Inherited igneous zircons in jadeitite predate high-pressure metamorphism and jadeitite formation in the Jagua Clara serpentinite mélange of the Rio San Juan Complex (Dominican Republic)

Abstract

This study utilizes zircon SIMS U–Pb dating, REE and trace-element analysis as well as oxygen isotope ratios of zircon to distinguish jadeite-rich rocks that formed by direct crystallization from a hydrous fluid from those that represent products of a metasomatic replacement process. Zircon was separated from a concordant jadeitite layer and its blueschist host, as well as from loose blocks of albite-jadeite rock and jadeitite that were all collected from the Jagua Clara serpentinite-matrix melange in the northern Dominican Republic. In the concordant jadeitite layer, three groups of zircon domains were distinguished based on both age as well as geochemical and oxygen isotope values: age groups old (117.1 ± 0.9 Ma), intermediate (three dates: 90.6, 97.3, 106.0 Ma) and young (77.6 ± 1.3 Ma). Zircon populations from the blueschist host as well as the other three jadeite-rich samples generally match zircon domains of the old age group in age as well as geochemistry and oxygen isotope ratios. Moreover, these older zircon populations are indistinguishable from zircon typical of igneous oceanic crust and hence are probably inherited from igneous protoliths of the jadeite-rich rocks. Therefore, the results suggest that all investigated jadeite-rich rocks were formed by a metasomatic replacement process. The younger domains might signal actual ages of jadeitite formation, but there is no unequivocal proof for coeval zircon-jadeite growth.