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Nunes Mateus, António Manuel

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  • 57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy study of the correlation between the Fe3+ content and the magnetic properties of natural Cr-spinels
    Publication . Waerenborgh, João C.; Figueiras, Jorge; A., Mateus; A. Gonçalves, Mário
    Both the Fe oxidation degree and the magnetic properties determined by 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy were used to characterize the Cr-spinels from the Beja-Acebuches Ophiolite Complex (SE Portugal). Two different types of Cr-spinel were observed. The first one has an average Fe3+/(Fe total) ≈ 25%, and corresponds to unaltered Cr-spinel grains which remain paramagnetic down to 6K. The second one results from the alteration of the first type, has an average Fe3+/(Fe total) ≈40% and order magnetically between 222 K and 78 K. Fe3+/(total Fe) increases with the magnetic ordering temperature. The grain population ordering at the highest temperatures, in the range 202–222K, has the highest Fe3+/(total Fe) ≈ 58%. Quantitative Fe site distributions can be obtained from room-temperature Mössbauer data if the different recoilless factors for tetrahedral Fe2+ and octahedral Fe3+ are considered. The observed second-order Doppler shifts are consistent with Mössbauer temperatures of 330K and 605K, reported in the literature for tetrahedral Fe2+ and octahedral Fe3+ in other oxide spinels. The differences in the magnetic ordering temperatures allowed the characterization of both types of Cr-spinels using a single Mössbauer absorber, thus avoiding the need to separate them physically, which, in this case, would be very difficult. The results are compared to those obtained for other Cr-spinels and, for the first time in the case of natural Cr-spinels, the increase of their magnetic ordering temperatures with their oxidation degree, resulting from natural processes, is discussed in terms of the magnetic exchange interactions between the Fe cations.
  • Geodynamic evolution of the South Variscan Iberian Suture as recorded by mineral transformations
    Publication . Figueiras, Jorge; A., Mateus; A. Gonçalves, Mário; Waerenborgh, João; Fonseca, Paulo
    New structural, petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical data from the Beja-Acebuches Ophiolite Complex (BAOC) are presented, and reviewed together with data published elsewhere. The new data obtained shed light on questions such as: 1) the relative importance of the obduction event; 2) its geological record in the deep levels of BAOC; 3) the nature and intensity of the Variscan metamorphism and deformation during subsequent continental (arc) collision; 4) the age relationships between BAOC and the Beja Igneous Complex; and 5) by means of numerical modelling, the thermal metamorphism of the Ossa-Morena autochthonous terranes induced by the ophiolite obduction. The emerging picture is that of a fairly simple overall geological evolution for BAOC, seamlessly integrated within the evolution of the southern branch of the Iberian Variscides. Obduction of BAOC is a relatively minor early event in the general NE–SW convergence that gave rise to the orogen as seen regionally and is recorded by an anisotropic, high-temperature, metamorphic fabric at the gabbro levels and by subtle features of the chemical composition of primary minerals at the underlying peridotite level; it caused chilling of the obducted ophiolitic slab and no significant metamorphism on the autochtonous rocks of the Ossa-Morena Zone. BAOC underwent most of its deformation and (amphibolite facies) metamorphism during a later collisional event, that took place as the most primitive rocks of the Beja Igneous complex were being intruded, and whose waning stages are responsible for extensive serpentinisation of peridotites and for important aquocarbonic fluid discharges along the semibrittle–brittle shear zones meanwhile developed.