Age, provenance and post-deposition metamorphic overprint of detrital zircons from the Nathorst Land group (NE Greenland)—A LA-ICP-MS and SIMS study

Abstract

LA-ICP-MS and SIMS U–Pb analyses have been performed on detrital zircon grains from four heavy mineral rich metasediments collected at different levels of the Nathorst Land Group (Eleonore Bay Supergroup, Greenland). Zircons from high-grade samples collected in the sillimanite and migmatite zones exhibit modifications to their structure, which are lacking in grains from a low-grade sample (0.3 GPa and 350–400 °C). In the sillimanite zone (0.5 GPa, 650 °C), thin discontinuous rims (<20 μm) plating detrital zircon grains document a metamorphic overgrowth during the Caledonian event dated at 428 ± 25 Ma (2 σ). In the migmatite zone (0.4 GPa, 700 °C), zircons underwent severe recrystallisation processes but no new zircon growth. Ilmenite, which constitutes over 50% of the heavy mineral layers, underwent recrystallisation in both high-grade samples and is likely to represent the main source of Zr available for growth of zircon rims in the sillimanite zone. However, in the migmatite zone sample, the metamorphic conditions allowed titanite overgrowth around ilmenite, which acted as a sink for Zr and inhibited new zircon growth. 207Pb/ 206Pb ages for 152 detrital zircons broadly range between 2800 and 990 Ma. The detrital zircon age signature is characterized by the large predominance of late Paleoproterozoic (1.85–1.60 Ga) grains in all analysed samples and by lesser amounts of Archean (2.7–2.8 Ga) and Mesoproterozoic (1.2–1.0 Ga) zircons. The overall age range indicates that detritus can be sourced from the Labradorian and Makkovikian provinces of northeastern Laurentia. The youngest grain analysed (987 ± 18 Ma) indicates that deposition took place during the Neoproterozoic, in a post-Grenvillian sedimentary environment and was likely coeval with the Mid-Neoproterozoic episode of aborted rifting that affected the eastern margin of Laurentia. The lack of detritus originating from Amazonia or Baltica, placed adjacent to Laurentia during the early stages of Rodinia fragmentation, suggests that these two continental landmasses did not constitute a topographic high during the Neoproterozoic or that the Mid-Neoproterozoic rifting opened toward an open ocean to the north of a combined Laurentia/Baltica, thus resulting in a general south to north direction of transport of the sediments.