Time of metamorphism beneath the Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary thrust zone, Grenville Orogen, Ontario: accretion at 1080 Ma?

Abstract

New U–Pb zircon and titanite data from the Muskoka domain, Grenville Province, Ontario, provide protolith and metamorphic ages for the southwestern Central Gneiss Belt. Discordant analyses from a migmatitic orthogneiss and its leucosome form a linear array with an upper intercept age of 1457 ± 6 Ma and a lower intercept age of 1064 ±18 Ma. U–Pb analyses on metamorphic zircon from an amphibolite yield a set of concordant analyses with an average 207 Pb/206 Pb age of 1079 ± 3 Ma. A weakly migmatitic granitoid rock and a transecting charnockitic vein in the immediate footwall of the Central Metasedimentary Belt boundary thrust zone yielded a discordant array of analyses wth an upper intercept age of 1394 ± 13 Ma and a lower intercept age of 1066 ± 8 Ma. The charnockitic vein yielded concordant zircon ages of 1077 ± 2 Ma. The upper intercept ages are interpreted in terms of protolith crystallization, and the concordant and lower intercept ages as Grenviilian high-grade metamorphism and associated anatexis. We have found no evidence for a ca. 1190–1160 Ma metamorphic event in these rocks, as required by some regional tectonic interpretations. We conclude that emplacement of the Central Metasedimentary Belt over the Central Gneiss Belt, which caused high-grade metamorphism in the Muskoka domain, occurred at or shortly before ca. 1080 Ma, and that this marks the time of accretion of the Central Metasedimentary Belt to the southeast margin of Laurentia.