestone of Danian age. New stratigraphic data clearly indicate that the Maevarano Formation correlates, at least in part, with the Maastrichtian Berivotra Formation, and this in turn indicates that the most fossiliferous portions of the Maevarano Formation are Maastrichtian in age, rather than Campanian as previously reported. This revised age for the Maevarano vertebrate assemblage indicates that it is approximately contemporaneous with the vertebrate fauna recovered from the Deccan basalt volcano-sedimentary sequence of India. The comparable age of these two faunas is significant because the faunas appear to be more similar to one another than either is to those from any other major Gondwanan landmass. The revised age of the Maevarano Formation, when considered in the light of our recent fossil discoveries, further indicates that the ancestral stocks of Madagascar's overwhelmingly endemic modern vertebrate fauna arrived on the island in post-Mesozoic times. The basal stocks of the modern vertebrate fauna are conspicuously absent in the Maevarano Formation. Finally, the revised age of the Maevarano Formation serves to expand our global perspective on the K/T event by clarifying the age of a diverse, and arguably the best preserved, sample of Gondwanan vertebrates from the terminal Cretaceous.

The calc-alkaline Ladakh batholith (NW Himalayas) was dated to constrain the timing of continental collision and subsequent deformation. Batholith growth ended when collision disrupted subduction of the Tethyan oceanic lithosphere, and thus the youngest magmatic pulse indirectly dates the collision. Both U-Pb ages on zircons from three samples of the Ladakh batholith and K-Ar from one subvolcanic dike sample were determined. Magmatic activity near Leh (the capital of Ladakh) occurred between 70 and 50 Ma, with the last major magmatic pulse crystallizing at ca. 49.8+/-0.8 Ma (2sigma). This was followed by rapid and generalized cooling to lower greenschist facies temperatures within a few million years, and minor dike intrusion took place at 46+/-1 Ma. Field observations, the lack of inherited prebatholith zircons, and other isotopic evidence suggest that the batholith is mantle derived with negligible crustal influence, that it evolved through input of fresh magma from the mantle and remelting of previously emplaced mantle magmatic rocks. The sedmimentary record indicates that collision in NW Himalaya occurred around 52-50 Ma. If this is so, the magmatic system driven by subduction of Tethys ended immediately on collision. The thermal history of one sample from within the Thanglasgo Shear Zone (TSZ) was determined by Ar-Ar method to constrain timing of batholith internal deformation. This is a wide dextral shear zone within the batholith, parallel to the dextral, N 30 degrees W-striking crustal-scale Karakoram Fault. Internal deformation of the batholith, taken up partly by this shear zone, has caused it to deviate from it regional WNW-ESE trend to parallel the Karakoram Fault. Microstructures and cooling history of a sample from the TSZ indicate that shearing took place before 22 Ma, implying that (1) the history of dextral shearing on NW-striking planes in northern Ladakh started at least 7 m.yr. before the <15 Ma Karakoram Fault, (2) shearing was responsible for deviation of the regional trend of the Ladakh batholith, and (3) dextral shearing occured within a zone apporximately 100 km wide that includes the Ladakh batholith and portions of the younger Karakoram batholith.

Detailed stratigraphic analyses of Late Emsian and Early Eifelian (Lower to Middle Devonian) carbonate-dominated strata in the northern Appalachian Basin indicate anomalous, locally varying relative sea level changes and inversions of topography. The distribution of a major basal-bounding unconformity, basinal pinnacle reefs, local absence of parasequences, and eastward migration of shallow marine carbonate lithofacies and related biofacies in the Onondaga Limestone and underlying strata mark the retrograde migration of an elongate, northeast-southwest-trending area of positive relief, bordered on its cratonward side by a similarly migrating basin of intermediate depth. These features are thought to represent the forebulge and back-bulge basin of the Appalachian foreland basin system as it developed during a time of relative quiescence within the Acadian Orogeny. However, the relatively small size of the bulgelike feature (ca. 80-100-km-wide, 20-50-m positive relief), its great distance from the probable deformation front (>400 km), and the lack of a well-developed foredeep immediately adjacent to the bulgelike feature may indicate that it represents a smaller-scale flexural high ("flexural welt") superposed over the cratonward edge of the larger-scale classical forebulge of the basin. Development of shallow-water reefs on the crest of the bulge during sea level lowstand, followed by migration of the bulge and widespread transgression, permitted growth of economically significant pinnacle reefs in the deep basin center. Further subsurface reef exploration should concentrate along the projected position of the bulge during the basal Onondaga lowstand.

