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Texturally complex monazite grains contained in two granulite-facies pelitic migmatites from southern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada, were mapped by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (using spot sizes < 5 µm) to quantitatively determine the spatial variation in trace element chemistry (with up to 1883 analyses per grain). The maps highlight the chemical complexity of monazite grains that have experienced multiple episodes of growth, resorption and chemical modification by dissolution-precipitation during high-grade metamorphism. Following detailed chemical characterisation of monazite compositional zones, a related U-Pb dataset is re-interpreted, allowing petrologically-significant ages to be extracted from a continuum of concordant data. Synthesis of these data with pseudosection modelling of prograde and peak conditions allows for the temporal evolution of monazite trace element chemistry to be placed in the context of the evolving P-T conditions and major phase assemblage. This approach enables a critical evaluation of three commonly used petrochronological indicators: linking Y to garnet abundance, the Eu anomaly to feldspar content, and Th/U to anatectic processes. Europium anomalies and Th/U behave in a relatively systematic fashion, suggesting that they are reliable petrochronological witnesses. However, Y systematics are variable, both within domains interpreted to have grown in a single event, between grains interpreted to be part of the same age population, and between samples that experienced similar metamorphic conditions and mineral assemblages. These observations caution against generalised petrological interpretations on the basis of Y content, as it suggests Y concentrations in monazite are controlled by domainal equilibria. The results reveal a ~45 Myr interval between prograde metamorphism and retrograde melt crystallisation in the study area, emphasising the long-lived nature of heat flow in high-grade metamorphic terranes. Such long timescales of metamorphism would be assisted by the growth, retention and dominance of high-Th suprasolidus monazite, as observed in this study, contributing to the radiogenic heating budget of mid- to lower-crustal environments. Careful characterisation of monazite grains suggests that continuum-style U-Pb datasets can be decoded to provide insights into the duration of metamorphic processes.

The island of Naxos, Greece, has been previously considered to represent a Cordilleran-style metamorphic core complex that formed during Cenozoic extension of the Aegean Sea. Although lithospheric extension has undoubtedly occurred in the region since 10 Ma, the geodynamic history of older, regional-scale, kyanite- and sillimanite-grade metamorphic rocks exposed within the core of the Naxos dome is controversial. Specifically, little is known about the pre-extensional prograde evolution and the relative timing of peak metamorphism in relation to the onset of extension. In this work, new structural mapping is presented and integrated with petrographic analyses and phase equilibrium modeling of blueschists, kyanite gneisses, and anatectic sillimanite migmatites. The kyanite-sillimanite–grade rocks within the core complex record a complex history of burial and compression and did not form under crustal extension. Deformation and metamorphism were diachronous and advanced down the structural section, resulting in the juxtaposition of several distinct tectono-stratigraphic nappes that experienced contrasting metamorphic histories. The Cycladic Blueschists attained ∼14.5 kbar and 470 °C during attempted northeast-directed subduction of the continental margin. These were subsequently thrusted onto the more proximal continental margin, resulting in crustal thickening and regional metamorphism associated with kyanite-grade conditions of ∼10 kbar and 600–670 °C. With continued shortening, the deepest structural levels underwent kyanite-grade hydrous melting at ∼8–10 kbar and 680–750 °C, followed by isothermal decompression through the muscovite dehydration melting reaction to sillimanite-grade conditions of ∼5–6 kbar and 730 °C. This decompression process was associated with top-to-the-NNE shearing along passive-roof faults that formed because of SW-directed extrusion. These shear zones predated crustal extension, because they are folded around the migmatite dome and are crosscut by leucogranites and low-angle normal faults. The migmatite dome formed at lower-pressure conditions under horizontal constriction that caused vertical boudinage and upright isoclinal folds. The switch from compression to extension occurred immediately following doming and was associated with NNE-SSW horizontal boudinage and top-to-the-NNE brittle-ductile normal faults that truncate the internal shear zones and earlier collisional features. The Naxos metamorphic core complex is interpreted to have formed via crustal thickening, regional metamorphism, and partial melting in a compressional setting, here termed the Aegean orogeny, and it was exhumed from the midcrust due to the switch from compression to extension at ca. 15 Ma.

