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Age diversity of the deep crust in northern Mexico

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

ABSTRACT (Patchett and Ruiz, 1987) attest to a major


Zircons extracted from five chemically diverse granulite-facies crustai xenoliths from La tectonothermal event at this time.
Olivina cinder cone, Chihuahua, Mexico, were analyzed by SHRIMP ion microprobe in order Stewart (1988) and other workers suggested
to determine the age of the deep crust in northern Mexico. The results demonstrate the extreme that the late Proterozoic southern margin of
age diversity of the deep crust in this region: zircon populations of ca. I, 25-37, ca. 200,350, North America was formed by rifting in late
1100, and 1370 Ma are present. Nearly all samples contain 0-20 Ma zircons, reflecting recent Precambrian time. This ancient continental
granulite-facies conditions in the deep crust. In addition, high-grade metamorphism may also margin passes through Chihuahua, but its posi-
have occurred at 200 Ma and 1.10 Ga (Grenville). The paucity of Carboniferous-Permian ages tion is uncertain. Coney and Campa (1987) be-
in the xenoliths suggests that the Ouachita collision event provided little thermal input to the lieved that it is a few tens of kilometres north of
deep crust beneath La Olivina. La Olivina, Stewart (1988) placed it at about
the same latitude as La Olivina, and Handschy
INTRODUCTION GEOLOGIC SETTING et al. (1987) suggested that it lies approximately
Studies of granulite-facies xenoliths help de- The Proterozoic to Phanerozoic tectonics of 100 km east of the xenolith locality.
fine the mineralogy, composition, and age of the northern Mexico are a complicated and as yet This margin became tectonically active in late
present-day lower crust. However, determining speculative series of events. Nd model ages Paleozoic time. As Gondwana approached from
the age of xenoliths through whole-rock anal- ('DM) of 1.3 to 1.6 Ga are common in the ex- the south, rocks of the Ouachita frontal fold-
yses of Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopes has proved posed Precambrian of west Texas and northern thrust belt were thrust over the North American
difficult because of uncertainties regarding ge- Mexico and in some deep-crustal xenoliths and craton. These rocks are well exposed in the
netic relations among individual members of a have been interpreted to reflect mid-Proterozoic Marathon basin of west Texas (Fig. 1), where
xenolith suite (see Rudnick, 1991). Perhaps the crustai growth (Patchett and Ruiz, 1989). thrust movement ended by Early Permian time.
only reliable way of obtaining information on Moreover, Grenville metamorphic ages through- Two tectonic-metamorphic provinces are rec-
protolith ages of granulite xenoliths is by single- out the Precambrian exposures of Mexico ognized within the Ouachita system: (1) the
crystal U-Pb zircon analyses (Rudnick and Wil-
liams, 1987), which may also pinpoint the
timing of high-grade metamorphism. Figure 1. Map of northern
In northern Mexico, studies of the crystalline Mexico showing location
of La Olivina cinder cone
basement are critical in resolving some major and Precambrian outcrops
geologic and petrologic problems. For example, (Los Filtros [LF] and Van
the southern edge of autochthonous Proterozoic Horn [VH]) relative to
North American basement and the late Paleo- major tectonic features:
Ouachita thrust front, inte-
zoic suture of Laurentia and Gondwana are
rior zone of Ouachita fold
believed to lie somewhere in the northern Mexi- belt (from Handschy et al.,
can state of Chihuahua. Locations of these struc- 1987), Coahuila terrane,
tures are uncertain because there are only a few and Sonora-Mojave meg-
exposures of pre-Cretaceous rocks in the entire ashear. ENACR = edge of
nonaccreted continental
state. Furthermore, evidence concerning the rocks from Coney and
origin and evolution of the voluminous mid- Campa (1987). MB = Mara-
Cenozoic volcanic rocks of Chihuahua is most thon basin; SC = Sierra del
likely recorded in the crystalline basement (Ruiz Carmen.
et al., 1988a, 1990; Cameron and Robinson,
1990).
We report results of U-Pb-Th ion-microprobe TABLE 1. MINERALOGY AND COMPOSITIONS OF LA OLIVINA GRANULITE FACIES XENOLITHS
87 t
analyses of zircons from five granulite-facies xe- Sample Mineralogy* Si02 Zr Mg# Sr/«'Sr
ENd t 0 M 206ph/204pb 2 0 7 P b / 2 0 4 P b

