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Zircon trace element characteristics and ages in granulite xenoliths: a key to understanding the age and origin of the lower crust, Arkhangelsk kimberlite province, Russia

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Abstract

Garnet granulite and pyroxenite xenoliths from the Grib kimberlite pipe (Arkhangelsk, NW Russia) represent the lower crust beneath Russian platform in close vicinity to the cratonic region of the north-eastern Baltic (Fennoscandian) Shield. Many of the xenoliths have experienced strong interaction with the kimberlite host, but in others some primary granulite-facies minerals are preserved. Calculated bulk compositions for the granulites suggest that their protoliths were basic to intermediate igneous rocks; pyroxenites were ultrabasic to basic cumulates. A few samples are probably metasedimentary in origin. Zircons are abundant in the xenoliths; they exhibit complex zoning in cathodoluminescence with relic cores and various metamorphic rims. Cores include oscillatory zircon crystallized in magmatic protoliths, and metamorphic and magmatic sector-zoned zircons. Recrystallization of older zircons led to the formation of bright homogeneous rims. In some samples, homogeneous shells are surrounded by darker convoluted overgrowths that were formed by subsolidus growth when a change in mineral association occurred. The source of Zr was a phase consumed during a reaction, which produced garnet. Late-generation zircons in all xenoliths show concordant U–Pb ages of 1.81–1.84 Ga (1,826 ± 11 Ma), interpreted as the age of last granulite-facies metamorphism. This event completely resets most zircon cores. An earlier metamorphic event at 1.96–1.94 Ga is recorded by some rare cores, and a few magmatic oscillatory zircons have retained a Neoarchaean age of 2,719 ± 14 Ma. The assemblage of metaigneous and metasedimentary rocks was probably formed before the event at 1.96 Ga. Inherited magmatic zircons indicate the existence of continental crust by the time of intrusion of magmatic protoliths in the Late Archaean. The U–Pb zircon ages correspond to major events recorded in upper crustal rocks of the region: collisional metamorphism and magmatism 2.7 Ga ago and reworking of Archaean rocks at around 1.95–1.75 Ga. However, formation of the granulitic paragenesis in lower crustal rocks occurred significantly later than the last granulite-facies event seen in the upper crust and correlates instead with retrograde metamorphism and small-volume magmatism in the upper crust.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Andy Carter, Dr Martin Rittner and Dr Andy Beard (Birkbeck) for technical help with microprobe and laser probe analyses, and Dr Yuri Polekhovski, Dr Sergey Petrov and Ms E.V. Schukina for providing samples and help with sample preparation. We thank the Resource centre for microscopy and microanalysis in St Petersburg University for the help with sample preparation. We gratefully acknowledge Royal Society funding of a Joint International Project to MK and HD, and Russian federal budget funding, Scientific Research Work № 3.37.81.2011. Thanks for Fritz Finger (Salzburg) and two anonymous reviewers for detailed and helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geology, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, 199034, Russia

    M. Yu. Koreshkova & V. A. Glebovitsky

  2. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck University of London, London, WC1E7HX, UK

    H. Downes

  3. Isotope Research Centre, VSEGEI, St Petersburg, 199106, Russia

    N. V. Rodionov, A. V. Antonov & S. A. Sergeev

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  1. M. Yu. Koreshkova
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  2. H. Downes
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  3. V. A. Glebovitsky
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  4. N. V. Rodionov
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  5. A. V. Antonov
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  6. S. A. Sergeev
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Yu. Koreshkova.

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Communicated by J. Hoefs.

Electronic supplementary material

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Descriptions of samples (ESM_1.rtf) (RTF 122 kb)

410_2014_973_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx

Summary of major element data in minerals from xenoliths from Arkhangelsk Kimberlite Province (Grib pipe). (ESM_2.xslx) (XLSX 71 kb)

410_2014_973_MOESM3_ESM.xlsx

Major element data in minerals from xenoliths from Arkhangelsk Kimberlite Province (Grib pipe). (ESM_3.xslx) (XLSX 316 kb)

410_2014_973_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Ternary (Alm-Grs-Prp) diagram for garnets in xenoliths from Arkhangelsk Kimberlite Province (Grib pipe). (ESM_4.tif) (TIFF 10153 kb)

410_2014_973_MOESM5_ESM.rtf

Summary of trace element data (ppm) in minerals in xenoliths from Arkhangelsk Kimberlite Province (Grib pipe) (ESM_5.rtf) (RTF 765 kb)

410_2014_973_MOESM6_ESM.xlsx

Trace element data (ppm) in minerals in xenoliths from Arkhangelsk Kimberlite Province (Grib pipe) (ESM_6.xslx) (XLSX 45 kb)

P–T determinations for xenoliths from Arkhangelsk Kimberlite Province (Grib pipe) (ESM_7.xslx) (XLSX 12 kb)

410_2014_973_MOESM8_ESM.xlsx

Trace element data (ppm) in zircons in xenoliths from Arkhangelsk Kimberlite Province (Grib pipe) (ESM_8.xslx) (XLSX 19 kb)

410_2014_973_MOESM9_ESM.tif

REE patterns for whole rock compositions of xenoliths from Arkhangelsk Kimberlite Province (Grib pipe). Coefficients from Hinton and Upton (1991) were used for calculation of REE contents in melt in equilibrium with magmatic zircons from sample 60/473. (ESM_9.tif) (TIFF 5784 kb)

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Koreshkova, M.Y., Downes, H., Glebovitsky, V.A. et al. Zircon trace element characteristics and ages in granulite xenoliths: a key to understanding the age and origin of the lower crust, Arkhangelsk kimberlite province, Russia. Contrib Mineral Petrol 167, 973 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-014-0973-y

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