SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating from Sulu-Dabie dolomitic marble, eastern China: Constraints on prograde, ultrahigh-pressure and retrograde metamorphic ages

Laser Raman spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence (CL) images show that zircon from Sulu-Dabie dolomitic marbles is characterized by distinctive domains of inherited (detrital), prograde, ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) and retrograde metamorphic growths. The inherited zircon domains are dark-luminescent in CL images and contain mineral inclusions of Qtz + Cal + Ap. The prograde metamorphic domains are white-luminescent in CL images and preserve a quartz eclogite facies assemblage of Qtz + Dol + Grt + Omp + Phe + Ap, formed at 542-693 °C and 1.8-2.1GPa. In contrast, the UHP metamorphic domains are grey-luminescent in CL images, retain the UHP assemblage of Coe + Grt + Omp + Arg + Mgs + Ap, and record UHP conditions of 739-866 °C and > 5.5 GPa. The outermost retrograde rims have dark-luminescent CL images, and contain low- P minerals such as calcite, related to the regional amphibolite facies retrogression. Laser ablation ICP-MS trace-element data show striking difference between the inherited cores of mostly magmatic origin and zircon domains grown in response to prograde, UHP and retrograde metamorphism. SHRIMP U-Pb dating on these zoned zircon identified four discrete 206Pb/238U age groups: 1823-503 Ma is recorded in the inherited (detrital) zircon derived from various Proterozoic protoliths, the prograde domains record the quartz eclogite facies metamorphism at 254-239 Ma, the UHP growth domains occurred at 238-230 Ma, and the late amphibolite facies retrogressive overprint in the outermost rims was restricted to 218-206 Ma. Thus, Proterozoic continental materials of the Yangtze craton were subducted to 55-60km depth during the Early Triassic and recrystallized at quartz eclogite facies conditions. Then these metamorphic rocks were further subducted to depths of 165-175 km in the Middle Triassic and experienced UHP metamorphism, and finally these UHP metamorphic rocks were exhumed to mid-crustal levels (about 30km) in the Late Triassic and overprinted by regional amphibolite facies metamorphism. The subduction and exhumation rates deduced from the SHRIMP data and metamorphic P-T conditions are 9-10 km Myr-1 and 6.4km Myr-1, respectively, and these rapid subduction-exhumation rates may explain the obtained P-T-t path. Such a fast exhumation suggests that Sulu-Dabie UHP rocks that returned towards crustal depths were driven by buoyant forces, caused as a consequence of slab breakoff at mantle depth. © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.