noliths from La Olivina (lat 27°54'N, ( w t . % ) (ppm) (Ga)


MN-20 Cpx-Pl-Opx-Sp 52 26 64 0.7048 +0.3 1.3 18.55 15.61
104°16'W) in southeastern Chihuahua (Fig. 1).
MN-40 Pl-Opx-Kf-Q-Bio-Ilm 64 274 44 0.7045 +0.4 0.6 18.41 15.60
Three of these xenoliths were selected because MN-19 Pl-Kf-Opx-Cpx-Bio 53 106 56 0.7087 -10.1 1.5 18.64 15.65
they have fairly low e N d (<-10; Table 1), as GNX-20 Pl-Q-Opx-llm 56 137 56 0.7092 -11.1 2.2 17.72 15.55
GNX-22 O-Sil-Gt-Kf-Rut-Gr 60 203 37 0.7347 -11.1 1.5 18.99 15.70
expected for pre-Tertiary basement, whereas the
*Bio = biotite, Cpx = clinopyroxene, Gr = graphite, Gt = garnet, Ilm = ilmenite, Kf = K-feldspar, Opx •
two remaining samples have «Nd 0, similar to orthopyroxene, PI = plagioclase, Q = quartz, Rut = rutile, Sil = sillimanite, Sp = spinel.
mid-Cenozoic volcanic rocks from the region. tDepleted mantle model age after DePaolo (1981).

Note: Additional material for this article is Supplementary Data 9134, available on request from the GSA Documents Secretary (see footnote 1).

GEOLOGY, v. 19, p. 1197-1200, December 1991 1197


frontal zone, which is weakly metamorphosed trum (GNX-20) yielded only faint traces of are no discernible morphological differences be-
and is now the fold-thrust belt, and (2) the inte- structure in a few zircons. These structures are tween zircons of the two age groups; both ap-
rior zone, which underwent low- to medium- not easily interpretable as either igneous or meta- pear to have lost Pb in Tertiary time, but it is
grade metamorphism and is highly sheared (Fig. morphic in origin. We are therefore unable to impossible to pinpoint when (the youngest
1). The interior zone presumably represents the use zircon morphology or structure in interpret- 206pb/238U age

