apatite feldspar u pb thermochronometer a reliable mid range 450 c diffusion controlled system the u pb systematics of apatite are commonly dominated by simple volume diffusion without secondary growth and recrystallization that can affect u pb systematics of sphene monazite and zircon although apatite is a relatively low u mineral both u and pb are lattice bound and thus the u pb systematics are not controlled by micro inclusions as appears to be the case for other low u minerals such as garnet and staurolite closure temperature estimates from both experimental and empirical studies range from 425 c to as high as 500 c for typical diffusion radii 25 m and cooling rates 2 100 c ma respectively this range can be exploited to constrain cooling and exhumation histories of both igneous and metamorphic rocks in addition the closure temperature for pb diffusion in apatite fills a gap between that for pb diffusion in sphene 650 c and diffusion of ar in hornblende 500 c muscovite 350 c and biotite 300 325 c apatite is a common accessory phase in many rock types and u pb apatite dating can be a reliable and powerful thermochronometer as it combines mid range cooling ages with the strength of the u pb system in testing for isotopic closure precisions of u pb apatite dates can range from 1 2 to as low as 0 3 for proterozoic or archean dates the main limitation to accuracy of u pb apatite dates is a moderate to low ratio of u to pb and corresponding dependence of concordia coordinates on the choice of initial pb isotopic composition for proterozoic aged samples with measured 206pb 204pb of 100 the range of geologically reasonable initial pb isotopic compositions can shift the calculated u pb age by 60 ma fortunately even though the diffusion rate of pb in alkali feldspar is less than in apatite it appears that the isotopic composition of pb in coexisting feldspar is a good approximation of the initial isotopic composition in apatite for many geologic settings examples are given from an archean terrane in se wyoming that was unroofed and cooled during proterozoic uplift and from proterozoic terranes in sw us that have contrasting thermal histories

proterozoic accretionary tectonics at the southern margin of the archean wyoming craton the proterozoic cheyenne belt at the southern margin of the archean wyoming craton consists of strongly deformed lithotectonic blocks bound by major mylonite zones from north to south and structurally lowest to highest these blocks include 1 archean crystalline basement and associated early proterozoic miogeoclinal rocks 2 an amphibolite grade orthogneiss terrane of unknown age containing probable rift related mafic intrusive rocks 3 a 1750 1790 ma marginal basin succession consisting of upper amphibolite grade pelitic and volcano genie schist associated peraluminous granite and minor ultramafic rocks and 4 a 1750 1790 ma intermediate to mafic plutonic metamorphic complex interpreted as the deep roots of an island arc system the earliest deformation d1 produced a synmetamorphic penetrative horizontal transposition foliation and associated recumbent folds tectonic blocks were juxtaposed along major mylonite zones during d2 macroscopic anil microscopic structures associated with d2 indicate northward thrusting along low angle mylonite zones of successively deeper crustal blocks over supracrustal rocks of the wyoming craton at about 1750 ma thrusting occurred at minimum temperatures of 475 c and produced an inverted metamorphic gradient in pelitic rocks north of the belt mylonite zones were subsequently steepened and reactivated under greenschist facies conditions during a period of dextral strike slip d3 between 1750 and 1400 ma cataclasis d4 and brecciation associated with the laramide orogeny d5 locally overprint earlier structures oblique convergence between an island arc and the archean continental nucleus may explain accretion crustal shortening and subsequent strike slip the phanerozoic accretionary events of eastern and western north america provide an analog for this model presence of similar lithologies and shear zones south of the cheyenne belt suggest that the southern margin of the wyoming craton may have been a long lived zone of crustal accretion

inherited smnd isotope components preserved in monazite inclusions within garnets in leucogneiss from east antarctica and implications for closure temperature studies abstract application of the sm nd dating technique using garnet can be hampered by the presence of minor microscopic to submicroscopic ree rich inclusions in particular monazite and to a lesser extent zircon an acid leaching method using a mixture of hno 3 hcl has been used to tackle the monazite contamination problem with this leaching technique we demonstrate that inherited monazite inclusions have been preserved in garnet formed under high grade metamorphic conditions even very low levels of monazite contamination 0 001 wt have a profound effect on the sm nd system in the garnet analysis of a garnet from a leucogneiss dyke in the northern prince charles mountains eastern antarctica reveals that unleached garnet concentrates and the monazite inclusions as represented by the leachates define an apparent isochron of 1150 30 ma mswd 1 88 which represents a mixing age of inclusions preserving their inherited sm nd isotopic systematics in contrast analyses of the leached garnet concentrates yield much younger ages of 630 to 555 ma model calculations show that the presence of as little as 0 01 wt of monazite inclusions would swamp the sm nd isotope signature of the garnet concentrates this very low level of contamination is beyond the reach of physical purification processes and without leaching contamination is inevitable in inclusion bearing garnets such contamination can lead to older apparent ages than those of garnet formation and thus has profound implications for sm nd as well as u pb garnet chronometry

petrochronology and tims thermal ionization mass spectrometers or tims were developed by the pioneers of mass spectrometry in the mid 20th century and have since been workhorses for generating isotopic data for a wide range of elements later developed mass spectrometric techniques have many advantages over tims including higher spatial resolution with in situ techniques such as secondary ion mass spectrometry sims and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry la icpms and greater versatility in terms the elements that can be easily and well measured the reason tims persists as an important method for geochronology is that for some key parent daughter systems e g u pb sm nd it can produce isotopic data and resultant dates with 10 100 times higher precision and more quantifiable accuracy than in situ techniques even when sample sizes are very small such as those that might result from single crystals or even small portions of zoned crystals for many questions in the geosciences the highest achievable precision and accuracy are required to resolve the timescales of processes and or correlate events globally as an example modern tims u pb geochronology is capable of producing dates with precision and accuracy better than 0 1 of the age for single crystals with only a few picograms pg of pb therefore it is possible to constrain the durations of single zircon crystal growth in magmatic systems over tens to hundreds of kyr in mesozoic and younger rocks if these dates and rates can be connected with other igneous processes such as magma transfer emplacement and crystallization then it becomes possible to calibrate thermal and mass budgets in magmatic systems and evaluate competing models for pluton assembly and subvolcanic magma storage as another example sm nd geochronology of garnet permits dates with precision better than 1 million years for garnets of any age including multiple concentric growth zones in single crystals such

multistage zircon and titanite growth and inheritance in an archean gneiss complex winnipeg river subprovince ontario abstract the paper presents results from a u pb isotopic investigation of zircon and titanite from three phases of the archean sioux lookout gneiss complex at the margin of the gneissic plutonic winnipeg river subprovince wrs of the superior province the data reveal an intricate data pattern caused by inheritance and multistage crystallization and record the timing of two major orogenic events followed by a protracted post metamorphic evolution a zircon age of 2889 3 ma for a foliated pink granite correlates with that of similar units elsewhere in the superior province and reflects one of the first major episodes of crustal assembly in the pre kenoran evolution of the region tonalite and diorite from the same site yield zircon and titanite ages of 2704 2 and 2705 5 ma which correspond to the timing of major magmatism related to kenoran collision of the wrs with the adjacent wabigoon volcanic domains tonalite and diorite both contain abundant xenocrystic zircon moreover the late kinematic diorite also includes xenocrystic titanite which has a minimum age of 2730 ma and coexists with younger ca 2705 ma titanite and zircon two generations of titanite are also present in both the tonalite and the granite the earliest one reflects the 2704 ma plutonic metamorphic event whereas the second one indicates post metamorphic crystallization at 2650 and 2627 ma caused by superimposed hydrothermal activity and retrogression the data support the concept that the titanite can remain a closed system to pb diffusion at elevated temperatures as long as the crystals escape magmatic or metamorphic recrystallization conversely they also show that titanite can easily be produced by low temperature processes hence generalized interpretation of titanite ages in terms of regional cooling can be inappropriate

textural geochronological and chemical constraints from polygenetic titanite and monogenetic apatite from a mid crustal shear zone an integrated epma sims and tims study abstract titanites extracted from a 520 9 ma syn orogenic syenite at otjimbingwe damara orogen namibia show shape colour and u pb systematics that vary with position in the syenite relative to a major shear zone most titanite fractions from syenite cropping out outside the shear zone are characterized by a medium brown anhedral core overgrown by a pale brown subhedral rim empa and sims analyses show that the cores are enriched in al fe and sometimes na mg and mn but also in ree nb and zr relative to the rim tims u pb ages from these titanites gave relatively imprecise 207pb 206pb ages between 680 21 ma and 695 20 ma as well as 570 8 ma to 604 9 ma mainly due to their low 206pb 204pb ratios combined th u pb relationships suggest that these titanites contain a component similar to ca 715 750 ma old titanite populations observed so far only in neoproterozoic syenites from the northern part of the orogen titanites from syenites within the shear zone are dark brown mostly euhedral to subhedral and display only occasionally a pale brown rim these titanites show decreasing concentrations of na mg al and fe and increasing concentrations of mn from core to rim interpreted to reflect growth zonation abundances of mree hree y nb and zr are higher in the rim than in the core 207pb 206pb ages obtained on these titanites range from 470 2 ma to 538 3 ma for most samples only the samples with the highest 206pb 204pb ratios between 350 and 230 have u pb ages similar to the previously published u pb zircon age of 520 9 ma from the same complex other titanite fractions with lower 206pb 204pb ratios have slightly older ages than ca 520 ma indicating some inheritance inherited titanite survived multiple metamorphic episodes in the damara orogen between ca 750 ma and 470 ma and the igneous event that lead to the intrusion of the otjimbingwe syenite at 520 ma these data imply a high closure temperature of u pb in titanite of 650 700 c consistent with previous studies coeval apatite has no apparent inheritance low 206pb 204pb ratios between 55 and 170 and u pb ages similar to or only slightly younger than the u pb zircon or titanite age obtained on the titanite fractions with the highest 206pb 204pb ratios assuming a closure temperature for u pb of 900 c for zircon 700 c for titanite and 450 c for apatite initial fast cooling of the complex can be inferred our data demonstrate that titanite can contain multiple age domains preserving a chronological and chemical record of previous igneous events