It is proposed that the contrasting metamorphic mineral assemblages of the isolated amphibolite facies metamorphic highs in the Penokean orogen of northern Michigan may be caused by different heat production rates in the Archean basement. This hypothesis is based on concentrations of K, U, and Th in the Archean basement gneisses and Paleoproterozoic metasediments that indicate significant contribution of radiogenic heating during Penokean metamorphism. Heat production was anomalously high ( approximately 10.6 µWm-3) where andalusite-bearing mineral assemblages indicate that high temperatures were attained at shallow crustal levels ( approximately 550 degrees -600 degrees C at approximately 3 kbar). In contrast, where exposed metamorphic rocks indicate peak temperatures of 600 degrees -650 degrees C at 6-7 kbar, heat production in the Archean basement was lower ( approximately 3.7 µWm-3). The effect of heat production rates on the metamorphic pressure-temperature paths was tested with numerical thermal models. The calculations show (1) that if the heat production rate, where andalusite-bearing assemblages formed, was significantly <6.0 µWm-3, the estimated pressure at peak temperatures (PTmax) would be much higher and lie in the sillimanite or kyanite stability fields; and (2) differences between PTmax estimates for the metamorphic highs based on thermobarometry can be reproduced if thermal history involved significant crustal thickening as well as moderate unroofing rates.

Escanaba Trough is the southernmost segment of the Gorda Ridge and is filled by sandy turbidites locally exceeding 500 m in thickness. New results from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 1037 and 1038 that include accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates and revised petrographic evaluation of the sediment provenance, combined with high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles, provide a lithostratigraphic framework for the turbidite deposits. Three fining-upward units of sandy turbidites from the upper 365 m at ODP Site 1037 can be correlated with sediment recovered at ODP Site 1038 and Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP) Site 35. Six AMS 14C ages in the upper 317 m of the sequence at Site 1037 indicate that average deposition rates exceeded 10 m/k.yr. between 32 and 11 ka, with nearly instantaneous deposition of one approximately 60-m interval of sand. Petrography of the sand beds is consistent with a Columbia River source for the entire sedimentary sequence in Escanaba Trough. High-resolution acoustic stratigraphy shows that the turbidites in the upper 60 m at Site 1037 provide a characteristic sequence of key reflectors that occurs across the floor of the entire Escanaba Trough. Recent mapping of turbidite systems in the northeast Pacific Ocean suggests that the turbidity currents reached the Escanaba Trough along an 1100-km-long pathway from the Columbia River to the west flank of the Gorda Ridge. The age of the upper fining-upward unit of sandy turbidites appears to correspond to the latest Wisconsinan outburst of glacial Lake Missoula. Many of the outbursts, or jökulhlaups, from the glacial lakes probably continued flowing as hyperpycnally generated turbidity currents on entering the sea at the mouth of the Columbia River.

The early magmatic and tectonic history of the Carolina terrane and its possible affinities with other Neoproterozoic circum-Atlantic arc terranes have been poorly understood, in large part because of a lack of reliable geochronological data. Precise U-Pb zircon dates for the Virgilina sequence, the oldest exposed part, constrain the timing of the earliest known stage of magmatism in the terrane and of the Virgilina orogeny. A flow-banded rhyolite sampled from a metavolcanic sequence near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, yielded a U-Pb zircon date of 632.9 +2.6/-1.9 Ma. A granitic unit of the Chapel Hill pluton, which intrudes the metavolcanic sequence, yielded a nearly identical U-Pb zircon date of 633 +2/-1.5 Ma, interpreted as its crystallization age. A felsic gneiss and a dacitic tuff from the Hyco Formation yielded U-Pb zircon dates of 619.9 +4.5/-3 Ma and 615.7 +3.7/-1.9 Ma, respectively. Diorite and granite of the Flat River complex have indistinguishable U-Pb upper-intercept dates of 613.9 +1.6/-1.5 Ma and 613.4 +2.8/-2 Ma. The Osmond biotite-granite gneiss, which intruded the Hyco Formation before the Virgilina orogeny, crystallized at 612.4 +5.2/-1.7 Ma. Granite of the Roxboro pluton, an intrusion that postdated the Virgilina orogeny, yielded a U-Pb upper intercept date of 546.5 +3.0/-2.4 Ma, interpreted as the time of its crystallization. These new dates both provide the first reliable estimates of the age of the Virgilina sequence and document that the earliest known stage of magmatism in the Carolina terrane had begun by 633 +2/-1.5 Ma and continued at least until 612.4 +5.2/-1.7 Ma, an interval of approximately 25 m.yr. Timing of the Virgilina orogeny is bracketed between 612.4 +5.2/-1.7 Ma and 586+/-10 Ma (reported age of the upper Uwharrie Formation). The U-Pb systematics of all units studied in the Virgilina sequence are simple and lack any evidence of an older xenocrystic zircon component, which would indicate the presence of a continental-type basement. This observation, together with the juvenile Nd isotopic character of the Virgilina volcanic arc sequence, suggests that the oldest part of the Carolina terrane was built on oceanic crust away from a continental crustal influence.