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

1198 GEOLOGY, December 1991


Figure 3. 2 3 8 U / 2 0 6 P b vs. 1 . r— 1 1 i 1 , protolith (e.g., Proterozoic, as suggested by Ruiz
207pb/206pb for zircons 0.8 ' Common Pb
from MN-40 (after Tera
Orthogneiss MN-40 - et al., 1988b).
0.7 Analyses uncorrected for common Pb
and Wasserburg, 1972),
n = 17
uncorrected lor common JD 0.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF YOUNG
Pb. Numbers along con- Oj t = 25 to 37 Ma
ZIRCON AGES
cordia are in Ma. Inter- 0.5
The zircon data presented above document
section of lines drawn XI 0.4
between common-Pb com- the extreme heterogeneity in the age of the deep
ponent (taken here âs 0.3 crust beneath this part of northern Mexico. De-
whole-rock Pb composi- 0.2 Zircon 8 - core spite the highly variable ages, however, all
tion; Cameron et al., 1991) samples except MN-40 contain 0-20 Ma zir-
and concordia that encom- 0.1 3 0 0 2 0 0 7 loo SO ' ^ ¡ ¡ p * - 1 30i «INv» 1 cons. There are several possible explanations for
pass analyses yields ages 00 1 . < . 1 1. 1 . ,
between 25 and 37 Ma. these young ages. The zircons may have (1) lost
50 100 150 200 250 300 Pb, owing to intense heating of the xenolith by
Error bars are 1c.
2 3 0 6
V pb the basaltic magma, during transport to the sur-
face, (2) lost Pb during weathering of the xeno-
lith after eruption, (3) grown in the deep crust
Nd model age. We believe that the best interpre- with only two data sets in order to ascertain that during the 30 Ma metamorphism associated
tation of these data is that MN-19 crystallized no older zircons were present. The zircons are with the mid-Cenozoic magmatism and re-
between 320 and 350 Ma from a melt that was colorless and range from spherical to elongate in mained above the blocking temperature for Pb
largely derived from old crust. It underwent shape. Because these zircons have low U con- diffusion until recently, or (4) grown in the deep
granulite-facies metamorphism twice: either tents and are very young, they contain little ra- crust during a late Pliocene and Quaternary
shortly after its crystallization or possibly at diogenic Pb. Consequently, it is not possible to high-grade metamorphism. We prefer either
accurately measure 207 Pb, so ages are reported of the latter two interpretations (see Rudnick
~ 190 Ma and again in Neogene time.
as 2 0 6 Pb/ 2 3 8 U ages only (Fig. 4). These ages and Williams, 1987, for discussion of points
range from 0 to 4 Ma (excluding zircon no. 8, 1 and 2).
MN-40, Intermediate Orthogneiss
Zircons from this sample are pale orange, which appears to be older and may be We believe the 0-20 Ma zircons reflect very
oval to extremely elongate, and full of inclu- xenocrystic—see Fig. 4 caption) and lie within high (granulite-facies) temperatures currently in
sions, which consist of granitic glass and elon- 2a uncertainty of one another. When averaged, the deep crust of Mexico in regions of Pliocene-
gated apatite. U concentrations of the zircons the data yield an age of 1.3 ±0.3 Ma, virtually Pleistocene volcanism. Whether these high
range from 60 to 560 ppm; most are between identical to that of the single basaltic lava (~ 1.8 temperatures are residual from a major thermal
100 and 200 ppm (Table 2; see footnote 1). Ma) dated from the Camargo field. input into the crust during the mid-Tertiary or
Because of the very young ages, accurate deter- Since zircon is unlikely to precipitate from represent continued heating of the deep crust