the late archean history of the wyoming province as recorded by granitic magmatism in the wind river range wyoming abstract the wyoming province a small ca 500 000 km 2 archean craton is the most southwestern of the archean provinces in north america it is composed primarily of late archean potassium rich granitic rocks in contrast to many other archean provinces rocks of tonalite trondhjemite affinity are rare over most of the province and are restricted to rocks older than 2 8 ga field petrologic geochemical and isotopic study of the late archean granites exposed in the wind river range have allowed us to identify at least four periods of potassic calc alkalic magmatism at 2 8 2 67 2 63 and 2 55 ga granitic rocks of these ages appear to be widespread across the wyoming province the oldest calc alkalic granites of the wind river range emplaced at ca 2 8 ga appear to be derived predominantly from pre existing crust however nd isotopic data suggest that these granites cannot be the product solely of partial melting of older tonalitic gray gneisses during at least two other periods of plutonism at 2 67 and 2 63 ga generation of the wind river range batholiths involved the incorporation of substantial amounts of isotopically juvenile material either from depleted mantle or young continental crust the information presented below as well as data available from elsewhere in the wyoming province is interpreted to suggest that the wyoming province unlike other archean cratons is not composed of a tectonic amalgamation of smaller exotic terranes although the wyoming province did experience crustal addition in archean time it was not by lateral accretion but by incorporation of mantle derived melts into large granitic batholiths

step leach pb pb dating of inclusion bearing garnet and staurolite with implications for early proterozoic tectonism in the black hills collisional orogen south dakota united states we report 207 pb 206 pb stepwise leaching pbsl ages of 1762 15 ma 1759 8 ma and 1760 7 ma for almandine garnet staurolite and garnet staurolite combined in an early proterozoic metapelite from the black hills collisional orogen south dakota pbsl derived 208 pb 206 pb th u trends reveal that staurolite contains inclusions of both cogenetic monazite ca 1760 7 ma and older detrital zircon 2040 ma whereas coexisting garnet contains only the zircon these results and petrologic data indicate prograde sequential growth of garnet monazite and staurolite during tectonic burial at temperatures between 400 c and 550 c i e well below pb closure temperatures we interpret the 1760 7 ma date as a maximum age for wyoming superior continental collision in the black hills which apparently postdated the 1800 1900 ma trans hudson orogeny in canada but was nearly synchronous with north directed accretion of the central plains orogen in southeastern wyoming

common pb systematics of precambrian granitic rocks of the nubian shield egypt and tectonic implications we report the pb isotopic compositions for alkali feldspars separated from 34 granitic rocks from the late proterozoic assemblages of the eastern desert and the sinai peninsula egypt in the nubian segment of the arabian nubian shield the eastern desert shows a range of initial pb isotopic compositions 206 pb 204 pb 17 375 19 176 207 pb 204 pb 15 462 15 629 208 pb 204 pb 37 023 38 349 that extend from model mantle toward upper crustal values initial pb isotopic compositions do not define geographic provinces except at aswan and surrounding areas where the most radiogenic values were obtained aswan 207 pb 204 pb 15 611 gebel el hudi 207 pb 204 pb 15 629 and wadi mariya 207 pb 204 pb 15 615 samples from these areas are separated from the less radiogenic samples to the east by trails of serpentinites that we interpret from landsat thematic mapper images as the extension of the allaqi heiani ophiolitic belt our data support previous interpretations of the belt as a suture location and suggest that its western margin might coincide with the boundary between the nubian shield and the old african continent we interpret the pb isotopic compositions from the eastern desert and the previously identified group i and ii pb stacey and others 1980 from the arabian nubian shield to indicate various degrees of mixing between mantle derived juvenile oceanic component s and pre pan african crustal material on 207 pb 204 pb 208 pb 204 pb plots the feldspar and galena data display variations characteristic of modern island arc magmas consistent with models that relate shield assembly to accretion of island arcs the crustal pb isotopic signature of sample from aswan and surrounding areas is best explained by interaction of arc magmas with an overriding crustal plate whereas the less radiogenic nature of the eastern desert pb9s is probably related to subduction of sediments derived from adjacent continent or deposition of these sediments in near arc basins accounting for recycled pre pan african crustal material in the shield results in normal growth rates 0 44 km 3 yr using reasonable assumptions for initial pb isotopic compositions and concentrations

looping p t paths and high t low p middle crustal metamorphism proterozoic evolution of the southwestern united states proterozoic rocks of the southwestern united states exhibit a variety of tectonometamorphic histories that can all be explained by a characteristic looping style of pressure temperature p t path the path is fundamentally clockwise however because the rocks were cooled isobarically at 3 kbar after tectonism the cooling path crosses the prograde path leading to a geometry with a counterclockwise character the absolute size of the loop in the p t path varies across the region because of different amounts of overthickening and resulting exhumation during the contractional event combined with variable amounts of heating from syntectonic plutons this style of looping p t path may be characteristic of high t low p metamorphic terranes and middle crustal tectonism particularly where syntectonic plutons contribute to elevated geotherms and polymetamorphism and where rocks become stabilized and reside for long periods at middle crustal depths before being exhumed during a later tectonic event

late orogenic heating during exhumation alpine ptt trajectories and thermomechanical models abstract during the alpine orogeny the penninic zone of the alps was affected by eoalpine high pressure metamorphism in the central and western alps this was followed by lepontine medium pressure high temperature metamorphism during exhumation we compare the pressure temperature time ptt trajectories established in two key areas in the central and western alps with 2 d numerical models of two possible causes of lepontine metamorphism 1 detachment or breakoff of a subducting slab and 2 the presence of a wedge of accreted radiogenic material numerical models show that both mechanisms are capable of producing significant heating during orogeny heating by slab detachment is fast and transient more than 100 c in up to 10 million years depending on the location whereas radiogenic heating requires time spans of the order of tens of millions of years and cessation of the subduction process the combination of ptt trajectories and synthetic pt paths deduced from our thermomechanical modelling results suggests that the metamorphism observed in the central alps has not been caused by radiogenic heating alone slab breakoff on the other hand seems a viable mechanism to account for the documented rise in metamorphic temperatures during exhumation in view of the time constraints posed by the geological data and acknowledging the effects of large scale block rotations and out of section transport slab detachment is also a more likely mechanism to have provided sufficient heat to cause re heating in the western alps

proterozoic metamorphism and uplift history of the north central laramie mountains wyoming usa the laramie mountains of south eastern wyoming contain two metamorphic domains that are separated by the 1 76 ga laramie peak shear zone lpsz south of the lpsz lies the palmer canyon block where apatite u pb ages are c 1745 ma and the rocks have undergone proterozoic kyanite grade barrovian metamorphism in contrast in the laramie peak block north of the shear zone the u pb apatite ages are 2 4 2 1 ga the granitic rocks are unmetamorphosed and supracrustal rocks record only low t amphibolite facies metamorphism that is archean in age peak mineral assemblages in the palmer canyon block include a quartz biotite plagioclase garnet staurolite kyanite in the pelitic schists b quartz biotite plagioclase low ca amphiboles kyanite in mg al rich schists and locally c hornblende plagioclase garnet in amphibolites all rock types show abundant textural evidence of decompression and retrograde re equilibration notable among the texturally late minerals are cordierite and sapphirine which occur in coronas around kyanite in mg al rich schists thermobarometry from texturally early and late assemblages for samples from different areas within the palmer canyon block define decompression from 7 kbar to 3 kbar the high pressure regional metamorphism is interpreted to be a response to thrusting associated with the medicine bow orogeny at c 1 78 1 76 ga at this time the north central laramie range was tectonically thickened by as much as 12 km this crustal thickening extended for more than 60 km north of the cheyenne belt in southern wyoming late in the orogenic cycle rocks of the palmer canyon block were uplifted and unroofed as the result of transpression along the laramie peak shear zone to produce the widespread decompression textures the proterozoic tectonic history of the central laramie range is similar to exhumation that accompanied late orogenic oblique convergence in many phanerozoic orogenic belts

