U-Pb dating of interspersed gabbroic magmatism and hydrothermal metamorphism during lower crustal accretion, Vema lithospheric section, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Rioux, Matthew, Jöns, Niels, Bowring, Samuel, Lissenberg, Cornelis Johan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7774-2297, Bach, Wolfgang, Kylander-Clark, Andrew, Hacker, Bradley and Dudás, Frank 2015. U-Pb dating of interspersed gabbroic magmatism and hydrothermal metamorphism during lower crustal accretion, Vema lithospheric section, Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 120 (4) , pp. 2093-2118. 10.1002/2014JB011668

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (4MB) | Preview

Abstract

New U/Pb analyses of zircon and xenotime constrain the timing of magmatism, magmatic assimilation, and hydrothermal metamorphism during formation of the lower crust at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The studied sample is an altered gabbro from the Vema lithospheric section (11°N). Primary gabbroic minerals have been almost completely replaced by multiple hydrothermal overprints: cummingtonitic amphibole and albite formed during high-temperature hydration reactions and are overgrown first by kerolite and then prehnite and chlorite. In a previous study, clear inclusion-free zircons from the sample yielded Th-corrected 206Pb/238U dates of 13.528 ± 0.101 to 13.353 ± 0.057 Ma. Ti concentrations, reported here, zoning patterns and calculated Th/U of the dated grains are consistent with these zircons having grown during igneous crystallization. To determine the timing of hydrothermal metamorphism, we dated a second population of zircons, with ubiquitous <1–20 µm chlorite inclusions, and xenotimes that postdate formation of metamorphic albite. The textures and inclusions of the inclusion-rich zircons suggest that they formed by coupled dissolution-reprecipitation of metastable igneous zircon during or following hydrothermal metamorphism. Th-corrected 206Pb/238U dates for the inclusion-rich zircons range from 13.598 ± 0.012 to 13.503 ± 0.018 Ma and predate crystallization of all but one of the inclusion-free zircons, suggesting that the inclusion-rich zircons were assimilated from older hydrothermally altered wall rocks. The xenotime dates are sensitive to the Th correction applied, but even using a maximum correction, 206Pb/238U dates range from 13.341 ± 0.162 to 12.993 ± 0.055 Ma and postdate crystallization of both the inclusion-rich zircons and inclusion-free igneous zircons, reflecting a second hydrothermal event. The data provide evidence for alternating magmatism and hydrothermal metamorphism at or near the ridge axis during accretion of the lower crust at a ridge-transform intersection and suggest that hydrothermally altered crust was assimilated into younger gabbroic magmas. The results of this study show that high-precision U-Pb dating is a powerful method for studying the timing of magmatic and hydrothermal processes at mid-ocean ridges.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QE Geology
Publisher:	American Geophysical Union
ISSN:	2169-9356
Funders:	NERC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	11 March 2015
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 07:20
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/73076

Citation Data

Cited 14 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item