Archean and Paleoproterozoic cratonic rocks of Baffin Island define four stacked structural levels that are juxtaposed within the middle Paleoproterozoic Trans-Hudson Orogen. From north to south, and highest to lowest structural level, these comprise:1) the Archean Rae Craton, unconformably overlain along its southern margin by middle Paleoproterozoic supracrustal cover (Piling Group) and stratigraphically similar units of the Hoare Bay Group on Cumberland Peninsula; 2) Archean to middle Paleoproterozoic metaplutonic units and middle Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary cover (Lake Harbour Group), collectively termed the 'Meta Incognita microcontinent'; 3) middle Paleoproterozoic orthogneiss, interpreted as a deformed arc-magmatic terrane (Narsajuaq terrane) or alternatively as Narsajuaq-age intrusions emplaced in the Meta Incognita microcontinent; and 4) Archean orthogneiss, interpreted as the northern continuation of the lower-plate Superior Craton, and associated middle Paleoproterozoic continental-margin supracrustal cover (Povungnituk Group).

The Sumdo complex is a Permian–Triassic eclogitic metamorphic belt in south-east Tibet, which marks the location of a suture zone that separates the northern and southern Lhasa terranes. An integrated geochronological and petrological study of a mafic eclogite from the complex has constrained its tectonometamorphic history and provides a case study of zircon growth in eclogite as a product of prograde dissolution–precipitation. In situ U–Pb geochronology indicates that the eclogite contains a single population of zircon with a crystallisation age of 273.6 ± 2.8 Ma. The morphology and chemistry of the zircon grains are consistent with growth by dissolution–precipitation of protolith magmatic zircon. The presence of zircon grains as inclusions in the cores of peak phases indicates that zircon dissolution–precipitation occurred during prograde metamorphism, and calculated pressure and temperature conditions over which mineral inclusions in zircon are stable suggest that the zircon most likely precipitated at ~15.5–16.5 kbar and 500–560 °C. Subsequent peak metamorphism is calculated to have reached pressure–temperature conditions of 27 ± 1 kbar and 670 ± 50 °C. Previous studies, which have documented a range of peak metamorphic conditions from high- to ultrahigh-pressure at c. 266–230 Ma, indicate that the Sumdo complex is a composite belt that experienced protracted eclogite exhumation. The results of this study are consistent with this interpretation, and extend the age range of high-pressure metamorphism in the complex to over 40 Myr. Analysis of published pressure–temperature–time data indicates two systematic behaviours within this spread. First, peak metamorphic temperatures declined over time. Second, eclogite exhumation occurred in two discrete intervals: soon after formation, and during the demise of the subduction zone. The latter behaviour serves as a reminder that eclogite exhumation is the exception rather than the rule.