thermochronology of isotopically zoned micas insights from the southwestern usa proterozoic orogen abstract we have used three different 40 ar 39 ar laser microprobe methods to explore the distribution of radiogenic 40 ar in 1 0 1 5 mm biotite crystals from the ca 1680 ma horse mountain monzogranite of central arizona incremental heating of two single crystals with a defocused laser beam produced flat age spectra with near plateau ages of 1190 ma showing no indication of intracrystalline 40 ar inhomogeneity in contrast total fusion of twenty five biotite fragments 100 pm yielded apparent ages ranging from 1006 7 to 1212 0 ma detailed age mapping in the 001 plane of two crystals with the laser focused to a minimum spot size confirms that the age dispersion in the fragment data reflects the existence of 200 m y age gradients in single crystals the two mapped crystals display very different age distribution patterns that suggest radiogenic 40 ar loss through two mechanisms volume diffusion on a scale comparable to that of the grain radius and more rapid diffusion along discrete zones of high crystal defect density simple inverse modeling of the overall age dispersion in the two mapped crystals and the fragment population is consistent with the development of the observed age gradients by slow cooling at an average rate of 0 5 k m y the horse mountain results as well as previously published studies indicate that conventional incremental heating of hydrous phases can homogenize intracrystalline gradients in 40 ar thereby masking important details of the thermal history of analyzed samples in contrast detailed isotopic mapping studies offer a wealth of information and will become more powerful with continued improvement in the spatial resolution of 40 ar 39 ar laser microprobes total fusion studies of crystal fragment populations can be readily automated making them less labor intensive than mapping studies our preliminary experiment on a limited horse mountain fragment population suggests that this procedure has great potential as a reconnaissance tool for thermal history research

high closure temperatures of the u pb system in large apatites from the tin mountain pegmatite black hills south dakota usa abstract the cores of several large 1 2 cm apatites from the early proterozoic tin mountain pegmatite black hills south dakota have concordant u pb ages the age uncertainties of these samples are less than 5 ma the lead isotopic compositions of muscovite and k feldspar coexisting with the apatites were used for initial lead isotopic corrections the resulting u pb concordia ages agree well with u pb and pb pb isochron ages based solely on multiple fragments from single apatites this agreement justifies the use of coexisting muscovite and k feldspar for initial lead corrections the precision of these u pb ages is comparable to those of the u pb systems of more commonly analyzed minerals such as zircon monazite and sphene the estimated u pb closure temperature t c of these apatites is about 620 c this t c is in close agreement with the t c calculated for 0 5 cm diffusion radii and published data for diffusivity and activation energy of lead diffusion in apatite apatite can therefore yield high precision u pb ages that are close to its crystallization age in igneous rocks

ion microprobe u pb dating of apatite abstract to illustrate in situ sensitive high resolution ion microprobe shrimp analysis of apatites pb isotopes and pb u ratios of five apatite samples with different ages have been measured using shrimp ii ion microprobe at hiroshima university the prap apatite from a carbonatite complex at prairie lake ontario with a 207 pb 206 pb age of 1156 45 ma 2 was used as the standard for 206 pb 238 u 238 u 16 o 238 u calibration apatites from the poohbah lake alkaline complex give 204 pb 206 pb 238 u 206 pb and 204 pb 206 pb 207 pb 206 pb isochron ages of 2726 145 ma 2 and 2701 86 ma 2 in agreement with a conventional tims 207 pb 206 pb age of 2667 10 ma 2 and a k ar isochron age of 2706 46 ma 2 for the remaining three apatite samples the 204 pb 206 pb 238 u 206 pb and 204 pb 206 pb 207 pb 206 pb isochron ages obtained by shrimp are consistent with radiometric and geological ages in the literature

the role of inclusions in u pb and sm nd garnet geochronology stepwise dissolution experiments and trace uranium mapping by fission track analysis the u pb and sm nd dating of garnet are important tools for understanding rates of tectonometamorphic processes and have been widely applied in studies of metamorphic terranes however the budgets of uranium lead samarium and neodymium in garnet separates from metamorphic rocks may be dominated by contributions from inclusions of monazite or zircon a combined fission track and stepwise dissolution technique is proposed for evaluating the role of inclusions of monazite and zircon in the budgets of uranium lead samarium and neodymium in garnets used for u pb and sm nd chronology variations of th u u nd and sm nd ratios between successive dissolution steps reveal the contributions of monazite and zircon inclusions the stepwise dissolution procedure does not induce any apparent artifacts on 207pb 206pb and sm nd ages the technique has been applied to garnets from three metamorphic terranes almandine garnet samples from the high grade pikwitonei granulite domain manitoba canada and the wind river range wyoming usa have the majority of their uranium samarium neodymium and radiogenic lead pb hosted by micrometer scale inclusions of monazite fission track densities reveal that uranium is 108 times more abundant in inclusions than in garnets stepwise dissolution of the samples shows that neodymium and uranium are associated with the dissolution of monazite in contrast grossularandradite garnets from cascade slide adirondack highlands ny usa show little variation in fission track density and similar isotopic ratios between dissolution steps indicating that the budgets of uranium samarium neodymium and pb are not significantly influenced by inclusions the demonstrated success of these techniques leads us to recommend similar procedures as a routine matter in u pb and sm nd garnet geochronology of metasedimentary rocks

u pb sphene dating of metamorphism the importance of sphene growth in the contact aureole of the red mountain pluton laramie mountains wyoming the relative importance of thermal diffusion versus new growth or recrystallization on u pb isotopic data from sphene is assessed through a study of amphibolites and granite gneisses within the contact aureole of the red mountain pluton laramie anorthosite complex wyoming samples were collected along a traverse approximately perpendicular to the margin of the intrusion over a distance of 0 13 to 2 65 km from the contact the 207pb 206pb ages of sphene from amphibolite samples range between 1 43 ga the intrusive age of the red mountain pluton to 1 78 ga the age of regional metamorphism the 207pb 206pb ages of sphene in rocks metamorphosed above 700 c are within error of the intrusive age of the pluton and appear to have resulted from diffusional resetting of preexisting sphene and the metamorphic growth of additional sphene at 1 43 ga at greater distance from the contact the 207pb 206pb ages range from 1 45 to 1 72 ga this 300 million year spread in ages is interpreted to result from two periods of sphene growth one produced during regional metamorphism at 1 78 ga and another generation of newly grown or recrystallized sphene that formed during contact metamorphism at 1 43 ga these two age populations may be identified on the basis of petrographic textures the morphologies and color differences of grain separates as well as by the u pb systematics in rocks metamorphosed to temperatures less than 700 c sphene growth was the dominant process controlling the response of the u pb isotope system to contact metamorphism sphene grew well outside the zone of obvious contact metamorphism the u pb sphene ages were reset by diffusion only at high temperatures supporting the experimentally determined closure temperature estimates for the u pb system in sphene of around 650 c cherniak 1993 this study demonstrates that u pb ages of sphene can be used to date metamorphism not only in areas with a simple geologic history such as igneous intrusion or single metamorphic or deformational events but also to date multiple events so long as different generations of sphene can be identified and separated

combined high precision chronometry and geochemical tracing using accessory minerals applied to the central alpine bergell intrusion central europe abstract the behaviour of nd u th and pb isotopes in granitic rocks is usually controlled by accessory minerals in this study an approach is adopted which uses the initial 143 nd 144 nd as a geochemical tracer together with high precision u th pb geochronology for accessory phases and their respective whole rock this combination of techniques is applied to zircon allanite sphene apatite and thorite from both a tonalite and a granodiorite from the tertiary alpine bergell intrusion inherited isotopic signatures have been identified in bulk zircon fractions by inverse discordance in the u pb system in the case of the granodiorite the initial nd in the zircon is 1 77 units lower than the bulk rock this result indicates that nd isotopes in zircon may serve as a useful tool for tracing crustal precursors in silicic rocks all other accessories yield an initial nd equal to their respective whole rock and u th pb ages equal to or lower than the respective intrusion ages this indicates either the absence of inherited cores or that such cores have exchanged their nd and pb in the case of apatite also sr by diffusion where available experimental mineral melt equilibria and diffusion models are consistent with this behaviour u pb geochronology of carefully selected core free zircons yields a precise intrusion age of 31 88 0 09 ma for the tonalite in contrast granodioritic zircons are partially reset due to radiation damage caused by high u concentrations however an alternative means of dating young intrusions is to use 232th 208pb ages of allanite in the case of allanite the presence of a large excess of 206pb derived from 230th indicates that no total pb loss has occurred since crystallization and the nd isotopes indicate the absence of inheritance using both the allanite age and a 238u 206pb age for sphene an intrusion age of 30 13 0 17 ma is indicated for the granodiorite taken together with an allanite th pb age for the tonalite these results strongly support the high closure temperatures for the allanites studied here 700 800 c at high post magmatic cooling rates all other accessory mineral ages are reset to values similar to hornblende 39ar 40ar ages and reflect the effect of post magmatic cooling superimposed on post metamorphic cooling

the three dimensional upb method generalized models and implications for upb two stage systematics four forms of the three dimensional u pb method established so far are physically generalized within the framework of a u pb two stage evolution such a generalization provides an explicit insight into the principle of conventional u pb discordia dating its implications for both u pb geochronology and pb isotopic geology are illustrated for whole rock systems when applying the three dimensional data processing method to the experimentally determined results on the u and pb concentrations and pb isotopic composition of a given suite of cogenetic samples one cannot only obtain a unique solution to timing of two episodic events i e ages t1 and t2 directly but also shed some light on the feature of the source region of initial pb incorporated at time t1 and on the nature of u pb differentiation at the two episodic events common pb for correction in the discordia dating is clarified to be responsible for the initial pb at t1 rather than t2 such a clarification would have an impact on the conventional u pb geochronology that makes assumptions about the isotopic composition of common pb in calculating the discordias the three dimensional u pb method has advantages over the two dimensional ones u pb discordias or pb pb isochron for treating the results of u pb isotopic measurements on a suite of cogenetic samples because it takes into account three variables instead of two variables in data processing and thus enables straightforward calculation of ages responsible for two episodic events without a priori assumptions this is a particular advantage for treating the u pb isotopic data of whole rock samples and therefore for discovering possible low temperature u pb differentiation responsible for terrane uplift

