The oxygen isotope composition of granitoid and sedimentary rocks of the southern Snake Range, Nevada

Six diverse intrusive igneous types are exposed as discrete outcrops within an area of 900 km2 in the southern Snake Range, White Pine County, Nevada. The previously recognized variety among these igneous types is reflected in the wide range of ??18O values (-1.1 to 13.4 permil) found in these rocks. This range of ??18O values probably results from differences in source material and post-crystallization history of the different intrusive types. The Jurassic intrusive of the Snake Creek-Williams Canyon area represents the chemical equivalent of a large part of a differentiation sequence, with the entire range of composition (63-76 percent SiO2) exposed over a horizontal distance of about five km. The rather regular increase of ??18O values from the most mafic to the most felsic parts of this pluton, together with ??18O values determined for constituent minerals recovered from five of the samples, supports a fractional crystallization model. The high ??18O values found (10.2-12.2 permil) indicate that the magma likely was derived from or assimilated sedimentary materials. Nine samples of the Cretaceous two-mica granite of the Pole Canyon-Can Young Canyon area have ??18O values in the range 10.6-12.1 permil. These high ??18O values, an initial87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7165, and the presence of muscovite along with an accessory mineral suite limited to monazite, apatite, zircon, and an allanite-like mineral, characterize this intrusive mass as an S-type granite. It probably formed through anatexis of late Precambrian pelitic rocks. The granitoid rock exposed in the Young Canyon-Kious Basin area is Tertiary (32 m.y.). Most of this intrusive has been cataclastically deformed as a result of late (18 m.y.) movement on the overlying Snake Range decollement. The undeformed portion of this intrusive has ??18O values of 8.7-10.0 permil. However, the deformed portion of this intrusive has ??18O values as low as -1.1 permil, apparently resulting from isotopic exchange between this rock and ground water at the time of cataclasis. Although the igneous types exposed in the southern Snake Range differ petrologically and range in age from Jurassic to Tertiary, most have relatively high ??18O values compared with other granitoid rocks of the Basin-Range Province. ?? 1982 Springer-Verlag.