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Early Paleozoic medium-pressure metamorphism in central Vietnam: evidence from SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages

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Abstract

To constrain the timing of collisional event in the Indochina block, SHRIMP U-Pb dating and REE analyses of zircon were carried out for two paragneiss samples of the Kham Duc Complex, central Vietnam. Both samples contain kyanite, staurolite, and zoisite as relics from an early metamorphic stage (M1), and biotite and sillimanite as major minerals constituting the foliation formed during the late metamorphic stage (M2). The change in mineral assemblages indicates a clockwise P-T path composed of a high- or medium-P + low-T stage (M1) and a subsequent low- P + high-T stage (M2). The U-Pb concordia ages of zircon rims are 447 ± 6 Ma and 452 ± 6 Ma for the two samples, respectively. These results are distinctly different from the available Ar-Ar mineral ages of 254–225 Ma. Following the clockwise P-T path and phase equilibrium analyses of the Complex, we suggest that the zircon rims were formed near peak temperatures during the decompression. The ∼450 Ma zircon rim thus gives the minimum age constraint for a possible crustal thickening event during Early Paleozoic, whereas the reported Permo-Triassic Ar-Ar ages would result from an Indosinian overprint. This Early Paleozoic event is most likely related to a collisional orogeny between the Indochina and South China blocks. Late Neoproterozoic to Neoarchean ages are recorded from detrital zircon cores of the Kham Duc Complex, the Kontum Massif and Truong Son Belt, suggesting that their protoliths might have derived from sediments at the Gondwana margin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 115, Republic of China

    Tadashi Usuki, Ching-Ying Lan, Tzen-Fu Yui & Yoshiyuki Iizuka

  2. Faculty of Geology, Hanoi University of Science, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Tich Van Vu

  3. Institute of Geological Sciences, National Center for Natural Sciences and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Tuan Anh Tran

  4. Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, Faculty of Education, Saitama University, Saitama, 338-8570, Japan

    Kazuaki Okamoto

  5. Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305-2115, USA

    Joseph L. Wooden & Juhn G. Liou

  6. Division of Natural Sciences, The United Graduate School of Education, Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, 184-8501, Japan

    Kazuaki Okamoto

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  1. Tadashi Usuki
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  2. Ching-Ying Lan
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  4. Yoshiyuki Iizuka
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  9. Juhn G. Liou
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Correspondence to Tadashi Usuki.

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Usuki, T., Lan, CY., Yui, TF. et al. Early Paleozoic medium-pressure metamorphism in central Vietnam: evidence from SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages. Geosci J 13, 245–256 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-009-0024-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-009-0024-2

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