The Danba Structural Culmination is a tectonic window into the late Triassic to early Jurassic Songpan-Garzê Fold Belt of eastern Tibet, which exposes an oblique section through a complete Barrovian-type metamorphic sequence. Systematic analysis of a suite of metapelites from this locality has enabled a general study of Barrovian metamorphism, and provided new insights into the early thermotectonic history of the Tibetan plateau. The suite was used to create a detailed petrographic framework, from which four samples ranging from staurolite to sillimanite grade were selected for thermobarometry and geochronology. Pseudosection analysis was applied to calculate P-T path segments and determine peak conditions between staurolite grade at ∼5.2 kbar and 580 °C and sillimanite grade at ∼6.0 kbar and 670 °C. In situ U-Pb monazite geochronology reveals that staurolite-grade conditions were reached at 191.5 ± 2.4 Ma, kyanite-grade conditions were attained at 184.2 ± 1.5 Ma, and sillimanite-grade conditions continued until 179.4 ± 1.6 Ma. Integration of the results has provided constraints on the evolution of metamorphism in the region, including a partial reconstruction of the regional metamorphic field gradient. Several key features of Barrovian metamorphism are documented, including nested P-T paths and a polychronic field gradient. In addition, several atypical features are noted, such as P-T path segments having similar slopes to the metamorphic field gradient, and Tmax and Pmax being reached simultaneously in some samples. These features are attributed to the effects of slow tectonic burial, which allows for thermal relaxation during compression. While nested, clockwise P-T-t loops provide a useful framework for Barrovian metamorphism, this study shows that the effects of slow burial can telescope this model in P-T space. Finally, the study demonstrates that eastern Tibet experienced a significant phase of crustal thickening during the Mesozoic, reinforcing the notion that the plateau may have a long history of uplift and growth. © 2013 John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

A combined geochronological and petrological study of pelitic migmatites from the northwestern flank of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis has constrained the timing and P-T conditions of two high-grade metamorphic events that affected the south Lhasa block (Asian margin) and provides new insight into the tectonothermal evolution of the India-Asia collision. U(-Th)-Pb dating of in situ monazite shows that upper amphibolite-facies sillimanite-grade metamorphism and consequent partial melting occurred between c. 71 and 50 Ma at P-T conditions above 6.3 ± 1.2 kbar and 750 ± 30 °C. Further partial melting at upper amphibolite-facies kyanite-grade conditions occurred between c. 44 and 33 Ma at minimum P-T conditions of 10.4 ± 1.0 kbar and 698 ± 20 °C. These data are interpreted to record a south Lhasa block mid-crustal sillimanite-grade melting event in the Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene related to regional heat advection caused by coeval and prolonged emplacement of Gangdese batholith units. This was followed by a higher pressure and lower temperature kyanite-grade melting event during the Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene associated with deformation and crustal thickening in the south Lhasa block, coeval with kyanite-grade metamorphism along the Himalaya, as a result of the on-going India-Asia collision. These partially-melted crustal lithologies offer potential sources (or otherwise analogs for sources) for the Miocene emplacement of adakitic intrusions previously documented in the eastern Himalayan syntaxis region. © 2013 International Association for Gondwana Research.

The Gongga Shan batholith of eastern Tibet, previously documented as a ca. 32-12.8 Ma granite pluton, shows some of the youngest U-Pb granite crystallization ages recorded from the Tibetan Plateau, with major implications for the tectonothermal history of the region. Field observations indicate that the batholith is composite; some localities show at least seven crosscutting phases of granitoids that range in composition from diorite to leucocratic monzogranite. In this study we present U-Pb ages of zircon and allanite dated by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry on seven samples, to further investigate the chronology of the batholith. The age data constrain two striking tectonic-plutonic events: A complex Triassic-Jurassic (ca. 215-159 Ma) record of biotite-hornblende granodiorite, K-feldspar megacrystic granite and leucogranitic plutonism, and a Miocene (ca. 14-5 Ma) record of monzonite-leucogranite emplacement. The former age range is attributed to widespread Indosinian tectonism, related to Paleo-Tethyan subduction zone magmatism along the western Yangtze block of south China. The younger component may be related to localized partial melting (muscovite dehydration) of thickened Triassic flysch-type sediments in the Songpan-Ganze terrane, and are among the youngest crustal melt granites exposed on the Tibetan Plateau. Zircon and allanite ages reflect multiple crustal remelting events; the youngest, ca. 5 Ma, resulted in dissolution and crystallization of zircons and growth and/or resetting of allanites. The young garnet, muscovite, and biotite leucogranites occur mainly in the central part of the batholith and adjacent to the eastern margin of the batholith at Kangding, where they are cut by the left-lateral Xianshui-he fault. The Xianshui-he fault is the most seismically active strike-slip fault in Tibet and is thought to record the eastward extrusion of the central part of the Tibetan Plateau. The fault obliquely cuts all granites of the Gongga Shan massif and has a major transpressional component in the Kangding-Moxi region. The course of the Xianshui Jiang river is offset by ~62 km along the Xianshui-he fault and in the Kangding area granites as young as ca. 5 Ma are cut by the fault. Our new geochronological data show that only a part of the Gongga Shan granite batholith is composed of young (Miocene) melt, and we surmise that as most of eastern Tibet is composed of Precambrian-Triassic Indosinian rocks, there is no geological evidence to support regional Cenozoic internal thickening or metamorphism and no evidence for eastward-directed lower crustal flow away from Tibet. We suggest that underthrusting of Indian lower crust north as far as the Xianshui-he fault resulted in Cenozoic uplift of the eastern plateau.

