Implications for late Grenvillian (Rigolet phase) construction of Rodinia using new U-Pb data from the Mars Hill terrane, Tennessee and North Carolina, United States

Geology
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Abstract

New data for zircon (external morphology, cathodoluminescence zoning, and sensitive high resolution ion microprobe [SHRIMP] U-Pb ages) from the Carvers Gap granulite gneiss of the Mars Hill terrane (Tennessee and North Carolina, United States) require reevaluation of interpretations of the age and origin of this rock. The new results indicate that the zircon is detrital and that the sedimentary protolith of this gneiss (and related Cloudland gneiss) was deposited no earlier than ca. 1.02 Ga and was metamorphosed at ca. 0.98 Ga. Tectonic models that included the gneiss as a piece of 1.8 Ga Amazonian crust (perhaps as part of the hypothetical Columbia supercontinent) are now untenable. The remarkably fast cycle of exhumation, erosion, deposition, and deep burial also is characteristic of other late Grenvillian (post-Ottawan) Mesoproterozoic paragneisses that occur throughout the Appalachians. These rocks provide new evidence for the duration of the formation of the Rodinia supercontinent lasting until at least 0.98 Ma.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Implications for late Grenvillian (Rigolet phase) construction of Rodinia using new U-Pb data from the Mars Hill terrane, Tennessee and North Carolina, United States
Series title Geology
DOI 10.1130/G34779.1
Volume 41
Issue 10
Year Published 2013
Language English
Publisher Geological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Central Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center
Description 4 p.
First page 1087
Last page 1090
Country United States
State North Carolina, Tennesee
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