mination of 2 0 7 Pb in these zircons is difficult, mafic melts, the presence of zircons in this mafic until the present day is unclear. However, the
and large uncertainties exist in the 2 0 7 Pb/ 2 3 5 U granulite suggests that they either are xenocrysts ca. 1 Ma zircons in MN-20 suggest that the
ratio. The uncorrected data are plotted on a from very young rocks or grew during recent Pliocene-Pleistocene volcanism imparted some
238u/206pb ys 207pb/206pb d i a g r a m in Figure thermal input into the deep crust. Hayob et al.
granulite-facies metamorphism. We prefer the
3 (Tera and Wasserburg, 1972). The advantage latter interpretation because of the isotopic sim- (1989) reached a similar conclusion regarding
of using this plot for young zircons is that the ilarities of this sample to mid-Cenozoic mafic the timing of granulite-facies metamorphism in
concordia approaches a horizontal line at <200 volcanic rocks (Cameron et al., 1991). The ab- the Mexican deep crust, but without the benefit
Ma, and the effects of adding common Pb can sence of 30-40 Ma zircons in this sample is of any geochronological constraints. Padovani
be readily seen. The U-Pb ages of zircons in consistent with the formation of this rock as a and Hart (1981) demonstrated that high-grade
MN-40 range from 25 to 37 Ma, and one zircon result of mid-Cenozoic basaltic underplating but metamorphism in the deep crust of southern
(no. 8) has a 200 Ma core and a 37 Ma rim. is hard to reconcile with an older age for the New Mexico occurred only ~30 Ma ago. Our
This range of ages for MN-40 overlaps that of findings are consistent with this picture of pro-
mid-Tertiary volcanism in the region, suggesting longed high temperatures, perhaps produced
that this rock is a deep-seated equivalent of the through episodic thermal impulses, in the deep
mid-Tertiary volcanic rocks (Cameron et al., crust from mid-Tertiary time to the present.
1991). The single Triassic zircon (no. 8) is inter-
Mafic Granulite MN-20
preted as having been inherited from the source n = 18 IMPLICATIONS FOR
(postorogenic Triassic granites have been de- • PALEOTECTONICS
t = 1.3 ± 0 . 3 Ma
scribed from the nearby Coahuila terrane It is unclear whether La Olivina lies within
[Denison et al., 1969; Handschy et al., 1987]) autochthonous North America, an allochtho-
, 1 a uncertainty
and is evidence for incorporation of preexisting • • nous sliver of North America, or an accreted
crust in this sample. 1 terrane associated with Gondwana and the
I ' I
5 10 Ouachita system. The crystallization age of in-
MN-20, Mafic Granulite Age (Ma) termediate orthogneiss GNX-20, ca. 1.4 Ga, is
This is the sole mafic granulite out of the five similar to zircon ages obtained from felsic ash-
investigated (weighing - 6 0 0 g each) that Figure 4. Histogram of 207 Pb-corrected 2 0 6 P b / flow tuffs from the Van Horn area of west Texas
238
yielded zircons after separation. As few zircons U ages for mafic granulite MN-20; n is (1.37 Ga; P. Copeland, personal commun.). The
were recovered from this sample, all zircons in number of spots analyzed in total of 15 zir- nearest exposure of Precambrian rocks south of
cons. White squares are for a single zircon,
the microprobe mount were analyzed. Eight zir- La Olivina is at Novillo, about 600 km to the
no. 8. It is perhaps significant that this zircon is
cons were analyzed with seven scan data sets, the only one to contain inclusion of felsic southeast. Most workers consider the basement
and the remaining seven zircons were analyzed glass—it may be xenocrystic. exposed at Novillo to be part of the accreted

