Detrital zircon provenance of the Archean Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa and Eswatini

Abstract

Sandstones of the 3.22 Ga Archean Moodies Group represent one of the world's oldest quartz-rich sedimentary sequences. The provenance of this unit is unresolved because its quartz and common microcline can be sourced both from either now eroded or covered granitoid plutons outside the Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB) or, alternatively and perhaps more controversially, (rhyo-)dacitic (sub-)volcanic rocks within the BGB. We compiled 31 detrital zircon data sets (n = 2588) from sandstones, reworked tuffs and conglomerate of the Moodies Group in order to constrain its age and provenance. After selection using quality criteria, the remaining zircons (n = 1621) in nearly all samples show a distribution corresponding to the four known major pulses of felsic magmatism in the BGB: 1) the ca. 3550 to 3530 Ma Theespruit and Sandspruit Formations at the base of the Onverwacht Group; 2) the ca. 3440 to 3410 Ma rhyo-dacites of the upper Hooggenoeg Formation, Onverwacht Group; 3) the ca. 3300 to 3280 Ma thin felsic tuffs in the Mendon Formation; and 4) the ca. 3260 to 3215 Ma felsic volcanic and shallow intrusive rocks of the Auber Villiers, Bien Venue and Schoongezicht Formations of the upper Fig Tree Group and the Moodies Group as well as their co-magmatic plutonic counterparts. Almost all data sets also contain near-concordant younger zircons as young as 2820 Ma, which can be attributed to one of six tectonic or magmatic events affecting the young Kaapvaal Craton in post-BGB time, causing the partial or complete resetting of the U-Pb system in some grains. The youngest (near-)concordant zircon clusters yield ages of ca. 3220 Ma in most locations, and the youngest discordant group of zircons from a reworked tuff near the top of the Moodies Group at 3212 ± 13 Ma agrees well with previous estimates of the maximum depositional age. With very few exceptions, the oldest zircons (ca. 3564 Ma) are only slightly older than the oldest rocks in the BGB stratigraphy (ca. 3550 Ma). Subtle regional and stratigraphic differences in age spectra may indicate localized or nearby sediment sources within a synorogenic setting. Preliminary age spectra along vertical stratigraphic profiles show little systematic variation, possibly indicating that intrabasinal recycling was dominant over considerable time periods of the basin's evolution. Extra-basinal plutonic sources of similar age and composition as the intra-BGB sources appear to be required to provide quartz and some feldspar to Moodies Group sandstones, although zircon age spectra, limited zircon Hf isotope data, sandstone petrography, facies analysis, and the high variability in Moodies conglomerate clast composition are consistent with uplift, deformation and erosion of several intra-BGB sources, but in particular from the region of the Onverwacht Anticline. Zircon populations, conglomerate clasts, and sandstone composition show no evidence that high-grade metamorphic rocks from the adjacent Ancient Gneiss Complex (AGC) contributed significantly to the Moodies Group.