New constraints on the role of late Variscan extension in the origin of the Eastern Galicia Magnetic Anomaly (NW Spain)

Abstract

<p><span lang="EN-US">The Eastern Galicia Magnetic Anomaly (EGMA) is one of the most conspicuous and, definitively, the best studied of all the magnetic anomalies in the Central Iberian Arc (CIA). This is probably due to its location, on the thoroughly researched Lugo-Sanabria gneiss dome and to the unique fact that its source rocks crop out in the Xistral Tectonic Window. Multiple studies and models of this anomaly have been carried out in the last 25 years and still, new results keep on shedding more light on its understanding. Rock magnetic analyses, natural remanent magnetization, anisotropy of the magnetic susceptibility and stable isotopes geochemistry carried out on the rocks that produce this anomaly have provided new insights on the processes that led to magnetization and on its age. Results suggest that magnetization of source rocks is a consequence of the increase in oxygen fugacity underwent by metamorphic and magmatic rocks affected by late-Variscan extensional tectonics. Extensional detachments were the pathways that allowed the entrance of fluids that led to syn-tectonic crystallization of magnetite and hematite in S-Type granites. Accordingly, magnetization is not really linked to primary lithologies but mostly to extensional structures. This process took place in the late Carboniferous to earliest Permian, during the Kiaman reverse superchron. Natural remanent magnetization exhibited by hematite-bearing samples confirms the age of the magnetization and adds complexity to the interpretation of the EGMA, where remanence has been often largely ignored or underestimated. Understanding the origin of the EGMA contributes to the interpretation of other anomalies existing in the CIA, also located on thermal domes. Furthermore, it provides new hints to interpret magnetic anomalies located in extensional tectonic contexts worldwide</span></p>