47 Geology of the Grenville Orogeny and Adirondack Mountains

Tuesday, 19 March 2019
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Vermont Room

IN-SITU ZIRCON AND MONAZITE GEOCHRONOLOGY FROM COMPOSITIONALLY DISTINCT LAYERS IN A SINGLE MIGMATITIC PARAGNEISS SAMPLE LOCATED IN THE EASTERN ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS, NY

Paper number: 47-1
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:20 AM

Authors

Abstract

Migmatites are a common rock type in the Adirondack Mountains, NY. We analyzed a single sample of biotite-garnet-sillimanite paragneiss with foliation parallel leucosome along Route 22 south of Whitehall, NY in order to determine the timing of melting using both in-situ monazite and zircon U/Pb geochronology from the restite and leucosome layers of the same rock. Monazite was analyzed via in-situ EMPA on the Ultrachron at the University of Massachusetts and zircon was analyzed via LA-ICP-MS (in-situ and mounted mineral separates) at the LaserChron Center. Monazite analyses from the restite yielded six compositionally distinct populations with ages of 1170, 1150, 1065, 1050, 1030, and 980 Ma. Yttrium and heavy REEs decrease in monazite in two steps: one dramatic drop from ca. 1150 to 1065 Ma and another between ca. 1065 and 1050, interpreted to reflect two periods of garnet growth and melting. Analyses from the restite zircon separate yielded a significant single peak near 1050 Ma. These zircon grains exhibit fir-tree sector zoning texture which is interpreted to indicate crystallization from melt. Monazite from leucosome yielded a unimodal population at ca. 1050 Ma, however backscatter images document alteration of monazite to apatite on the edges of the grains, and abundant uranothorite inclusions. Leucosome zircon analyses yielded a ca. 1150 Ma population from cores and a 1050 Ma population from rims. Cathodoluminescence imaging reveals that the zircon rims have textures indicative of fluid alteration. The data are consistent with these rocks undergoing two periods of melting. The first event produced the leucosome at ca. 1150 Ma due to a non-garnet producing melting reaction, such as muscovite dehydration-melting. The second event at 1065 Ma involved significant garnet growth, interpreted to represent biotite dehydration-melting. Subsequently, the rocks underwent hydrothermal alteration at 1050 Ma. Monazite grains with dates at 1030 and 980 Ma have higher yttrium concentrations suggesting garnet breakdown and monazite growth during decompression and retrograde metamorphism. A combination of monazite and zircon dating techniques from each compositional layer is necessary to constrain leucosome-restite relationships and to accurately interpret the timing of melting from multiply deformed migmatites.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 1

doi: 10.1130/abs/2019NE-328676

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