Microtectonic control of 40Ar/39Ar white mica age distributions in metamorphic rocks (Erzgebirge, N-Bohemian Massif): Constraints from combined step heating and multiple single grain total fusion experiments

Author(s):  
Peter Hallas ◽  
Jörg A. Pfänder ◽  
Uwe Kroner ◽  
Blanka Sperner
Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 648
Author(s):  
Wenbei Shi ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
Lin Wu ◽  
Liekun Yang ◽  
Yinzhi Wang ◽  
...  

Discordant biotite 40Ar/39Ar age spectra are commonly reported in the literature. These can be caused by a number of processes related to in vacuo heating, homogenization of the argon distribution, and production of misleadingly flat age spectra. Problematic samples are typically derived from metamorphic belts; thermal overprinting and chloritization are two of the main known causes of disturbed age spectra. Biotite and muscovite of the Waziyü detachment fault, Yiwulüshan metamorphic core complex, Jinzhou, China, yield highly variable 40Ar/39Ar data that hinder reconstruction of their deformation history. We combined mineralogical studies with detailed 40Ar/39Ar dating of biotite, phengitic white mica, and K-feldspar augen from this fault. We infer that argon within the biotite was modified by hydrothermal fluids during fault activity and associated epidotization, chloritization, and muscovitization such that bulk sample step-heating, single grain total fusion, and in situ laser ablation of biotite produced mixed 40Ar/39Ar ages. However, detailed step-heating of biotite shows that this mineral records the ages of cooling and later alteration based on data from a coexisting rigid feldspar porphyroblast and neo-crystallized phengite that record two periods of fault activity at ~120–113 and 18–12 Ma. Our data reveal that the discordant biotite 40Ar/39Ar age spectra might represent a mixed age and that only detailed step-heating methods can extract meaningful geological details of the deformation history of a fault. Therefore, the mineral and the method must be carefully considered if metamorphic or deformed samples are dated.


2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 781-795 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.H. Reynolds ◽  
C.E. White ◽  
S.M. Barr ◽  
C.M. Muir

Single-grain 40Ar/39Ar ages are reported for detrital white mica, along with conventional step-heating data for whole rocks, from low-grade metasandstone samples from the Goldenville, Halifax, and Rockville Notch groups in the Meguma terrane of southern Nova Scotia. The majority (166) of single grains from 11 samples yielded ages between ca. 615 and 350 Ma, and the remaining 12 grains yielded ages between ca. 1900 and 870 Ma. The late Neoproterozoic–Paleozoic age distributions are consistent with derivation of sediments from the rapidly uplifted flanks of an active rift, where partial to complete resetting of white mica ages occurred at ca. 520–500 Ma, preceding sediment deposition. The ca. 615 Ma ages may be relics of the original detrital white mica that existed in the source rocks prior to the rifting event. Ages from the Upper Silurian White Rock Formation appear to reflect this same ca. 520–500 Ma event, suggesting that sediments in the White Rock Formation were recycled from the Goldenville and Halifax groups. The older Precambrian ages are inferred to represent white mica in the source region, likely Amazonia. The whole-rock age spectra are discordant, with pronounced age gradients and no well-defined age plateaus. Initial gas released from five of the samples at low laboratory extraction temperatures (ca. 450–500 °C) yielded ages of ca. 260–300 Ma, not seen in the single-grain data, whereas gas released at the highest extraction temperatures yielded ages in the range ca. 510–530 Ma, possibly reflecting the principal result obtained from the single-grain data.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Löwe ◽  
Susanne Schneider ◽  
Blanka Sperner ◽  
Philipp Balling ◽  
Jörg Pfänder ◽  
...  

<p>Extension across the southern Pannonian Basin and the internal Dinarides is characterized by the occurrence of a chain of Oligo-Miocene metamorphic core complexes (MCCs) exhumed along mylonitic low-angle extensional shear zones which in part represent former suturing thrusts. Cer MCC at the transition between the internal Dinarides and the Pannonian Basin occupies a structural position within the distal-most Adriatic thrust sheet and originates from two different tectonic processes: Late Cretaceous-Paleogene nappe-stacking during continent-continent collision between Adria and fragments of European lithosphere with Adria residing in a lower plate position, followed by Miocene exhumation. Structural data and a balanced cross section through the Cer massif show that the exhuming shear zone links to a breakaway fault, which reactivated the early Late Cretaceous most internal nappe contact between the two distal-most Adriatic thrust sheets. At Cer MCC, Paleozoic greenschist- to amphibolite-grade lithologies surround a polyphase intrusion composed of I- and S-type granites. These lithologies were exhumed along the shear zone by top-N transport. Thermobarometric analyses indicate an intrusion depth of 7-8 km of the Oligocene I-type granite; cooling below ~500°C occurred at 25.4±0.6 Ma (1σ) yielded by <sup>40</sup>Ar/<sup>39</sup>Ar dating of hornblende. Biotite and white mica from this intrusion as well as from the mylonitic shear zone yield <sup>40</sup>Ar/<sup>39</sup>Ar ages of 17-18 Ma independent of the used techniques (in-situ laser ablation, single-grain total fusion, single-grain step heating, and multi-grain step heating). White mica from the S-type granite yield an <sup>40</sup>Ar/<sup>39</sup>Ar age of 16.7±0.1 Ma (1σ). Associated dikes intruding the shear zone were also affected by N-S extension, indicating that deformation was still ongoing at that time. Our data suggests that exhumation of the MCC was related to the opening of the Pannonian back-arc basin in response to the Carpathian slab-rollback and triggered extensional reactivation of thrusts in the internal Dinarides.</p>


