Prograde Metamorphism recorded in Antarctic Granulite

Abstract:

High-grade metamorphic rocks provide an archive of tectonic processes and record conditions in the deep roots of orogenic belts. Granulites typically preserve chemical and mineralogical evidence of the peak temperature to which crustal rocks may be subjected, and they commonly preserve a multitude of textural and chemical features that allow a rather detailed reconstruction of their cooling and exhumation. More rarely, however, is it possible to reconstruct parts of the prograde path, which would allow a reconstruction of the loading and heating of the rocks. Access to the prograde P–T path and the rates and durations involved in granulite formation would provide important constraints on the convergence part of orogenic processes.

Here we investigated a sample of felsic granulite from the H.U. Sverdrupfjella, which is part of the high-grade Maud Belt (East Antarctica). Peak-metamorphic conditions of approximately 925 °C and 1.45 GPa persisted for a maximum of circa 14 million years and were attained shortly after 570 Ma. In addition to the short-lived temperature peak, zircon preserved evidence for protracted granulite facies conditions with temperatures above 800 °C persisting for approximately 40 million years.

Constraints on prograde metamorphism are recorded by garnet that preserved pre-peak metamorphic growth zones, by Ti zonation in zircon and by rutile inclusions in garnet. Zr-in-rutile thermometry using rutile included in different generations of garnet is used to reconstruct the prograde P–T path documenting burial followed by heating to ultra-high temperatures at peak pressures. Complementary, Ti zonation in prograde cores of zircon grains document and date heating, whereas younger zircon rims show again lower Ti-in-zircon temperatures and date the retrograde stages of metamorphism. The highest T is recorded in rutile, but not in zircon, consistent with the dissolution rather than growth of zircon at ultra-high temperatures.

The clockwise loading–heating path and the peak P–T conditions indicate that the rocks preserved in Dronning Maud Land were part of the lower plate during a continent–continent collision event related to Gondwana assembly at circa 570 Ma.