Metamorphic history of the Precambrian lower cratonic crust from U-Pb dating of granulite xenoliths (Anabar province, Siberia)

Abstract

Garnet granulite xenoliths from the Nurbinskaya diatreme in the central part of the Archean Anabar province in Siberia are fragments of the local lower crust that experienced multiple metamorphic events in the Paleoproterozoic and reheating events in the Mesoproterozoic and later. This study addresses the timing of metamorphic transformations, and constrains the cooling rate and the time of stabilization of the lower crust. The observed metamorphic mineral assemblage of garnet, clinopyroxene, plagioclase, amphibole, rutile and ilmenite was formed at ~ 800 °C, 1.1–1.2 GPa under water-undersaturated conditions at ~ 1.88 Ga. However, the mineral assemblage is not well equilibrated and retains evidence of earlier and subsequent metamorphic stages. Late titanite formed in response to hydrous fluid influx according to phase equilibria modeling. U-Pb dating shows two events of titanite formation at 1850 ± 5 Ma and at 1788 ± 2 Ma. After deformation, which led to the porphyroclastic rock textures, the granulites underwent near-isobaric cooling. The cooling rate was higher than ~ 6 °C/Myr, to retain the garnet compositional zoning. Rutile ages are discordant, with ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb dates ranging from 1.43 to 1.53 Ga. However, rutile may have responded to earlier thermal pulses, and was also reset later, so it does not record the stabilization of the crust. Crustal stabilization after Paleoproterozoic orogenic events may have occurred shortly after titanite formation.