The geochemistry and isotope systematics of Archean greenstone belts provide important constraints on the origin of the volcanic rocks and tectonic models for the evolution of Archean cratons. The Kam Group is a approximately 10-km-thick pile of submarine, tholeiitic mafic, and subordinate felsic volcanic rocks erupted between 2712 and 2701 Ma that forms the bulk of the Yellowknife greenstone belt in the dominantly granite-metasedimentary Slave Province. Mafic rocks range from Normal-mid-ocean range basalt-like basalts to slightly light-rare-earth-element-enriched (LREE-enriched) but Nb-depleted basaltic andesites and andesites, whereas dacitic to rhyodacitic felsic rocks are strongly LREE-enriched and highly depleted in Nb. The varepsilonTNd range from +5 to -3 in the mafic to intermediate rocks and from 0 to -5.5 in the felsic rocks. The varepsilonTNd decreases with increasing La/Sm, SiO2 and decreasing Nb/La, suggesting that as the mafic magmas evolved they were contaminated by older basement rocks. Gneissic granitoids >2.9 Ga in age, found at the base of the Kam Group, have varepsilonTNd between -6 and -9 and are excellent candidates for the contaminant. The geochemical and isotopic data, combined with the submarine eruptive setting and field evidence for existing continental basement, support a continental margin rift model for the Kam Group. Similar geochemical-isotopic studies are required on other Slave greenstone belts in order to test evolutionary models for the Slave Province.

Microbialite morphostratigraphy is a new tool for intrabasinal correlation using diverse microbialite structures (morphotypes). The recognition of the succession of morphotypes over constrained temporal intervals and broad areas is a function of the complex interactions that operate to create the structure. Because so many nonlinked variables (e.g., biotic, sedimentological, physicochemical) are involved, similar morphotypes do not reoccur over long temporal intervals. To demonstrate the technique, the upper Cambrian-lowermost Ordovician shelf strata of the Great Basin, United States, were correlated using both morphostratigraphy and standard lithostratigraphy. Six morphozones and one morphosubzone were recognized, as were four main lithologic successions. Because the boundaries between the morphozones and lithologic successions did not coincide, it is inferred that the characteristics of the various microbialite structures are not solely controlled by physical factors. The principles for establishing a morphostratigraphy outlined in this article allow for the potential to correlate along other ancient marine margins in both the same Cambrian and Ordovician interval, as well as any interval in the Phanerozoic in which diverse microbialite structures occur.

The island of Cyprus represents an excellent site to assess quantitatively petrologic clastic response to actively obducting oceanic sources in order to define an actualistic reference for ophiolite provenance, in terms of framework composition and heavy mineral suites. An improved methodology, an extension of the classic ternary QFL logic to include a wider spectrum of key indexes and ratios, provides an accurate synthesis of modal data and allows differentiation of three main petrographic provinces and at least seven subprovinces. Diagnostic signatures of detritus from various levels of an oceanic lithospheric source, and criteria for distinguishing provenance from suprasubduction versus mid-oceanic ophiolites are also outlined. Modern sands derived from the Troodos Ophiolite contain variable proportions of largely pelagic carbonate to chert, boninite to basalt, diabase to metabasite, plagiogranite to gabbroic, and cumulate grains supplied from progressively deeper-seated levels of the multilayered oceanic crust. Dense minerals are mainly clinopyroxenes (diopside), prevailing over orthopyroxenes (enstatite, hypersthene, clinoenstatite), hornblende, tremolite/actinolite, and epidote. Where serpentinized mantle harzburgites have been unroofed, detritus is markedly enriched in cellular serpentinite grains and enstatite, with still negligible olivine and spinel. Sedimentaclastic sands dominated by chert (Mamonia Province) or carbonate grains (Kyrenia Province) are deposited along the southern and northern shores of the island, respectively. Compositions of Cyprus sands are virtually unaffected by climatic, sedimentary, or anthropic processes; recycling of sandstones from foreign sources is a major process only in the Karpaz Peninsula. Petrographic analysis also provides an independent mean to identify prevalent directions of longshore sand transport.