Pseudosection modelling is rapidly becoming an essential part of a petrologist's toolkit and often forms the basis of interpreting the tectonothermal evolution of a rock sample, outcrop, or geological region. Of the several factors that can affect the accuracy and precision of such calculated phase diagrams, “geological” uncertainty related to natural petrographic variation at the hand sample- and/or thin section-scale is rarely considered. Such uncertainty influences the sample's bulk composition, which is the primary control on its equilibrium phase relationships and thus the interpreted pressure–temperature (P–T) conditions of formation. Two case study examples—a garnet–cordierite granofels and a garnet–staurolite–kyanite schist—are used to compare the relative importance that geological uncertainty has on bulk compositions determined via (1) X-ray fluorescence (XRF) or (2) point counting techniques. We show that only minor mineralogical variation at the thin-section scale propagates through the phase equilibria modelling procedure and affects the absolute P–T conditions at which key assemblages are stable. Absolute displacements of equilibria can approach ±1 kbar for only a moderate degree of modal proportion uncertainty, thus being essentially similar to the magnitudes reported for analytical uncertainties in conventional thermobarometry. Bulk compositions determined from multiple thin sections of a heterogeneous garnet–staurolite–kyanite schist show a wide range in major-element oxides, owing to notable variation in mineral proportions. Pseudosections constructed for individual point count-derived bulks accurately reproduce this variability on a case-by-case basis, though averaged proportions do not correlate with those calculated at equivalent peak P–T conditions for a whole-rock XRF-derived bulk composition. The main discrepancies relate to varying proportions of matrix phases (primarily mica) relative to porphyroblasts (primarily staurolite and kyanite), indicating that point counting preserves small-scale petrographic features that are otherwise averaged out in XRF analysis of a larger sample. Careful consideration of the size of the equilibration volume, the constituents that comprise the effective bulk composition, and the best technique to employ for its determination based on rock type and petrographic character, offer the best chance to produce trustworthy data from pseudosection analysis.

The combination of the Sunda megathrust and the (strike-slip) Sumatran Fault (SF) represents a type example of slip-partitioning. However, superimposed on the SF are geometrical irregularities that disrupt the local strain field. The largest such feature is in central Sumatra where the SF splits into two fault strands up to 35 km apart. A dense local network was installed along a 350 km section around this bifurcation, registering 1016 crustal events between April 2008 and February 2009. 528 of these events, with magnitudes between 1.1 and 6.0, were located using the double-difference relative location method. These relative hypocentre locations reveal several new features about the crustal structure of the SF. Northwest and southeast of the bifurcation, where the SF has only one fault strand, seismicity is strongly focused below the surface trace, indicating a vertical fault that is seismogenic to ∼15 km depth. By contrast intense seismicity is observed within the bifurcation, displaying streaks in plan and cross-section that indicate a complex system of faults bisecting the bifurcation. In combination with analysis of topography and focal mechanisms, we propose that the bifurcation is a strike-slip duplex system with complex faulting between the two main fault branches.