Ion-probe U–Pb dating of plutonic rocks from the northern Arabian–Nubian Shield in Sinai and southern Israel constrains the timing of late East African batholithic post-collisional calc-alkaline (CA2) magmatism and within-plate alkaline to peralkaline (AL) magmatism to
c
. 635–590 Ma and
c
. 608–580 Ma, respectively. The earliest dated CA2 rocks are slightly deformed to undeformed, indicating that penetrative deformation ceased by
c
. 630 Ma. Within the CA2 suite a change from mafic to felsic magmatism is manifested in most of the region, peaking in a voluminous pulse of granodiorite to granite intrusion at 610–600 Ma. The AL magmatism started contemporaneously with the peak in CA2 felsic activity at
c
. 608 Ma and lasted until 580 Ma. It includes mostly alkaline and peralkaline granites, probably representing variable degrees of differentiation of similar parental magmas. Thus CA2 and AL granites do not represent different tectonic settings, but coeval derivation from variable sources during crustal extension. The majority of rocks dated in this study show minor to non-existent zircon inheritance and thus indicate very minor interaction with previously formed felsic crust. The rare zircon xenocrysts span a typical East African age range (900–607 Ma) and confirm the absence of older crustal components in the juvenile Arabian–Nubian Shield.
Supplementary material:
Geochemical and geochronological methods, sample descriptions and data are available at
http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18327
.
Monazite from granulite-facies rocks of the Åreskutan Nappe in the Scandinavian Caledonides (Seve Nappe Complex, Sweden) was dated using in-situ U-Th-total Pb chemical geochronology (CHIME). Multi-spot analyses of a non-sheared migmatite neosome yielded an age of 439 ± 3 Ma, whereas a sheared migmatite gave 433 ± 3 Ma (2σ). Although the obtained dates are rather similar, a continuous array of single dates from c. 400 Ma to c. 500 Ma suggests possibly a more complex monazite age pattern in the studied rocks. The grouping and recalculation of the obtained results in respect to Y-Th-U systematics and microtextural context allowed distinguishing several different populations of monazite grains/growth zones. In the migmatite neosome, low-Th and low-Y domains dated at 455 ± 11 Ma are considered to have grown under highgrade sub-solidus conditions, most likely during a progressive burial metamorphic event. The monazites with higher Th and lower Y yielded an age of 439 ± 4 Ma marking the subsequent partial melting event caused by decompression. The youngest (423 ± 13 Ma) Y-enriched monazite reveals features of fluid-assisted growth and is interpreted to date the emplacement of the Åreskutan onto the Lower Seve Nappe. In the sheared migmatite, the high-Th and low-U (high Th/U) monazite with variable Y contents yielded an age of 438 ± 4 Ma, which is interpreted to date the partial melting event. Relatively U-rich rims on some of the monazite grains again reveal features of fluid-assisted growth, and thus their age of 424 ± 6 Ma is interpreted as timing of the nappes emplacement. These results call, however, for further more precise, isotopic (preferably ion microprobe) dating of monazite in the studied rocks.
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