1961 ◽  
Vol S7-III (4) ◽  
pp. 345-354
Author(s):  
Andre Michard ◽  
P. Vialon

Abstract Igneous rocks of the Dora-Maira massif in the Po river headwater region in the Cottian Alps of Piedmont, Italy, are surrounded, and in many places surmounted, by gneiss, marble, and other associated metamorphic rocks of controversial age. The evidence is considered conclusive that the age of the rocks ranges from Permo-Carboniferous to Triassic. Criteria for discrimination of successive periods of metamorphism, including retrograde metamorphism, are reviewed. Carbonatized rocks and phengitic conglomeratic quartzite serve as "metamorphic thermometers" useful locally for discriminating successive periods of metamorphism. Cataclastic effects are also useful for determining time relationships, as are also optical peculiarities of quartz, feldspar, white mica, and biotite in various rocks. It is concluded that the region has been subjected to two major periods of metamorphism, and that the Alpine metamorphism in general was less intensive, and in certain aspects was retrograde compared with the pre-Alpine metamorphism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 195 ◽  
pp. 105723
Author(s):  
Mª. Dolores Rodríguez-Ruiz ◽  
Isabel Abad ◽  
María Bentabol ◽  
Mª. Dolores Ruiz Cruz

Tectonics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Beaudoin ◽  
Stéphane Scaillet ◽  
Nicolas Mora ◽  
Laurent Jolivet ◽  
Romain Augier

Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miloš René ◽  
Zdeněk Dolníček ◽  
Jiří Sejkora ◽  
Pavel Škácha ◽  
Vladimír Šrein

Uraninite-coffinite vein-type mineralisation with significant predominance of uraninite over coffinite occurs in the Příbram, Jáchymov and Horní Slavkov ore districts and the Potůčky, Zálesí and Předbořice uranium deposits. These uranium deposits are hosted by faults that are mostly developed in low- to high-grade metamorphic rocks of the basement of the Bohemian Massif. Textural features and the chemical composition of uraninite, coffinite and ningyoite were studied using an electron microprobe. Collomorphic uraninite was the only primary uranium mineral in all deposits studied. The uraninites contained variable and elevated concentrations of PbO (1.5 wt %–5.4 wt %), CaO (0.7 wt %–8.3 wt %), and SiO2 (up to 10.0 wt %), whereas the contents of Th, Zr, REE and Y were usually below the detection limits of the electron microprobe. Coffinite usually forms by gradual coffinitization of uraninite in ore deposits and the concentration of CaO was lower than that in uraninites, varying from 0.6 wt % to 6.5 wt %. Coffinite from the Jáchymov ore district was partly enriched in Zr (up to 3.3 wt % ZrO2) and Y (up to 5.5 wt % Y2O3), and from the Potůčky uranium deposit, was distinctly enriched in P (up to 8.8 wt % P2O5), occurring in association with ningyoite. The chemical composition of ningyoite was similar to that from type locality; however, ningyoite from Potůčky was distinctly enriched in REE, containing up to 22.3 wt % REE2O3.


2007 ◽  
Vol 144 (5) ◽  
pp. 797-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
GAVIN HEUNG-NGAI CHAN ◽  
JOHN MALPAS ◽  
COSTAS XENOPHONTOS ◽  
CHING-HUA LO

The Troodos ophiolite in Cyprus and Baer–Bassit ophiolite in Syria together form part of the Tethyan ophiolite belt. They were generated in a supra-subduction zone setting in Late Cretaceous times. As with many of the ophiolite occurrences in this belt, the sequences are closely associated with tectonic ‘coloured mélange’ zones, which contain, among a variety of lithologies, metre- to kilometre-size blocks of metamorphic rocks. Precise 40Ar–39Ar laser step-heating experiments performed on four amphibolites from SW Cyprus and six from NW Syria, yield plateau ages ranging from 75.7±0.3 Ma to 88.9±0.8 Ma in Cyprus and 71.7±0.5 to 88.4±0.4 Ma in Syria. The older limits of these time spans are coeval with the age of the formation of the associated ophiolites. Unlike other metamorphic sole rocks which seem to form in relatively short time spans, these metamorphic rocks found in Cyprus and Syria are interpreted to have formed in Late Cretaceous times by accretion below the overriding Troodos and Baer–Bassit crust for a period of 15–18 Ma. The metamorphic complexes were exhumed by extension and crustal thinning associated with subduction roll-back and the rotation of the overriding plate until the cessation of subduction in Maastrichtian times. In Cyprus, the exhumed metamorphic complex was incorporated into an accretionary prism constructed primarily of the collapsed Mamonia passive margin sequence intercalated with rocks of the Troodos ophiolite during plate collision in the Maastrichtian. Concomitantly, in Syria, the Baer–Bassit ophiolite and subcreted metamorphic complex were emplaced onto the Arabian passive margin and fragmented into blocks and knockers, forming the Baer–Bassit mélange.


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