Granulite facies metamorphic age and tectonic implications of BIFs from the Kongling Group in the northern Huangling anticline

Abstract

We report preliminary results of a geochemical study on banded iron formations (BIFs) in the Zhaojiayangpo (赵家阳坡) area from the Kongling (崆岭) Group in the northern Huangling (黄陵) anticline, on the northern margin of the Yangtze craton. The CL (cathodoluminescence) images of zircons mostly have sector zoning, fir-tree zoning and patched zoning, and a few show core-rim textures with rims having patched zoning. The calculated formation temperatures using the Ti-in-zircon thermometer are 660–808 °C (714 °C in average), all indicating that the BIFs underwent granulite facies metamorphism. The age of zircons with granulite facies metamorphism is 1 990±14 Ma by LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating, indicating that there was a significant granulite facies tectonothermal event in the northern Huangling anticline in the Paleoproterozoic, which may be related with tectonic thermal events of the metamorphism caused by the assembly of the Columbia supercontinent with South China. Moreover, the REE pattern is characterized by depletion in LREE while relatively flat in HREE, La_N/Yb_N=0.26, with a positive Eu anomaly (Eu/Eu*=1.59), which reveals its hydrothermal sedimentation origin and it may have formed in the environment of submarine exhalation.

Keywords

Huangling anticline / banded iron formation (BIF) / zircon LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating / granulite facies metamorphism / Columbia supercontinent

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