Combined Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd geochronology of the Mariánské Lázně Complex: New constraints on the timing of eclogite- and granulite-facies metamorphism

Abstract

Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd garnet-whole rock geochronology combined with petrographic observations, minero-chemical variations, thermodynamic modelling and structural data was used to constrain the P–T–t–d evolution of eclogites from the Mariánské Lázně Complex (Bohemian Massif). Boudins of mostly isotropic eclogite with relict steep eclogite-facies fabric are affected by steep migmatitic foliation, which is followed on a regional scale by the development of almost pervasive, predominantly SE-dipping, extensional foliation. The structural succession shows continuous transition from eclogite to garnetiferous migmatitic amphibolite and to amphibolite migmatite.A least retrogressed sample of eclogite shows clusters of fine-grained inclusion-poor garnet, omphacite relicts surrounded by a fine-grained clinopyroxene-plagioclase symplectite with minor amphibole, biotite-plagioclase intergrowths after white mica, kyanite with plagioclase-spinel coronas and accessory rutile. Rare potassic white mica occurs as inclusions in omphacite. A more retrogressed eclogite, with no omphacite or kyanite relicts, contains inclusion-poor garnet surrounded by amphibole-plagioclase corona in a matrix dominated by plagioclase-amphibole symplectite with minor clinopyroxene. In places, the symplectite is overgrown by coarse-grained amphibole.Peak P–T conditions, inferred from combined conventional thermobarometry and phase-equilibria modelling and based on inclusions of white mica (up to 3.33 Si p.f.u.), matrix omphacite (Jd33–36) and garnet core (Alm33–38Prp38–42Grs22–25Sps1) compositions are ~25 kbar at 650–750 °C. A HT overprint occurred at ~14–18 kbar and >800 °C based on coexisting clinopyroxene (Jd18–24), plagioclase (An18–35), and amphibole (Na(B) <0.20; Al(C) = 0.60–1.15) in symplectite after original omphacite and phase-equilibria modelling of garnet mantle compositions.Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd garnet geochronology has been applied to both samples, an older age (c. 390 Ma) obtained by the Lu-Hf method is interpreted as the timing of HP metamorphism, while c. 15 Ma younger ages were obtained by the Sm-Nd method. As temperatures for the HT overprint exceed the empirically and experimentally determined closure temperature of the Sm-Nd system the Sm-Nd ages are interpreted to date cooling following the HT overprint.Combined together, contrasting eclogite and amphibolite-facies migmatite fabrics, the mineral textures, calculated P–T conditions, and distinct Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd ages, provide a complete P–T–t–D path characterised by rapid (~15 Ma) transition from HP subduction, crustal thickening to extensional HT shearing. This unconventional exhumation path does not fit to models of monocyclic exhumation in a subduction channel proposed for the Münchberg and ZEV Devonian HP units to the west. In contrast, the post-peak extensional low angle shearing shortly after subduction and collision resembles more the geodynamic model typical for the Iberian subduction system both in time scales and sequence of tectonic events.