Relationships between magmatism, metamorphism and deformation in the Fraser Complex, Western Australia: Constraints from new SHRIMP U–Pb zircon geochronology

Abstract

SHRIMP U–Pb zircon isotopic data have been obtained for four samples collected from granitoids and paragneisses in the Fraser Complex, a large composite metagabbroic body cropping out in the Mesoproterozoic Albany‐Fraser Orogen of Western Australia. The data are combined with the results of field mapping and petrographic analysis to revise a model for the geological evolution of the Fraser Complex. Three main phases of deformation are recognised in the Fraser Complex (D1–3) associated with two metamorphic events (M1–2), which involve four distinguishable episodes of recrystallisation. The first metamorphic event recognised (M1a/D1) reached granulite facies and is characterised by peak T ≥800°C and P = 600–700 MPa. A syn‐M1a/D1 charnockite has a U–Pb SHRIMP zircon age of 1301 ± 6 Ma, which also provides an estimate for the age of intrusion of Fraser Complex gabbroic rocks. Disequilibrium textures comprising randomly oriented minerals (M1b), consistent with approximately isobaric cooling, formed in various lithologies in the interval between D1 and D2. Post‐D1, pre‐D2 granites intruded at 1293 ± 8 Ma and were foliated during the D2 event, which culminated in the burial of the Fraser Complex to depths equivalent to 800–1000 MPa. Following burial, pyroxene granulites on the western boundary of the complex were pervasively retrogressed to garnet amphibolite (M2a). An igneous crystallisation age of 1288 ± 12 Ma from a syn‐M2a aplite dyke suggests that retrogression may have occurred only a few millions of years after the peak of granulite facies metamorphism. Exhumation to depths of less than ∼400 MPa occurred within ∼20–30 million years of the M2a pressure peak. Associated deformation (D3) is characterised by the development of mylonite and transitional greenschist/amphibolite facies disequilibrium textures (M2b).