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Dating high-grade metamorphism—constraints from rare-earth elements in zircon and garnet

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Abstract

We integrate petrography and SIMS REE analyses of garnet and polyphase zircon from a pelitic granulite adjacent to the Ronda peridotite, Betic Cordillera, southern Spain to constrain the significance of zircon U–Pb geochronology. Sillimanite inclusions in garnet rims suggest that they grew during decompression, and Ca enrichment in their rims records initiation of partial melting. Chondrite-normalised REE profiles of zircon cores are typically magmatic (positive La to Lu slope and Ce anomaly), whereas overgrowths have flat or negatively sloping heavy-REE profiles (Gd–Lu). The presence of rimmed zircon grains only in the garnet rims and the matrix suggests that this zircon phase grew after garnet had already sequestered heavy REEs, a process documented here by progressive depletion of heavy REE in the garnets from centre to rim. Combined with the textural evidence, we suggest that the U–Pb age of 21.3±0.3 Ma obtained from the zircon rims dates a point on this decompression path rather than the peak metamorphic pressure.

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Acknowledgements

We thank John Hanchar and Nigel Kelly for thorough and constructive reviews. The Nordsim ion-microprobe facility in Stockholm is funded by the natural science funding agencies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and the Swedish Museum of Natural History. M.J.W. acknowledges the support of a senior research fellowship from Vetenskapsrådet, Sweden. Work by J.P.P. was funded by grant number GR3/13160 from the Natural Environmental Research Council of Great Britain. This is Nordsim laboratory contribution number 65.

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  1. Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-104 05, Stockholm, Sweden

    Martin J. Whitehouse

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    John P. Platt

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  1. Martin J. Whitehouse
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  2. John P. Platt
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Correspondence to Martin J. Whitehouse.

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Editorial responsibility: I. Parsons

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Whitehouse, M.J., Platt, J.P. Dating high-grade metamorphism—constraints from rare-earth elements in zircon and garnet. Contrib Mineral Petrol 145, 61–74 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-002-0432-z

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