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Rudnick y Cameron 1991 PDF
Rudnick y Cameron 1991 PDF
Rudnick y Cameron 1991 PDF
Roberta L. Rudnick
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, G.P.O. Box 4, Canberra, A.C.T. 2601, Australia
Kenneth L. Cameron
Board of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064
Note: Additional material for this article is Supplementary Data 9134, available on request from the GSA Documents Secretary (see footnote 1).
suture zone separating North America from ac- ing the ages. All zircons were probed once at is 7 Ma).
creted terranes to the south and east and is asso- their centers except for a few cases, noted in the We interpret GNX-20 to have formed at ca.
ciated with a gravity high that ends abruptly 1.4 Ga and to have undergone granulite-facies
text and designated in Table 2 (see footnote 1),
75-100 km south of the Rio Grande (Fig. 1) metamorphism at ca. 1.1 Ga during the Gren-
where both cores and rims were analyzed.
(Handschy et al., 1987). The only outcrop of the ville orogeny (see Patchett and Ruiz, 1987) and
interior zone in west Texas or Mexico is in again in the mid-Tertiary to Quaternary. A
GNX-20, Intermediate Orthogneiss
Sierra del Carmen (Fig. 1). The collisional event granulite-facies metamorphism at 1.10 Ga is
Zircons in this sample are colorless and range
probably occurred from ca. 330 to 250 Ma and consistent with this sample's relatively unradio-
from round to very elongate; a few contain in-
included at least three pulses of deformation in genic whole-rock Pb-isotope composition (see
clusions of granitic glass and apatite. U-Pb ages
the Marathon basin and metamorphism of the Table 1 and Cameron et al., 1991). The Nd
span a very large range, from about 1460 to 7
interior zone of the Ouachita system (Denison et model age (i D M = 1.4 Ga) for this rock is the
Ma (Fig. 2). Two age populations are apparent:
al, 1969). same as the crystallization age, implying that this
one at 1.37 Ga and a second at 1.10 Ga. There
was a time of crustal growth.
Basaltic to felsic volcanic rocks, exceeding
500 m in thickness, erupted throughout the re- GNX-22, Paragneiss
gion surrounding La Olivina between about 35 Zircons from this sample are characteristically
and 26 Ma (K. L. Cameron, unpublished data). Orthogneiss GNX-20 round and colorless and are devoid of inclusions.
.^ n = 29 ¿g?
The xenolith locality is in the Pliocene-Pleisto- ' " l , « 1.37 ±18 U contents are generally quite high (179 to 1555
g t 2 = 1.10 ±13
cene Camargo basalt field; the single lava dated ppm), with all but four spots having s*400 ppm
from this field has an age of 1.8 Ma. (Table 2; see footnote 1). The analyses generally
fall within error of concordia and span a large
SAMPLES AND TECHNIQUES o.io 0.5 age range, between ca. 1000 and 15 Ma, with a
Table 1 lists the mineral, chemical, and iso- clustering of data from 20 to 40 Ma (Fig. 2).
/
topic features of the five xenoliths from which ™Pb/235U
The whole-rock Pb-isotope composition of
zircons were recovered. Details of analytical GNX-22 is indistinguishable from that of un-
1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00
techniques using the SHRIMP ion microprobe metamorphosed Carboniferous shale exposed in
are described in Williams et al. (1984) and ref- the frontal zone of the Ouachita thrust belt in the
0 200
erences therein. Most of the analyses performed Marathon basin (Cameron et al, 1991). These
during this study consist of five scans through radiogenic whole-rock Pb-isotope compositions,
the mass ranges; however, some zircons from coupled with the clustering of zircon ages at 20
MN-20 and MN-40 were analyzed by using 0 100 to 40 Ma, suggest that this rock underwent
seven scans. The 208 Pb correction procedure granulite-facies metamorphism in the mid-
was used for common-Pb corrections, except for Tertiary.
very young zircons (MN-20), which were cor-
rected by using 207 Pb, or for zircons showing MN-19, Intermediate Orthogneiss
evidence of disturbance of the Th-U system. The o. 10 Zircons from this sample are orange and
latter were evaluated by plotting the Th/U ratio round to elongate, and they contain few inclu-
vs. the radiogenic 2 0 8 Pb/ 2 0 6 Pb. Any zircons fall- sions. U contents range from 57 to 1690 ppm;
ing off the regression line for the appropriate age most are between 200 and 400 ppm. The U-Pb
were corrected for common Pb by using 204 Pb. isotopic data generally lie within error on con-
cordia; 2 0 6 Pb/ 2 3 8 U ages range from 9 to 350
RESULTS AND INTERPRETATIONS Ma (Fig. 2), and there is an apparent clustering
The results are in Table 21 and are shown in of data around 170-180 Ma.
Figures 2-4. Unlike zircons derived from surface The U-Pb ages for MN-19 form a continuum
exposures of high-grade gneiss, zircons in granu- between 350 and 160 Ma, and several zircons
lite xenoliths exhibit no visible structure, and record very young ages, between 2 and 41 Ma.
attempts to etch their surface with concentrated Figure 2. Concordia diagrams. Ages marked The oldest U-Pb age (350 Ma) may be taken as
on concordia are in Ga (upper diagram) and
HF fail, probably because these zircons have re- a minimum age for the rock, or, if it is an inher-
Ma (lower diagrams). Error ellipses represent
sided at high temperature until comparatively 1 a uncertainty, n represents number of zircons ited zircon, the rock may be no older than 350
recently (e.g., ca. 1.8 Ma in the present study) analyzed (number of spots is greater than n). Ma. The apparent clustering of Jurassic ages
and structural damage caused by U fission has In top diagram, two Proterozoic zircon popula- could reflect a metamorphic event after initial
been annealed (Rudnick and Williams, 1987). tions are present: 1.37 ±0.18 and 1.10 ±0.13 crystallization of the sample in the Early Car-
Ga. Data used for regressions are shown by
Backscattered-electron imaging of zircons from black and gray error ellipses, respectively.
boniferous. The very young zircons (2-17 Ma)
the xenolith with the most complicated age spec- Only data that were >70% concordant were attest to very recent Pb loss and/or zircon
used in regression, except for case where growth associated with a very young metamor-
second spot was analyzed in same grain. One phism. The radiogenic whole-rock Pb-isotope
single grain (shown as open error ellipse fall-
1
compositions for this sample suggest that it did
Table 2, Zircon Analyses, GSA Supplementary ing to right of 1.37 Ga zircon population)
Data 9134, is available on request from Documents indicates slightly older age (1.56 Ga, zircon not undergo granulite-facies metamorphism un-
Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301. 29, Table 2 [see footnote 1]). til the Phanerozoic, despite its mid-Proterozoic