Construction of the Devonian bimodal Gouldsboro pluton via multiple intrusion, coastal Maine, USA

The Gouldsboro pluton (377 ± 19 ma) (Metzger et al., 1982) of the eastern coastal Maine magmatic province preserves abundant evidence of mechanical interaction between mafic and felsic magmas, as well as the stoping and doming of country rock. Coastal Maine is a unique location where subequal volumes of felsic and mafic material have interacted and are preserved in both plutonic and volcanic complexes. The effects of generation and mobilization of large volumes of magma in the shallow crust are well-preserved. The Gouldsboro pluton provides an excellent perspective from the highest to lowest sections (southwest to northeast) of a hybrid magmatic system. The Gouldsboro magmatic complex is hosted by undated greenstone to the north that is overlain by the 477 ± 18 ma (Metzger, 1977) meta-volcanic/meta-sedimentary Bar Harbor formation. Blocks of both units are discernable as 10 cm to 2 m-diameter blocks within the pluton. The Gouldsboro granite is dominantly a fine to medium grained feldspar- rich leucocratic hornblende granite, although biotite is sometimes present. Miarolitic cavities are common in the highest exposure of the system, especially in the south where the finest grained, most leucocratic granite occurs. Other units include, from lowest to highest in the system, hybrid diorite-gabbro, hybrid granite-granodiorite, granite hosting 30 cm to 3 m-diameter globular basaltic pillows, and a previously unrecognized pyroclastic unit, very similar to the lowermost member of the Cranberry Isle series, a volcanic breccia (Seaman et al., 1999). The pyroclastic unit is intruded by medium grained granite hosting angular fragments of volcanic, mafic plutonic, and country rock. While the contact between gabbro near the base of the pluton and granite in the middle of the pluton is commonly gradational, there are complex intrusive breccias in some areas where fine to coarse, angular diorite to gabbro xenoliths are hosted by granodiorite and granite. Enclave-rich zones appear to be associated with gabbroic intrusions. At least two distinct zones of quenched, pillowed mafic sheets, striking east-west and dipping shallowly north, occur south of the gabbro-granite contact (Wiebe and Adams, 1995). These features suggest large scale replenishment of an initially felsic system by multiple later mafic intrusions. Given the presence of pyroclastic rocks at the southwestern margin of the pluton, it is possible that the pluton may have intruded its own volcanic deposits. Xenoliths of volcanic breccia in the granite intruding the volcanic rock are similar in appearance to the "shatter zone" (Gilman et al., 1988) that surrounds the Cadiallac Mountain granite, and suggest that the Gouldsboro pluton abruptly expanded as a result of vesiculation resulting in explosive eruption. Similarity in pluton architectures, magmatic histories and compositional ranges implies that the history of the Gouldsboro and Cadillac Mountain magmatic systems may have been more intimately related than previously thought.