U–Pb detrital zircon constraints on active margin magmatism and sedimentation after the Grampian Orogeny in western Ireland

Abstract

Early Ordovician collision of the Lough Nafooey Arc (part of the Baie Verte Oceanic Tract) with the passive continental margin of Laurentia peaked at c. 475 Ma in Scotland and Ireland and was followed by subduction polarity reversal. We examined Upper Ordovician–Silurian sedimentary rocks from western Ireland to see whether collision was followed by renewed arc magmatism. Despite the scarcity of dated igneous intrusions between the Grampian ( c. 470 Ma) and Acadian ( c. 420 Ma) orogenies in Ireland, detrital zircons show a continuity of activity peaking at 480–440 Ma, implying no hiatus in regional magmatism. Differences in zircon U–Pb age spectra highlight the isolation of basins in the southern Killary Harbour area from those north of the South Mayo Trough. These latter rocks were largely derived by erosion from Moine and Upper Dalradian sources. By contrast, the Killary Harbour Basin shows a decreasing influence from the Dalradian after c. 436 Ma and an increasing influence of contemporaneous magmatic zircons. These were transported from sources along-strike from the present NE, probably at the southern end of the Scandian Mountains in SE Greenland. The western Irish basins formed as pull-apart basins in a forearc setting and are analogous to Cenozoic pull-apart basins in Sumatra. Supplementary material: U-Pb zircon analytical data is available at a decreasing influence from the Dalradian after c. 436 Ma and an increasing influence of contemporaneous https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5209849