thick skinned deformation of the archean wyoming province during proterozoic arc continent collision two major mylonite zones are exposed in the southeastern archean wyoming province the cheyenne belt which marks the boundary between the wyoming and colorado provinces and the laramie peak shear zone across which archean rocks have been uplifted differentially at least 10 km between the two mylonite zones is a 60 100 km wide belt of archean migmatitic gneiss which has been intruded by diabase dikes and peridotites and contains enclaves of high grade metasedimentary rocks we interpret this belt of high grade rocks as a tectonically reactivated block of archean crust uplifted during the development of the cheyenne belt collisional zone at ca 1 8 ga this block does not exhibit a decreasing metamorphic gradient away from the mylonite zone but is at uniformly high grade thus rather than a thick skinned thrust ramp model for uplift we invoke vertical uplift along a high angle reverse fault without rotation this style of uplift may be a tectonic response to transpression underplating or tectonic interfingering at depth during collisional orogeny and it may be a more common feature of basement uplifts within foreland fold and thrust belts than has been previously recognized

a petrographic approach for evaluating trace element mobility in a black shale abstract at the time of deposition black shales record geochemical information related to the provenance and conditions of deposition for that rock these initial geochemical conditions are susceptible to alteration and overprinting by the aggressive processes of black shale diagenesis in this study we evaluate a sequence of ordovician black shales from the southern welsh basin for the presence of such a diagenetic overprint through use of cathodoluminescence backscattered electron imaging reflected light microscopy fission tracks and microprobe elemental mapping we can discern textural relationships with in the welsh black shales the relationships observed constrain a paragenetic sequence and overall diagenetic history including the early diagenetic formation of pyrite apatite rare earth element ree rich and carbonate and later formation of diagenetic monazite ree u rich and late stage carbonate the chemical reactions necessary to produce this mineral sequence require postdepositional redistribution of ree including changing cerium anomalies ce ce and uranium as a result ree u and their associated isotopic systems sm nd and u pb can reflect a diagenetic overprint rather than the source area and depositional conditions the paragenetic sequence described in this study records several postdepositional changes in the whole rock mineralogy among these changes are the formation of ree rich apatite and ree and u rich monazite the formation of these phases requires that ree and u are being redistributed on at least a mineral scale and that the initial depositional and provenance information recorded by the whole rock has been disturbed therefore the approach used in this study to carefully characterize the paragenetic sequence from the llandeilo caradoc black shales should be considered necessary in order to fully evaluate the usefulness of trace element proxies susceptible to diagenetic redistribution

monazite paragenesis and u pb systematics in rocks of the eastern mojave desert california u s a implications for thermochronometry abstract studies of the paragenesis and u pb systematics of monazite in rocks from the eastern mojave desert california corroborate its potential usefulness as a prograde thermochronometer and in dating granite inheritance unmetamorphosed latham shale and its equivalents at grades ranging from greenschist to upper amphibolite facies are virtually identical in composition monazite is absent in the shale and low grade schists but it is abundant in schists at staurolite and higher grades lower grade schists instead include minute th and ce oxides and unidentified ce poor lree phosphates that apparently are lower temperature precursors to monazite thus monazite originates when the pelite passes through lower amphibolite facies conditions monazites from three upper cretaceous granites yield ages that are strongly discordant upper intercepts of 1 6 1 7 ga are similar to those defined by u pb data for coexisting zircons and coincide with a period of copious magmatism in the mojave crust as the host upper cretaceous granitic magmas were all above 700 c effective closure of the restitic monazites to pb loss must be well in excess of this temperature u pb compositions of monazite from proterozoic granitoids and schist also indicate high pb retentivity taken together these studies support the suggestion that monazite can be an effective prograde thermochronometer at least in pelites it is not usually retained as a detrital mineral but rather forms during moderate temperature metamorphism its u pb system should not be reset by subsequent higher grade metamorphism

redistribution of rare earth elements thorium and uranium over accessory minerals in the course of amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism the role of apatite and monazite in orthogneisses from southwestern norway the amphibolite to granulite facies transition has been studied in a high k calc alkaline hornblende biotite k feldspar megacrystic augen gneiss series from the rogaland vest agder rog va sector of the sveconorwegian province southwest norway hornblende begins to break down mainly to clinopyroxene at the cpx in isograd and biotite mainly to orthopyroxene at the opx in isograd abbreviations for minerals following kretz 1983 the magmatic accessory mineral association comprises titanite and allanite which begin to break down before the cpx in isograd titanite is preserved as relict inclusions in other minerals at higher grade monazite and thorite formed in the breakdown of allanite monazite abundance reaches a maximum between the cpx in and opx in isograds the middle and heavy rare earth element m hrees except eu content of apatite steeply increases with increasing metamorphic grade and is directly correlated to the decrease of the modal abundances of titanite hornblende and biotite the u contents of apatite are low and do not increase with metamorphic grade the light rare earth elements lrees and th content of apatite are not correlated to the breakdown of allanite around the cpx in isograd but increase around the opx in isograd a simplified equation is proposed for monazite crystallisation in the vicinity of the cpx in isograd that accounts for the allanite titanite and hornblende breakdowns and the m hree substitution in apatite 3 m hree 2o3in hornblende and litanite 3 lree 2in allaniteo3 2ca5 po4 3apatite f oh 6sio2quartz 6 lree pmonaziteo4 2ca2 m hree 3 sio4 3 f oh lessingite in apatite 6caoin plagioclase at the opx in isograd the increase of lrees and th content of apatite results either from the breakdown of some monazite 3 lree po4monazite 3sio2quartz 4caoin plagioclase f2 h2o fluid ca5 po4 3 f oh apatiteca2 lree 3 sio4 3 f oh less ingite in apatite or the breakdown of the remaining allanite 3 lree 2o3in allanite 6sio2quartz 4caoin plagioclase f2 h2o fluid 2ca2 lree 3 sio4 3 f oh lessingite in apatite the release of fluorine from the breakdown of biotite at the opx in isograd may increase apatite stability relatively to monazite in the granulite facies when compared to amphibolite facies the granulite facies augen gneisses do not show any u or th depletion this means that changes in the accessory mineral associations and the simultaneous breakdown of hydrous minerals at the amphibolite granulite facies transition do not inevitably result in depleted granulite facies rocks but rather to an isochemical element redistribution the coexistence of small amounts of metamorphic monazite and of relict inclusions of titanite in upper amphibolite facies augen gneisses suggests that high k calc alkaline orthogneisses are a suitable material to date with the u pb method prograde path of amphibolite facies regional metamorphism on monazite and the cooling path on titanite

growth stabilization and reactivation of proterozoic lithosphere in the southwestern united states growth of proterozoic continental lithosphere in the southwestern united states involved assembly of tectonostratigraphic terranes during several pulses of convergent tectonism ca 1 74 1 70 and 1 65 1 60 ga prograde metamorphism accompanied orogenic assembly and peak metamorphic conditions outlasted deformation regions now characterized by the highest metamorphic grades underwent slow isobaric cooling and were not uplifted until more than 200 m y after assembly regions of low metamorphic grade were not uplifted substantially after assembly we suggest that 1 relatively thin lithospheric fragments were assembled into isostatically stable normal thickness continental lithosphere 2 assembly did not erase lithospheric scale heterogeneities 3 the present juxtaposition of different crustal levels reflects differential uplift related to 1 4 1 1 ga tectonomagmatic activity and 4 the boundaries between different lithospheric blocks were repeatedly reactivated from precambrian through tertiary time

a crystal chemical basis for pb retention and fission track annealing systematics in u bearing minerals with implications for geochronology this study develops an empirical crystal chemical framework for systematizing the kinetics of pb loss and fission track annealing in u bearing minerals ionic porosity z the fraction of a mineral s unit cell volume not occupied by ions potentially accounts for kinetic behavior by monitoring mean metal oxygen bond length strength various tests of a general kinetics porosity relationship are presented based upon diverse mineral data including 1 pb diffusion parameters 2 measured closure temperatures tc for fission track annealing and 3 retentivities of both pb and fission tracks from apparent age data every kinetic parameter including tc and mineral age for both the u pb and fission track systems is inversely correlated with z within the sub assemblage zircon z 29 titanite 34 and apatite 38 assuming a diffusional closure model pb isotopic transport phenomena are described by a tc z scale calibrated with field based tc data for titanite 680 20 c and apatite 500 c extrapolation of this scale yields tc estimates for the following minerals staurolite tc 1060 c z 25 garnet 1010 c 26 5 zircon 900 c monazite xenotime and epidote 750 c 32 and ca clinopyroxene 670 30 c 34 1 depending on composition these empirical results imply that a u pb pb date for staurolite or garnet records the time of mineral growth not post growth isotopic closure as also concluded in recent field studies because z systematizes fission track annealing this recrystallization process like volume diffusion must also be rate limited by the strength of chemical bonds the extent to which other recrystallization processes are likewise rate limited is important to u pb geochronology because they potentially compete with diffusion as mechanisms for pb isotopic resetting in nature