GEOLOGY, December 1991 1199


Coahuila terrane or one similar to it. Mafic and SUMMARY San Marcos fault, central Coahuila, Mexico:
Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 102,
intermediate orthogneisses from here have ¿dm Mid-Cenozoic volcanism in the region of La p. 593-614.
Nd model ages between 1.37 and 1.60 Ga; most Olivina was associated with a thermal event in Padovani, E.R., and Hart, S.R., 1981, Geochemical
are between 1.48 and 1.37 Ga (Ruiz et al., the deep crust that is reflected by mid-Cenozoic constraints on the evolution of the lower crust
1988b). Patchett and Ruiz (1987) reported evi- zircons in all but one of the granulite xenoliths. beneath the Rio Grande rift, in Conference on
dence for metamorphism of "Grenville" age (ca. the processes of planetary rifting: Houston,
The single mafic granulite xenolith investigated
Texas, Lunar and Planetary Science Institute,
1.0 Ga) at Novillo and two other locations in contains 1.8 Ma zircons, but no mid-Cenozoic p. 149-152.
eastern and southern Mexico. Granitoids of ones, and may be the product of mid-Cenozoic Patchett, P.J., and Ruiz, J., 1987, Nd isotopic ages of
Grenville age are also known from the Llano basaltic intrusion into the deep crust. Although crust formation and metamorphism in the Pre-
uplift area of central Texas. Thus, the 1.4 and this part of northern Mexico was presumably in cambrian of eastern and southern Mexico: Con-
tributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 96,
1.1 Ga zircons do not uniquely tie the crust be- the vicinity of the late Paleozoic continent- p. 523-528.
neath La Olivina to North America. continent collision that gave rise to the Ouachita 1989, Nd isotopes and the origin of Grenville-age
The other xenolith having Precambrian zir- fold belt, little evidence of this event is found in rocks in Texas: Implications for Proterozoic evo-
cons, paragneiss GNX-22, may be related to zircons from La Olivina xenoliths. This suggests lution of the United States mid-continent region:
rocks of the Tesnus and Haymond Formations either that the interior zone of the Ouachita fold Journal of Geology, v. 97, p. 685-695.
Rudnick, R.L., 1991, Xenoliths—Samples of the
of the Marathon basin, which have whole-rock belt was well removed from the region of La lower continental crust, in Fountain, D., Kay,
Pb-isotope compositions similar to those of the Olivina or that crust in this area has been dis- R.W., and Arculus, R., eds., The continental
xenolith (Cameron et al., 1991). These rocks are placed by subsequent (Jurassic) strike-slip move- lower crust: Amsterdam, Elsevier (in press).
the principal units of a Carboniferous accretion- ment. Mid-Proterozoic zircons (ca. 1.4 Ga) in an Rudnick, R.L., and Williams, I.S., 1987, Dating the
lower crust by ion microprobe: Earth and Plane-
ary prism, and they were deposited during the orthogneiss xenolith having a 1.4 Ga i D M Nd tary Science Letters, v. 85, p. 145-161.
Pennsylvanian in an ocean basin separating Lau- model age suggest that crustal growth occurred Ruiz, J., Patchett, P.J., and Arculus, R.J., 1988a, Nd-
rentia from Gondwana. Their source is thought at this time. Zircons of Grenville age (ca. 1.1 Sr isotope composition of lower crustal xeno-
to lie in the southern plate (McBride, 1989). Ga) in this same sample document metamor- liths—Evidence for the origin of mid-Tertiary
There is no clustering of zircon ages older than felsic volcanics in Mexico: Contributions to Min-
phism and crustal reworking associated with the eralogy and Petrology, v. 99, p. 36-43.
Tertiary in GNX-22, suggesting that the crust Grenville orogeny. Ruiz, J., Patchett, P.J., and Ortega-Gutierrez, F.,
was relatively cool when this supracrustal rock 1988b, Proterozoic and Phanerozoic basement
was transported to deep-crustal levels, probably REFERENCES CITED terranes of Mexico from Nd isotopic studies:
during the collision of Gondwana and Laurentia Cameron, K.L., and Robinson, J.V., 1990, Comments Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 100,
(330 to 250 Ma). on "Nd-Sr isotopic compositions of lower crustal p. 274-281.
xenoliths—Evidence for the origin of mid- Ruiz, J., Patchett, P.J., and Arculus, R.J., 1990, Reply
This collision and subsequent formation of Tertiary felsic volcanics in Mexico": Contribu- to Comments on "Nd-Sr isotopic composition of
the Ouachita fold belt appear to have had little tions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 104, lower crustal xenoliths—Evidence for the origin
