Combined U–Pb and Hf isotope LA-(MC-)ICP-MS analyses of detrital zircons: Comparison with SHRIMP and new constraints for the provenance and age of an Armorican metasediment in Central Germany

Abstract

Uranium–lead ages obtained by LA-ICP-MS analyses of zircon cores from a high-grade Armorican metasediment from the Mid-German Crystalline Rise, Central Germany, yield results which are identical to, but more precise than those previously obtained by SHRIMP dating. This is mainly due to the fact that SHRIMP analyses are more sensitive than LA-ICP-MS analyses to common Pb contamination on the surface of the grain mount. The new U–Pb ages, in combination with in-situ Hf isotope analyses of zircon, provide the first evidence that detrital zircons within Armorican sediments crystallized in both juvenile and evolved magmatic rocks during the Archaean at 2.7–2.9 Ga, the Palaeoproterozoic at 1.8–2.1 Ga, and the Neoproterozoic/Early Palaeozoic at 500–720 Ma. In addition, zircons were formed at ca. 1.0 Ga by remelting of Palaeoproterozoic crust during the Grenville orogeny. The U–Pb dataset shows an age gap between 1.8 and 1.0 Ga, which is characteristic of Armorican sediments, and indicates that the metasediment protolith is younger than Late Cambrian. In addition, the data support previous conclusions that sediments constituting the Armorican terrane assemblage were derived from three crustal sources. Dominant sources were the Avalonian–Cadomian belt (ca. 45%), situated at the northern margin of Gondwana during the Neoproterozoic, and the West-African and/or eastern Amazonian cratons (ca. 50%). The Grenville belt was a minor source (< 5%). Variation of εHf( t) values of the Neoproterozoic/Early Paleozoic zircons indicates two periods of increased juvenile magma formation, one at 595–575 Ma and a second at 515–500 Ma. The older event is coeval with the formation of the Avalonian–Cadomian magmatic arc, whereas the younger event can be related to the break-up of the northern Gondwana margin in Cambrian/Ordovician times. In between, at around 545 Ma, only recycling of older crustal material took place.