unraveling the record of successive high grade events in the central zone of the limpopo belt using pb single phase dating of metamorphic minerals abstract dating of relic metamorphic assemblages can provide important information about the timing and character metamorphic grade and or pt evolution of early high grade episodes in polymetamorphic provinces using pb stepwise leaching of metamorphic silicates we have dated multiple granulite facies metamorphic episodes in the central zone cz of the limpopo belt ages of 2 52 ga were obtained from sillimanite and cogenetic garnet and ages of about 2 01 ga from titanite garnet and clinopyroxene together with new and published conventional age data from accessory phases and in the context of combined petrological and structural data these results lead us to a reinterpretation of the tectono metamorphic history of the cz three distinct high grade events at about 3 2 3 1 ga 2 65 2 52 ga and 2 0 0 05 ga are recognized each of these is suggested to correspond to a tectonic episode of distinct character a for the 3 2 ga event magmatic activity can mainly be identified best represented for example by the sand river gneisses or the messina layered intrusion the field relationships concerning the tectonometamorphic history of this early archean event are largely erased by at least two high grade metamorphic overprints b late archean 2 6 2 52 ga low pressure granulite facies metamorphism was associated with voluminous granitic and charnockitic plutonism the anticlockwise p t evolution of these granulites probably reflects deep crustal processes associated with magmatic underplating or in plating contemporaneous with vertical crustal growth of the zimbabwe craton around 2 6 ga c during the proterozoic event 2 05 1 95 ga tectonic thickening was caused by the collision of the kaapvaal and zimbabwe cratons the cz was squeezed between these two cratons and as a consequence underwent high pressure granulite facies metamorphism with a clockwise p t evolution the structural metamorphic and geochronological data can be best explained with a tectonic model that describes this final event as a dextral transpressive orogeny

40ar 39ar age gradients in micas from a high temperature low pressure metamorphic terrain evidence for very slow cooling and implications for the interpretation of age spectra estimates of the time temperature history of geologic samples are often based on 40 ar 39 ar ages obtained through incremental heating experiments on minerals with different ar retentivities laser incre mental heating of single crystals of muscovite and biotite from an 1700 ma monzogranite from a low pressure high temperature metamorphic terrain in central arizona suggested an essentially uniform distribution of radiogenic 40 ar in each crystal and yielded ages of 1412 5 ma for the muscovite and 1410 10 ma for the biotite the similarity in these ages implies rapid 25 k m y cooling of the monzogranite after a reheating episode slightly before 1412 ma in contrast detailed age mapping of single crystals from the same samples with the laser microprobe revealed large radiogenic 40 ar gradients indicative of very slow 400 m y evidence for such low cooling rates has important implications for the longevity of high thermal gradients in the early middle proterozoic lithosphere in addition inconsistency between the laser mapping and incremental heating results for these micas suggests caution when interpreting incremental heating data for slowly cooled samples

differential response of u pb systems in coexisting accessory minerals winnipeg river subprovince canadian shield implications for archean crustal growth and stabilization the u pb isotopic systems of zircon monazite titanite and some apatite and the pb isotopic composition of k feldspar have been investigated in three areas of the winnipeg river subprovince wrs of the superior province canada in order to define the timing of magmatic and metamorphic processes in this archean gneissic granitoid terrain

crystallization of apatite in natural magmas under high pressure hydrous conditions with particular reference to orogenic rock series two separate series of hydrous experiments involving 1 imposing apatite saturation on a series of igneous rock compositions from basanite to rhyolite and 2 crystallizing similar natural rock compositions progressively until apatite appears demonstrate a close dependence between apatite saturation and silica content of the magma and determine p2o5 levels at a given silica value and temperature at which that composition may be expected to crystallize apatite the effect of pressure on apatite solubility is not great and is most significant for silicic compositions

pbpb dating of apatite by a stepwise dissolution technique abstract apatites from different geologic settings have been dated by a new sequential dissolution method the procedure is based on stepwise exposure of apatite to weak intermediate acids a pegmatite sample from the kerala khondalite belt in southern india yielded an age of 509 25 ma apatites from an enderbite sample from the northern marginal zone of the limpopo belt in southern africa yielded an age of 1970 26 ma which is in agreement with the high grade metamorphism at around 2 0 ga reported from the triangle shear zone and amphibolite facies metamorphism in the transition zone apatites from an amphibolite facies gneiss from the transition zone south of the nmz yielded an age of 1878 18 ma this age is somewhat younger than a sphene age on the same rock of 1971 17 ma and is believed to reflect the time of retrograde metamorphism in the presence of a fluid phase the sequential dissolution method is a new tool that allows dating of apatites which have relatively unradiogenic pb ratios because the spread can be significantly increased and no correction for common lead is needed this study further demonstrates that apatites from magmatic and high grade metamorphic rocks yield ages very close to those of monazite zircon or garnet unless the rock subsequently interacted with a fluid phase

early proterozoic assembly of tectonostratigraphic terranes in southwestern north america a 500 km wide early proterozoic orogenic belt in arizona and adjacent areas is divided into lithotectonic blocks by northeast and north trending shear zones structural and u pb zircon studies suggest that these blocks may have experienced different tectonic histories prior to their juxtaposition by thrust and strike slip movements on shear zones a northwestern province here called the yavapai province is composed of at least five tectonic blocks and was assembled at about 1700 ma a southeastern province here called the mazatzal province is composed of at least three blocks and was assembled and juxtaposed with the northwestern province during the mazatzal orogeny between 1695 and 1630 ma the diversity of seemingly incompatible 1700 ma tectonic regimes now in close proximity to each other and the absence of systematic cross strike changes in age and character of deformation plutonism and metamorphism suggest a model whereby the orogenic belt developed and north america grew by assembly of d

u th pb rb sr and ar ar mineral and whole rock isotopic systematics in a metamorphosed granitic terrane southeastern california mesozoic structural domes are developed in an older proterozoic crystalline basement of granitic to granodioritic foliate metaplutonic rocks in the halloran hills southeastern california isotopic analyses of whole rocks and mineral separates from these rocks by u th pb rb sr and ar ar techniques yield a complex pattern of discordance that is the result of a fairly simple geologic history individual mineral isotopic systems have variably equilibrated with each other in response to mesozoic regional metamorphism and locally to later heating during mesozoic batholith emplacement discordant u th pb zircon data indicate that the granitic core rocks are 1 710 ma and that one dioritic phase may be slightly older rb sr whole rock model dates scatter about 1 700 ma rb sr amphibole whole rock and u th pb amphibole dates are also proterozoic potassium feldspars retain a 207 pb 206 pb signature of their proterozoic age ar ar amphibole spectra from the flank of the main dome reveal disturbed dates of 1 450 ma to 1 100 ma and the dates become younger toward the structurally deeper core of the dome all remaining isotopic determinations yield mesozoic or younger dates for mineral whole rock systems rb sr whole rock apatite feldspar biotite analyses show nonequilibration of strontium isotopes with resultant mineral pair dates from 4 foliate plutonic rocks ranging from 200 to 50 ma no single metamorphic age is indicated by the rb sr data rb sr whole rock biotite dates are consistently younger than any other determinations and may be reduced by weathering or gain of nonradiogenic strontium from ground water u pb sphene and apatite analyses from rocks that yield 1 710 ma zircon dates are nearly concordant at 140 ma an amphibole from the structurally deepest rocks of the main dome that yield 140 to 150 ma u pb sphene dates has an ar ar plateau date of 144 ma the u pb sphene and ar ar amphibole analyses are believed to be the best age estimate for the end of the highest temperature phase of regional metamorphism th pb sphene and apatite dates and ar ar biotite dates cluster at 90 5 ma as a consequence of regional cooling during late cretaceous time following extensive mesozoic plutonism in the region at 97 to 90 ma we interpret the discordant mineral date patterns to have resulted from metamorphism of 1 700 ma plutonic rocks during the jurassic 140 50 ma and subsequent uplift and cooling to 200 c at about 90 ma on the basis of this study the isotope dating systems ranked in decreasing order of resistance to resetting are u th pb zircon concordia intercept rb sr whole rock rb sr amphibole u th pb amphibole pb pb whole rock ar ar amphibole rb sr sphene u pb sphene and apatite rb sr plagioclase potassium feldspar apatite th pb sphene and apatite ar ar biotite u pb feldspars rb sr biotite

evolution of an archean metamorphic belt a conventional and shrimp u pb study of accessory minerals from the jimperding metamorphic belt yilgarn craton west australia u pb tims analyses of zircon monazite titanite and apatite combined with shrimp u th pb analyses of zircons from magmatic and metasedimentary rocks of the jimperding metamorphic belt in the southwestern part of the yilgarn craton western australia provide reliable information on the evolution of this belt shrimp analyses on single detrital zircon grains suggest the sediments originated from archean sources similar in age to the narryer gneiss complex deposition of the clastic metasediments is bracketed by the youngest concordant grain 3055 pm 12 ma and the minimum age of a possible amphibolite dike crosscutting the sediments 2711 pm 7 ma shrimp and tims analyses on zircons from a porphyritic granite and an orthogneiss indicate that magmatism occurred during the prograde stage of a regional metamorphic event 2660 2670 ma metamorphic monazites from pelitic schists define an age of 2661 pm 1 ma that relates to mineral growth also during the prograde stage of metamorphism peak

