Formation Process and Its Mechanism of the Sancheong Anorthosite Complex, Korea

The study area is located in the western part of the Precambrian stock type of Sancheong anorthosite complex, the Jirisan province of the Yeongnam massif, in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. We perform a detailed field geological investigation on the Sancheong anorthosite complex, and report the characteristics of lithofacies, occurrences, foliations, and research formation process and its mechanism of the Sancheong anorthosite complex. The Sancheong anorthosite complex is classified into massive and foliation types of Sancheong anorthosite (SA), Fe-Ti ore body (FTO), and mafic granulite (MG). Foliations are developed in the Sancheong anorthosite complex except the massif type of SA. The foliation type of SA, FTO, MG foliations are magmatic foliations which were formed in a not fully congealed state of SA from a result of the flow of FTO and MG melts and the kinematic interaction of SA blocks, and were continuously produced in the comagmatic differentiation. The Sancheong anorthosite complex is formed as the following sequence: the massive type of SA (a primary fractional crystallization of parental magmas under high pressure) -> the foliation type of SA [a secondary fractional crystallization of the plagioclase-rich crystal mushes (anorthositic magmas) primarily differentiated from parental magmas under low pressure] -> the FTO (an injection by filter pressing of the residual mafic magmas in the last differentiation stage of anorthositic magmas into the not fully congealed SA) -> the MG (a solidification of the finally residual mafic magmas). It indicates that the massive and foliation types of SA, the FTO, and the MG were not formed from the intrusion and differentiation of magmas which were different from each other in genesis and age but from the multiple fractionation and polybaric crystallization of the coeval and cogenetic magma.