Sheeted and bulbous pluton intrusion mechanisms of a small granitoid from southeastern Australia: implications for dyke-to-pluton transformation during emplacement

The small late syn-tectonic Carboniferous Davys Creek Granite (DCG) of southeastern Australia consists of microgranitic intrusive bodies of diverse geometry and structure. These bodies include: (1) subvertical concordant sheets; (2) bulbous peneconcordant plutons with apophyses and discordant lobes; and (3) subvertical dykes and stocks. The sequence of changing intrusive style is broadly 1-2-3. Transition from 1 to 2 was probably a response to rising magma pressures or declining tectonic stresses. The λ parameter of Emerman and Marrett (1990), which discriminates between stable sheet-like and potential stock/pluton/batholith emplacement modes, adequately predicts the transitions between sheet and pluton emplacements for the DCG. Ductile dyking along actively forming foliations appears to have been an important early intrusive mechanism. A transition from sheet to bulbous pluton intrusion style is suggested to have been in response to magma pressure increases.