high resolution lithospheric structure beneath mainland china from ambient noise and earthquake surface wave tomography abstract we present a new high resolution shear velocity model of the lithosphere down to about 160 km beneath china using rayleigh wave tomography we combined ambient noise and earthquake data recorded at 1316 seismic stations the largest number used for the region to date more than 700 000 dispersion curves were measured to generate group and phase velocity maps at periods of 10 140 s the resolution of our model is significantly improved over previous models with about 1 2 in eastern china and 2 3 in western china we also derived models of the study region for crustal thickness and averaged s velocities for upper and mid lower crust and uppermost mantle these models reveal important lithospheric features beneath china and provide a fundamental data set for understanding continental dynamics and evolution different geological units show distinct features in the moho depth lithospheric thickness and shear velocity in particular the north china craton ncc lithosphere shows strong east west structural variations with thin and low velocity lithosphere in eastern ncc and thick and high velocity lithosphere beneath western ncc and the lithosphere of the ordos block seems to have undergone strong erosion the results support the progressive destruction of the ncc lithosphere from east to west at least partly caused by the thermal chemical erosion of the cratonic lithosphere from the asthenosphere another pronounced feature of our model is the strong lateral variations of the mantle lithosphere beneath the tibetan plateau tp the indian lithosphere beneath the tp shows variable northward advancement with nearly flat subduction in western and eastern tp and steep subduction in central tp with evidence for the tearing of indian lithosphere beneath central tp which may be important for the riftings at the surface in himalayas and southern tp the low velocity zone in northern tp shows strong correlation with the region of the mid miocene to quaternary potassic magmatism suggesting that delamination of lithosphere may have played an important role in the rise of the tp

mechanics and kinetics of incongruent feldspar dissolution examination of published feldspar dissolution data indicates that the relative rates of release of na k ca and si do not conform to the bulk stoichiometry of the parent feldspar this lack of conformity is of two types 1 nonstoichiometric release of na k and ca relative to each other and 2 nonstoichiometric release of na k and ca relative to si the former is attributed to inhomogeneity of the feldspar due to exsolution intergrowths and chemical zonation in crystals the latter which persists after accounting for secondary mineral precipitation is due to the two step reaction mechanism that results in the release of si this involves the exchange of h for na k and ca on the surface of the feldspar followed by release of al and si to solution mass balance calculations indicate that the first step accounts for a substantial proportion of the overall reaction progress and that a steady state quantity of the h feldspar complex is not produced thus the general rate law of aagaard and helgeson cannot be applied to the early stages of dissolution however if each step is considered elementary and substrate limited rate laws can be written for each that simulate the delayed release of si relative to na k and ca these rate laws can also be shown to result in linear kinetics under certain conditions e g substrate saturation and steady state h feldspar

single mineral pbpb dating a new stepwise leaching procedure applied to ca bearing silicates enables the selective recovery of radiogenic and common pb from a mineral and thus makes single phase pbpb dating possible this permits independent dating of rock forming minerals within a paragenetic sequence and the direct combination of age data with petrological results furthermore the stepwise leaching technique has the advantage over multi phase pbpb dating in that it does not require initial pb isotope equilibrium among the phases but may be used to test it the presence of microscopic solid inclusions which complicate dating of single phases if they are not in equilibrium with the host can be traced via the behaviour of the 208pb 204pb ratio through the various leaching steps this constitutes a major advantage over conventional bulk phase pbpb dating in addition the precision of an isochron age can be improved relative to that of the bulk mineral approach since the 207pb 204pb and 206pb 204pb data spread is significantly enhanced therefore the technique may both be used to date younger phases and or minerals with less favourable u pb ratios and to extend the applicability of self consistent p t t modelling

titanium mobility in metamorphic systems a review abstract titanium is a dispersed lithophile element commonly regarded as chemically immobile at sub magmatic temperatures however a growing number of field studies demonstrate that ti is somewhat mobile in certain environments this review examines the current state of knowledge concerning the mobility of ti during alteration and metamorphism of crustal rocks also considered are relevant ti oxide solubility data from experiments and determinations of ti concentrations in natural waters where ti mobility is well documented its length scale is 10 m however ti may move greater distances in deep crustal shear zones the solubility of ti oxides in geologic fluids is strongly temperature dependent under low to medium grade metamorphic conditions ti mobility is limited by the low solubility of ti oxides in the associated fluids under eclogite conditions ti mobility is probably limited not by ti oxide solubility which reaches 1 ti but by restricted fluid flow in low permeability rocks

the cheyenne belt analysis of a proterozoic suture in southern wyoming abstract the cheyenne belt of southeastern wyoming is a major shear zone which separates archean rocks of the wyoming province to the north from 1800 1600 ma old eugeoclinal gneisses to the south miogeoclinal rocks 2500 2000 ma old unconformably overlie archean basement immediately north of the shear zone and were deposited under transgressive conditions along a rift formed continental margin intrusive tholeiitic sills and dikes are interpreted as rift related intrusions and a date of 2000 ma on a felsic differentiate of these intrusions gives the approximate age of rifting there are no known post 2000 ma felsic intrusions north of the cheyenne belt volcanogenic gneisses and abundant syntectonic calc alkaline plutons of the southern terrane are interpreted as island are volcanic and plutonic rocks the volcanics are a bimodal basalt rhyolite assemblage plutons include large gabbroic complexes and quartz diorite 1780 ma syntectonic granitoids 1730 1630 ma and post tectonic anorthosite and granite 1400 ma there is no evidence for archean crust south of the cheyenne belt structural data thrusts in the miogeoclinal rocks vertical stretching lineations and the same fold geometries north and south of the shear zone suggest that juxtaposition of the two terranes took place by thrusting of the southern terrane island arc over the northern terrane craton and miogeocline probably as a continuation of the south dipping subduction which generated calc alkaline plutons of the southern terrane a metamorphic discontinuity across the shear zone with greenschist facies rocks to the north and upper amphibolite facies rocks and migmatites to the south also suggests thrusting of the southern terrane deeper crustal levels over the northern terrane shallower levels the cheyenne belt may be a deeply eroded master decollement perhaps analogous to a ramp in the master decollement in the southern appalachians this interpretation of the cheyenne belt as a proterozoic suture zone provides an explanation for the geologic geochronologic geophysical metallogenic and metamorphic discontinuities across the shear zone

inherited zircon and titanite upb systems in an archaean syenite from southwestern australia implications for upb stability of titanite abstract inherited zircon and titanite have been identified in a syenite from the archaean of southwestern australia conventional and shrimp analyses on euhedral zoned zircon and zoned rims on complex grains define a crystallisation age of 2654 5 ma for the syenite in addition shrimp analyses on zircon cores and unzoned subhedral zircons show that zircon has a ca 3250 ma inherited component conventional u pb ages on titanite also fall between ca 3250 ma and ca 2650 ma demonstrating that inherited titanite as well as zircon is present in the syenite the syenite has been affected by regional upper amphibolite facies metamorphism at an estimated temperature of 625 650 c retention of the inherited radiogenic pb in the titanite is evidence that the closure temperature for titanite is greater than 650 c the presence of inherited titanite and zircon also demonstrates a crustal source component for the syenite and indicates it originated by partial assimilation of crustal rocks by a potassic magma at

pitfalls and new approaches in granulite chronometry timing and duration of metamorphism are particularly difficult to decipher in granulites because the metamorphic temperature commonly experienced by such rocks exceeds the closure temperature of all geochronometers other than the u th pb systems in a few minerals age constraints on granulite metamorphism therefore often rely on data from a single geochronometer and consistency tests are rarely possible this case study was conducted on a single hand specimen of an exceptional late archaean granulite from the northern marginal zone of the limpopo belt zimbabwe this rock not only contains zircon monazite and xenotime as accessory phases but is also depleted in pb to such an extent that dating of orthopyroxene was possible in situ 207 206 pb sims zircon monazite and xenotime ages conventional u pb zircon and orthopyroxene ages and pb pb step leaching orthopyroxene ages were obtained the in situ 207 206 pb sims ages of monazite and xenotime inclusions in cordierite are well within an independent age bracket as are ages of an interstitial monazite grain interstitial xenotime however retains a more than 55 ma younger age than the cordierite shielded grain these ages are incompatible with a monazite xenotime u pb closure temperature of 725 25 degrees c but suggest that grains which were shielded from processes leading to additional pb loss are closed to significant pb volume diffusion at temperatures greater than or equal to 800 degrees c zircon ages reflect partial protolith inheritance total resetting during peak temperature conditions and disturbance during minor hydrothermal overprint and are therefore not useful on their own to constrain the timing of granulite facies metamorphism u pb and pb pb step leach systematics of orthopyroxene yielded ages identical to the in situ phosphate ages well within the independent age bracket however the step leach experiment showed that these ages merely date monazite and zircon inclusions rather than the host orthopyroxene itself simple model calculations are used to demonstrate that even minute contamination of low mu minerals with high mu inclusions will have significant effects on the obtained mixed age and may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the u pb closure temperature of e g pyroxene and garnet these pitfalls in granulite geochronology will usually result in an overall apparent age dispersion and time scales derived from field studies should therefore be viewed as upper limits c published by 1998 elsevier science b v

