Petrochronology of Zircon and Baddeleyite in Igneous Rocks: Reconstructing Magmatic Processes at High Temporal Resolution

Abstract

Zircon (ZrSiO4) and baddeleyite (ZrO2) are common accessory minerals in igneous rocks of felsic to mafic composition. Both minerals host trace elements substituting for Zr, among them Hf, Th, U, Y, REEs and many more. The excellent chemical and physical resistivity of zircon makes this mineral a perfect archive of chemical and temporal information to trace geological processes in the past, utilizing the outstanding power and temporal resolution of the U–Pb decay schemes. Baddeleyite is a chemically and physically much more fragile mineral. It preserves similar information only where it is shielded from dissolution and physical fragmentation as an inclusion in other minerals or in a fine-grained or non-reactive rock matrix. It offers the potential for dating the solidification of mafic rocks with high-precision through its crystallization in small pockets of Zr-enriched melt, after extensive olivine and pyroxene fractionation. Zircon and baddelelyite U–Pb dates are, for an overwhelming majority of cases and where we can assume a closed system, considered to reflect the time of crystallization. The development of the U–Pb dating tool CA-ID-TIMS (chemical abrasion-isotope dilution-thermal ionization mass spectrometry) since 2005 has led to unprecedented precision of better than 0.1% in 206Pb/238U dates (Bowring et al. 2005). Increased sensitivity of mass spectrometers and low laboratory blanks due to reduction of acid volumes allow routine U–Pb age determinations of micrograms of material at sufficiently high radiogenic/common lead ratios (see Schoene and Baxter 2017, this volume). In situ U–Pb age analysis using laser ablation or primary ion beam sputtering allows analysis of sub-microgram quantities of zircon material from polished internal sections or zircon surfaces with spot diameters ranging from ~30 μm for laser-ablation, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to 10 μm for secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), lateral resolutions of 2–5 μm for NanoSIMS …