Sheeting and dyking emplacement of the Gunnison annular complex, SW Colorado

Emplacement of the Proterozoic Gunnison annular complex, Colorado, involved brittle failure and both subhorizontal sheeting and steeply-dipping dyking. The annular complex consists of a central diorite body (1730 Ma), surrounded by a ring of metamorphosed supracrustal rocks, in turn ringed by tonalite and granodiorite (1721 Ma). The older central diorite was emplaced as sills parallel to bedding, prior to regional deformation of the Gunnison volcanic arc, ∼1730–1710 m.y. ago. This central body was deformed during regional shortening, into an upright bowl with inward-dipping walls. The surrounding country rocks were folded and locally transposed against the central body, forming an arcuate foliation, conforming roughly to the shape of the body. This foliation and bedding acted as mechanical planes of weakness, which localized the syn-deformational emplacement of the outer ring intrusions, as multiple magma sheets parallel to steeply dipping bedding and foliation. Portions of the outer rings were also injected along concentric, inward-dipping, shear fractures generated under high magma pressure, a process similar to cone sheet emplacement in volcanic ring-dyke complexes. Multiple mechanisms were therefore involved in the emplacement of this sheeted annular plutonic complex, which otherwise superficially resembles a subvolcanic ring-dyke complex.