direct dating of deformation u pb age of syndeformational sphene growth in the proterozoic laramie peak shear zone in this paper we show that deformation can be dated by combining mesoscopic and microscopic structural observations with an understanding of metamorphic mineral reactions and u pb ages of newly grown sphene titanite this approach can be used on a variety of rock types that have been deformed at a wide range of metamorphic conditions in an example from the proterozoic laramie peak shear zone of southeastern wyoming a single period of syntectonic sphene growth in sheared mafic dikes is documented both by a strong spatial relationship between deformation and metamorphism and by sphene microtextures u pb analyses of sphene separates give overlapping concordant or nearly concordant ages with a weighted mean of the 207 pb 206 pb ages of 1763 7 ma we interpret this direct age of deformation as evidence that the laramie peak shear zone records the cratonic response to the 1 78 1 74 ga cheyenne belt collisional event

isotopic peculiarities of an archaean pegmatite union mine mica south africa abstract an isotopic investigation rb sr u pb pb pb and sm nd of the archaean union mine pegmatite northern province south africa is reported the intrusion of this pegmatite devoid of zircon and monazite has been dated at 2912 2 6 ma by pb pb step leaching of magmatic garnet this age is supported by an identical two garnet apatite sm nd isochron of 2917 27 ma a rb sr k feldspar garnet albite isochron of 2023 11 ma corresponds to a later hydro thermal overprint isotope resetting during this overprint was incomplete and revealed that various parent daughter isotope pairs within minerals of the union mine pegmatite behaved in exceedingly different manners under the same physico chemical conditions sr isotope resetting was incomplete and resulted in open system behaviour of the pegmatite k feldspar almost quantitatively lost its radiogenic sr which had accumulated between the time of intrusion and the overprint sr loss from muscovite was variable and incomplete as indicated by a wide range in ages from 2088 74 ma to 2744 13 ma only insignificant portions of this sr were incorporated into adjacent albite as revealed by a micro drilled rb sr profile through a muscovite albite grain boundary the 87 sr 86 sr initial ratio is 0 8301 11 for the proterozoic isochron which is far less radiogenic than the calculated value of 2 24 for a closed system it is therefore concluded that sr was lost from the system and that the rb sr ratio of the whole rock was changed apatite on the other hand seems to have behaved as a closed system and retains a low initial sr ratio of 0 7125 u pb analyses of apatite reveal that this mineral has behaved as an almost closed system for pb diffusion as well but was open for u significant loss during the overprint this has resulted in high reverse discordance of apatite u pb analysis and in a geologically meaningless secondary pb pb isochron the data demonstrate that both preferential loss of daughter sr over parent rb and parent u over daughter pb isotopes can occur in some minerals of one and the same rock this process altered the parent daughter ratios to such an extent that in the case of apatite a secondary pb pb isochron with an erroneous age of 4119 66 ma was established it appears likely that preferential loss of daughter or parent isotopes is the reason for spurious secondary whole rock isochrons reported and reviewed by moorbath and taylor 1986 and moorbath et al 1986 such losses far exceeding predictions based on volume diffusion experiments may occur by means of fast transport diffusion which in part may depend on the micro textures of the host minerals geochemical studies of early archaean rocks require substantial back correction for radiogenic decay and the example of the union mine pegmatite shows that changes of parent daughter isotope ratios may occur long after rock formation however such changes may go unnoticed in high precision geochronology i e garnet dating in this study but will lead to erroneous correction for radiogenic decay and hence to erroneous conclusions regarding the origin of the studied samples

lead isotopic heterogeneities within alkali feldspars implications for the determination of initial lead isotopic compositions abstract the mobility of uranium during metamorphism and alteration places constraints on the use of lead isotopic compositions as petrogenetic tracers in older rocks the problem of uranium mobility may be partially circumvented by analysis of alkali feldspar which because of its low u pb ratio should have a lead isotopic composition similar to the initial lead isotopic composition of the rock previous leaching and volatilization experiments however have demonstrated that alkali feldspars contain radio genic lead which can be removed preferentially to nonradiogenic lead this paper reports on the results of progressive acid leaching of a single alkali feldspar phenocryst and on albitic perthites separated from the phenocryst this experiment suggests that a number of distinct lead isotopic reservoirs are present within the alkali feldspar including a nonradiogenic reservoir approximating the initial lead isotopic composition of the system a radiogenic reservoir corresponding to albitic exsolution lamellae within the alkali feldspar loosely bound labile lead presumably associated with uranium and thorium occupying fractures and finally a radiogenic component corresponding to unidentified uranium thorium rich phases the commonly observed decrease in radiogenicity with progressive leaching of alkali feldspars is interpreted to be largely the result of preferential leaching of the albitic perthites relative to the host alkali feldspar containing the nonradiogenic reservoir the results of this experiment confirm that initial lead isotopic compositions may be estimated from alkali feldspars through severe acid leaching however this experiment also illustrates the complexity of the lead isotopic systematics of alkali feldspars the determination of the initial lead isotopic composition of an alkali feldspar requires experimental procedures which recognize and compensate for the presence of multiple lead reservoirs within typical alkali feldspars

proterozoic geochronologic and isotopic boundary in nw arizona u pb ages determined from zircon sphene and apatite in conjunction with pb isotopic analyses of alkali feldspar establish a regional geochronological framework and constrain the location of a major north trending proterozoic crustal boundary in northwestern arizona two regions west of the boundary hualapai mountains and lost basin range garnet mountain are characterized by complex u pb zircon systematics evidence for inheritance of an older zircon component 1 8 2 3 ga and elevated sup 207 pb sup 204 pb from feldspars compared to the east although the discordia patterns are complex supracrustal rocks are interpreted to be ca 1 73 ga and are intruded by plutonic rocks ca 1 70 ga deformation is younger than ca 1 70 ga foliated granites and older than the 1 682 plus minus 4 ma garnet mt monzogranite the rocks in one area east of the boundary cottonwood cliffs are characterized by relatively simple u pb zircon systematics no evidence for inheritance of any older component and feldspar sup 207 sup 204 pb near model mantle values supracrustal rocks are older than 1 73 ga as they are intruded by a 1 730 plus minus 9 ma foliated granodiorite timing of deformation is constrained by the late syn kinematic valentine granite dated at 1 713 plus minus 12 ma mineral ages indicate thatmore the rocks on either side of the boundary had different cooling histories and inferentially different uplift histories west of the boundary the cooling history is inferred from minerals separated from an amphibolite metamorphic zircon is 1 687 13 minus 8 ma sphene is 1 660 plus minus 5 ma hornblende has a sup 40 ar sup 39 ar age of 1 552 plus minus 5 ma and apatite has a u pb age of 1 520 plus minus 45 ma east of the boundary an amphibolite has sphene with an age of 1 670 plus minus 11 ma and apatite with an age of 1 630 plus minus 8 ma less

u pb pb pb and k ar isotopic study and petrography of uraniferous phosphate bearing rocks in the thelon formation dubawnt group northwest territories canada the thelon formation uppermost unit of the dubawnt group overlies a regionally extensive paleoweathered zone developed on a wide range of lithochronological units including formations in the lower dubawnt group authigenic uraniferous phosphate minerals fluorapatite and goyazite cementing thelon conglomerate sandstone and filling fractures in the underlying paleoweathered zone were dated in an attempt to better constrain the age of thelon sedimentation and diagenesis the oldest age 1720 6 ma derived from phosphate cemented sediments is interpreted as a minimum age for diagenesis and therefore brackets initial thelon sedimentation between emplacement of fluorite bearing granites at 1753 ma and authigenic phosphate cementation at 1720 ma additional ages of 1685 4 and 1647 ma are interpreted as remobilization or subsequent cementation events k ar ages on illite 1386 37 and 1266 31 ma from the paleoweathered zone and basal conglomerate respectively are significantly younger than ages de

the significance of titanite and apatite u pb ages constraints for the post magmatic thermal hydrothermal evolution of a batholithic complex berens river area northwestern superior province canada abstract titanite apatite and in one case rutile from a suite of twenty seven samples representing the major phases of an extensive and well dated archean plutonic domain of the northwestern superior province have been dated by u pb to determine the temporal progress of thermal and hydrothermal events accompanying and following major plutonism and to assess the isotopic behaviour of these geochronometers most samples contain 1 dark brown titanite with 350 20 ppm u showing shapes and textural relationships indicative of a primary magmatic origin and yielding ages corresponding either to the time of magmatic crystallization or to that of secondary metamorphic or magmatic events known in the area 2 pale titanite with 30 2 ppm u showing textural evidence for a secondary origin by breakdown of biotite hornblende oxide or older titanite and yielding ages that in general post date the major plutonic and metamorphic events in the area 3 apatite containing 30 5 ppm u occasionally up to 150 ppm u showing igneous shapes and textural relationships but yielding post magmatic ages similar to those of coexisting pale titanite 4 rutile in one sample postdating the ages of coexisting titanite and apatite the common coexistence of two noncoeval titanite generations demonstrates that the often invoked mechanism of pb diffusion during slow cooling in this case has no general validity the distribution of primary dark titanite ages however could be explained by late closure to diffusion or alternatively as the result of resetting by the thermal or hydrothermal effects caused by younger plutonic activity the ages of the secondary pale titanites probably reflect crystallization during discrete retrogressive events promoted by moderate heating or enhanced fluid activity the correspondence between pale titanite and apatite ages suggests that the same processes also caused the isotopic resetting of apatite on a regional scale the data pattern permits the identification of domains characterized by differences in the length and intensity of the thermal and hydrothermal processes the most protracted activity is recorded in northern domains of the berens river area whereas the gold mineralized red lake area in the south underwent a very rapid decline of the thermal hydrothermal activity these data also highlight important differences between the red lake and other gold camps of the superior province such as hemlo and val d or where hydrothermal activity locally associated with mineralization occurred as much as 30 80 m y after the major orogenic developments

