40Ar– 39Ar geochronology of the charnockites and granulites of the Kan Nack complex, Kon Tum Massif, Vietnam

Abstract

The Truong Son Belt forms the eastern rim of the Indochina Block in Southeast Asia. The age of the metamorphism, mainly along NW–SE mylonitic shear zones that affects this belt, has been formerly determined at about 240–250 Ma. This age corresponds to the Indosinian tectonometamorphic episode. The Kon Tum Massif, situated to the south of this belt, comprises high-temperature rocks, the Kan Nack Complex, including charnockites and granulites. The main charnockitic outcrops, restricted to the Song Ba Valley, establish the intrusive nature of these magmatic rocks within granulite facies material. Basic charnockitic rocks are mainly quartz enderbites to norites and hornblende–pyroxene granulite facies rocks. The 40Ar– 39Ar age of intrusion-cooling of charnockitic magmas is determined from primary magmatic biotites at about 245 Ma. In the east of the Kan Nack Complex some granulite facies rocks exhibit relicts of primary granulite facies parageneses, whereas others show evidence of overprinting by a retrogressive low-grade metamorphism. Ar–Ar dating confirm this evolution, giving ages of 400 Ma for primary relict granulite facies phases and 260–270 Ma from the most retrogressed samples establishing the youngest limit for the granulite facies metamorphism. Granulites intruded by charnockites in the Song Ba Valley yield ages of about 250 Ma, equivalent to the ages of the charnockites, and have evidently been completely reset by these high temperature intrusions. Therefore, the Kan Nack Complex of the Kon Tum Massif is not an independent unit with respect to the Indosinian orogen, but represents the deep-crustal part of this belt.