New U-Pb geochronology constrains the timing of the Acadian orogeny in the Central Maine Terrane of northern New Hampshire. Sixteen fractions of one to six grains each of zircon or monazite have been analyzed from six samples: (1) an early syntectonic diorite that records the onset of the Acadian; (2) a schist, a migmatite, and two granites that together record the peak of the Acadian; and (3) a postkinematic pluton that records the end of the Acadian. Zircon from the syntectonic Wamsutta Diorite gives a 207Pb/206Pb age of circa 408 Ma, the time at which the boundary between the deforming orogenic wedge and the foreland basin was in the vicinity of the Presidential Range. This age agrees well with the Emsian position of the northwest migrating Acadian orogenic front and records the beginning of the Acadian in this part of the Central Maine Terrane. We propose a possible Acadian tectonic model that incorporates the geochronologic, structural, and stratigraphic data. Monazite from the schist, migmatite, Bigelow Lawn Granite, and Slide Peak Granite gives 207Pb/206U ages, suggesting the peak of Acadian metamorphism and intrusion of two-mica granites occurred at circa 402-405 Ma, the main pulse of Acadian orogenesis. Previously reported monazite ages from schists that likely record the peak metamorphism in the Central Maine Terrane of New Hampshire and western Maine range from circa 406-384 Ma, with younger ages in southeastern New Hampshire and progressively older ages to the west, north, and northeast. Acadian orogenesis in the Presidential Range had ended by circa 355 Ma, the 207Pb/235U age of monazite from the Peabody River Granite. From 408 to perhaps at least 394 Ma, Acadian orogenesis in the Presidential Range was typical of the tectonic style, dominated by synkinematic metamorphism, seen in central and southern New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. From no earlier than 394 Ma to as late as 355 Ma, the orogenesis was typical of the style in parts of Maine dominated by postkinematic metamorphism.

The Takaka Terrane in New Zealand is one of the best exposed arc fragments of the early Paleozoic Australian-Antarctic convergent margin and constitutes one of the most outboard terranes of this margin in paleogeographic reconstructions. Pb-Nd isotope compositions of clinopyroxenes from the Cambrian Devil River Volcanics of the Takaka Terrane enable identification of the location of the terrane in the Paleo-Pacific Ocean. The Devil River Volcanics, a suite of primitive arc and back-arc rocks, are interbedded with the partly continent-derived Haupiri Group sediments. Extremely radiogenic Pb and unradiogenic Nd compositions in the arc rocks cannot be explained by assimilation of the Haupiri Group sediments or a continental basement of such a composition. Pb isotope compositions of the Takaka Terrane sediments are much less radiogenic and overlap with crustal compositions of the Lachlan Fold Belt in Australia, suggesting that both units are derived from one source, the Australian-Antarctic Pacific margin. Pb-Nd isotope compositions in the Devil River Volcanics reflect contamination of their mantle sources by subducted sediments derived from Archean provinces in either Antarctica or Laurentia. Both provinces show characteristically high 207Pb/204Pb500 and were located at the Pacific rim in the Cambrian. Mixing between mantle and Proterozoic continental material from present western South America or eastern Laurentia cannot explain the high 207Pb/204Pb500 in the New Zealand rocks. As in New Zealand, extreme spreads in Pb-Nd isotope compositions in other Cambrian volcano-sedimentary sequences in southeast Australia and Tasmania can be explained by the same model, suggesting that all these fragments originated along the Australian-Antarctic Gondwana margin. Pb isotope compositions of arc rocks, therefore, provide a new tool for terrane analysis in the early Paleozoic Pacific ocean.