upb systematics of stilbite bearing low temperature mineral assemblages from the malmberget iron ore northern sweden minerals with a low thermal stability strongly constrain the history of cooling and later tectonic reworking of an area provided these minerals can be dated the possible use of stilbite a ca al silicate of the zeolite group for geochronologic studies was investigated open fractures in the palaeoproterozoic malmberget iron ore northern sweden contain low temperature mineral assemblages with various combinations of apatite stilbite calcite biotite and less commonly titanite and monazite two generations of fractures that are characterized by calcite and stilbite with distinctly radiogenic initial 87sr 86sr at ca 0 720 and ca 0 708 are dated at ca 1740 ma monazite and 1620 1613 ma titanite respectively apatite samples even those intimately intergrown with ca 1740 ma old monazite yield u pb ages at 1620 1600 ma which indicates that apatite apparently recrystallized and reset its u pb system older stilbite yields a secondary lead isochron at 1730 6 4 ma 2 which unequivocally demonstrates that the ambient temperature in the malmberget area from then on remained below the thermal stability of stilbite ca 150 c stilbite is a natural ion exchanger and its u pb systematics indicates recent mobility of uranium and lead however the 1730 6 4 ma 2 age demonstrates that some of the older stilbite was not disturbed during younger fracturing hydrothermally altered and secondary stilbite samples yield scattered lead arrays that correspond to secondary isochrons at ca 1650 1600 d4a which agrees with the u pb titanite and apatite ages thus in combination with other geochronometers the generally imprecise stilbite ages provide information on the cooling history of an area

a metamorphic history from micron scale 207pb 206pb chronometry of archean monazite ion microprobe measurements of pb isotope ratios in monazites have been obtained in situ from thin sections using the cambridge isolab 120 molecular interferences are sufficiently resolved at an rp of 6500 to allow 2 7pb z 6pb dating of monazite with precisions as low as 4 5 ma 2 r the results presented here provide important information on the chronological history of the late archean metamorphism of the wind river range wyoming usa matrix monazites and monazite inclusions in garnets from a metapelite from the northern wind river range have been analysed by sims in a previous study peak metamorphic conditions t 800 c p 8 1 kb were estimated using inclusion assemblages in garnets from this same sample isolated monazite inclusions in garnet yield 2 7pb z 6pb age estimates of 2781 6 to 2809 10 ma those along fractures yield lower ages 2603 2687 ma which are similar to tims and sims ages of matrix monazites a single large 500 xm monazite grain locally preserves growth zoning but has a recrystallised core and a resorbed recrystallised rim age estimates for these three regions are 2788 9 ma 2663 4 and 2523 6 ma respectively thus the inclusion assemblages of sharp and essene may record peak metamorphic conditions at ca 2 8 ga and indicate a phase of metamorphism that predates by over 100 ma the emplacement of the bridget batholith the major lithologic component of the northern wind river range the analysed monazite grains appear to preserve ca 300 ma history even within a single grain monazite inclusions in garnet that are fully armoured may provide estimates for the time of garnet growth even in high grade terranes where most chronometers are reset the age pattern preserved by the large monazite grain cannot be simply related to diffusion controlled closure instead a chronology is preserved which can be related to the petrographic setting of individual grains through in situ analysis

lead diffusion in apatite and zircon using ion implantation and rutherford backscattering techniques abstract ion implantation was used to introduce pb into the minerals zircon and apatite diffusion profiles were obtained using rutherford backscattering and the results were fitted with a model to determine the diffusion coefficients this approach is both simple and useful in studying diffusion over a temperature range of geologic interest without inordinate annealing times results for apatite over the temperature range 600 900 c are in good agreement with earlier results obtained for higher temperatures watson et al 1985 and are described by the following arrhenius law d 1 27 10 4 cm 2 s 1 exp 54 6 1 7 kcl mol 1 rt this suggests that radiation damage induced by ion implantation has little effect on pb diffusion in this case due to rapid annealing of induced damage at low temperatures the activation energy stated above is somewhat smaller than that previously determined 70 kcal mol 1 reflecting the larger range in 1 t sampled by the present results closure temperatures calculated with these diffusion parameters are in good agreement with those inferred from geochronologic data diffusion coefficients for pb in zircon determined in this study are greater than those obtained from a single experimental measurement and estimates of pb diffusion based on geochronologic data and u pb zoning in natural zircons the differing results for zircon and apatite obtained in this study appear to be related to each mineral s ability to anneal the radiation damage induced by ion implantation

diffusion and fluid interaction in itrongay pegmatite madagascar evidence from in situ 40ar 39ar dating of gem quality alkali feldspar and u pb dating of protogenetic apatite inclusions alkali feldspar 40ar 39ar and apatite upb geochronological studies have typically invoked two mechanisms to account for apparent loss of radiogenic 40ar and 206 208pb some studies have suggested that the radiogenic isotopes were lost by volume diffusion and used these dates to constrain temporal variations of rock temperatures others have argued that the radiogenic isotopes were lost due to interaction with fluids and related these dates to chemical alteration these two end member interpretations have fundamentally different implications for tectonic models derived from geochronological data and therefore it is important to reliably identify the principal mechanism for loss of radiogenic isotopes here we revisit the mechanisms of 40ar loss in the famous gem quality alkali feldspar from the itrongay pegmatite in madagascar previous studies have suggested that volume diffusion is the dominant mechanism of 40ar loss providing key evidence to support the use of 40ar 39ar dating of alkali feldspar for thermochronology we attempted to verify these results by obtaining time temperature paths from petrologically characterised cogenetic feldspar and apatite from the itrongay pegmatite and comparing them with each other however our results suggest that only a minor component in the variability of 40ar 39ar dates of itrongay feldspar is related to the diffusive loss of 40ar and that this loss was not compatible with the majority of previously proposed models which hinders quantitative interpretations the crystal studied here grew in five episodes related to the influx initially of co existing dense sio2 rich solution and co2 dominated fluid the first and supposedly the following two episodes and subsequently of h2o rich fluid supposedly the final two episodes much greater component in the variability of the acquired 40ar 39ar dates is interpreted to reflect the differences in the ages of these growth episodes which we estimate to span from 477 ma to 176 ma the first four episodes apatite inclusions in this crystal are interpreted to be xenocrysts derived from the country rocks of the itrongay pegmatite these yield older upb dates than the estimated age of their host feldspar and have apparently experienced diffusive loss of 206 207pb prior to entrapment our 40ar 39ar results indicate that there is a lack of unambiguous evidence for diffusive loss of 40ar from alkali feldspar that can be readily interpreted for thermochronological purposes however in situ 40ar 39ar dating of alkali feldspar appears to be a promising tool for tracking fluid flow events in the earth s crust whose applicability is not restricted to sedimentary rocks our upb results corroborate previous suggestions that upb dating of apatite can be used for thermochronology

u pb systematics of monazite and xenotime case studies from the paleoproterozoic of the grand canyon arizona monazite is accepted widely as an important u pb geochronometer in metamorphic terranes because it potentially preserves prograde crystallization ages however recent studies have shown that the u pb isotopic system in monazite can be influenced by a variety of processes that partially obscure the early growth history in this paper we attempt to interpret complex monazite and xenotime u pb data from three paleoproterozoic granite dikes exposed in the grand canyon single crystal monazite analyses from an unfoliated granite dike spread out along concordia from the crystallization age of the dike defined by u pb zircon data to be 1685 1 ma to 1659 2 ma a span of 26 million years back scattered electron bse imaging reveals that magmatic domains within most crystals from this sample are truncated by secondary domains associated with prominent embayments at the grain margin fragments of a single crystal yield contrasting concordant dates and fragments from the edges and tips of crystals yield the youngest dates based on these observations we suggest that the secondary domains formed at least 26 million years after the crystal formed monazite and xenotime dates from the second sample a sheared dike that cross cuts the previous dike spread out along concordia over 16 million years and range up to 2 4 normally discordant again bse imaging reveals secondary domains that truncate both magmatic zoning and xenocrystic cores fragments sliced from specific domains of a previously imaged monazite crystal demonstrate that the secondary domain is 13 million years younger than the core domain textures revealed in bse images suggest that the secondary domains formed by fluid mineral interaction normal discordance appears to result from both radiation damage accumulated at temperatures below 300 c and water mineral interaction monazite data from the third sample exhibit dispersion in both the 207pb 206pb dates 1677 1690 ma and discordance 1 6 to 3 1 reverse discordance in these monazites cannot be explained by incomplete dissolution or excess thorogenic 206pb sliced fragments from several crystals reveal dramatic intragrain u pb disequilibrium that does not correlate with either th or u concentration or position within the crystal we suggest that reverse discordance resulted from mechanisms that involve exchange or fractionation of elemental u or elemental pb and that neither the u pb dates nor the 207pb 206pb dates are reliable indicators of the rock s crystallization age given the large number of processes proposed in the recent literature to explain monazite u pb systematics from rocks of all ages our results can be viewed as another cautionary note for single crystal and multi crystal monazite geochronometry however we suggest that because individual crystals can preserve a temporal record of primary and secondary monazite growth micro sampling of individual monazite crystals may provide precise absolute ages on a variety of processes that operate during the prograde peak and or retrograde history of metamorphic terranes