effect on the deep crust in the region of La Oliv- p. 609-614. of mid-Tertiary felsic volcanics in Mexico": Con-
ina, as seen in the striking absence of Carbonif- Cameron, K. L., Robinson, J.V., Niemeyer, S., and tributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 104,
Nimz, G.J., 1991, Granulite-facies xenoliths from p. 615-618.
erous-Permian zircons in the pre-Mesozoic La
north-central Mexico: Evidence for a major pulse Stewart, J.H., 1988, Latest Proterozoic and Paleozoic
Olivina xenoliths. Presumably, the thermal high of mid-Cenozoic crustal growth: Journal of Geo- southern margin of North America and the accre-
associated with collision occurred within the in- physical Research (in press). tion of Mexico: Geology, v. 16, p. 186-189.
terior zone of the Ouachita belt, which may lie Coney, P.J., and Campa, M.F., 1987, Lithotectonic Tera, F., and Wasserburg, G.J., 1972, U-Th-Pb system-
to the south and east of La Olivina, as depicted terrane map of Mexico (west of the 91st merid- atics in three Apollo 14 basalts and the problem
ian): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report of initial Pb in lunar rocks: Earth and Planetary
in Handschy et al. (1987). 84-523, p. D1-D14. Science Letters, v. 14, p. 281-304.
If MN-19 crystallized at ca. 350 Ma, then it Denison, R.E., Kenney, G.S., Burke, W.H., and Williams, I.S., Compston, W., Black, L.P., Ireland,
predates the collision. This rock may be related Hetherington, E.A., 1969, Isotopic ages of igne- T.R., and Foster, J.J., 1984, Unsupported radio-
ous and metamorphic boulders from the Hay- genic Pb in zircon: A cause of anomalously high
to the exotic clasts of Devonian age found in the
mond Formation, Marathon Basin, Texas, and Pb-Pb^ U-Pb and Th-Pb ages: Contributions to
Haymond Formation in the Marathon basin their significance: Geological Society of America Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 88, p. 322-327.
(Denison et al., 1969) and thus represents pre- Bulletin, v. 80, p. 245-256.
collision arc magmatism. The 1.5 Ga / D M Nd DePaolo, D.J., 1981, Neodymium isotopes in the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
model age of MN-19 suggests that it contains a Colorado front range and crust-mantle evolution Supported by National Science Foundation Grant
in the Proterozoic: Nature, v. 291, p. 193-196. EAR 8904420 to Cameron. Ian Williams and Trevor
large component of Precambrian crust.
Handschy, J.W., Keller, G.R., and Smith, K.J., 1987, Ireland provided invaluable assistance with ion-
Finally, the single 200 Ma xenocrystic zircon The Ouachita system in northern Mexico: Tec- microprobe measurements and data reduction. We
from MN-40 and the clustering of zircon ages in tonics, v. 6, p. 323-330. thank Mike Woodbury and Harri Kokkonen for help
MN-19 around 170-180 Ma provide some evi- Hayob, J.L., Essene, E.J., Ruiz, J., Ortega-Gutiérrez, with zircon separation. The petrologic foundation for
F., and Aranda-Gómez, J.J., 1989, Young high- this study was laid by Jim Robinson. Whole-rock Pb
dence for Mesozoic crystalline rocks in the area temperature granulites form the base of the crust isotopes were analyzed in Sid Niemeyer's laboratory at
of La Olivina. The nearest outcropping rocks of in central Mexico: Nature, v. 342, p. 265-268. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sr and
this age are Triassic granitoids in the Coahuila McBride, E.F., 1989, Stratigraphy and sedimentary Nd isotopes were measured in Ken Collerson's lab at
terrane (Fig. 1), which McKee et al. (1990) history of pre-Permian Paleozoic rocks of the the University of California, Santa Cruz, Nicolas
Marathon uplift, in Hatcher, R.D., Jr., Thomas, Walker, Joe Wooden, Jim Luhr, Joaquin Ruiz, and
speculated were emplaced into their present po-
W.A., and Viele, G.W., eds., The Appalachian- Bill Compston provided constructive comments on the
sition by Jurassic strike-slip movement. It is Ouachita orogen in the United States: Boulder, manuscript.
therefore also possible that the crust beneath La Colorado, Geological Society of America, The
Olivina was brought to its present position by Geology of North America, v. F-2, p. 603-619. Manuscript received January 29, 1991
Jurassic transform faulting, but there is no inde- McKee, J.W., Jones, N.W., and Long, L.E., 1990, Revised manuscript received August 5, 1991
Stratigraphy and provenance of strata along the Manuscript accepted August 16, 1991
pendent evidence to support this interpretation.

1200 Printed in U.S.A. GEOLOGY, December 1991

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