Electron-microprobe Th-U-Pb monazite dating in Early-Palaeozoic high-grade gneisses as a completion of U-Pb isotopic ages (Wilson Terrane, Antarctica)

The electron microprobe (EMP) Th-U-Pb monazite bulk chemical dating method was applied to granulite-facies rocks of the Wilson Terrane in Antarctica. A combination of this method to isotopic U-Pb-SHRIMP ages for the evaluation of metamorphic processes required the analysis of reference monazites. These can be subdivided into three groups: a) Monazite with variable total Pb at constant Th (e.g. VK-1) is unsuitable for EMP data evaluation; b) Monazite with highly variable total Pb and Th, but with at least some Th/Pb approximating an apparent isochrone (e.g. MPN) is partly useful; and c) Monazite with constant Th/Pb at high Th (e.g. Madmon monazite) is best suitable for the combined approach and can be additionally used to improve the Th calibration for EMP. Study of monazite in grain mounts and in thin sections led to partly different but complementary results: Older monazites with EMP ages up to 680 Ma occur mainly in a grain mount from diatexite and metatexite and are interpreted as detrital relics. Some of these monazites show structures and mineral-chemical zonation trends resembling metasomatism by alkali-bearing fluids. A marked mobility of Th, P, Ce, Si and U is observed. The age of the metasomatic event can be bracketed between 510 and 450 Ma. Furthermore, in the grain mount and in numerous petrographic thin sections of migmatites and gneisses, the EMP Th-U-Pb and SHRIMP U-Pb monazite data uniformly signal a major metamorphic event with a medium-pressure granulite facies peak between 512 and 496 Ma. Subsequent isothermal uplift and then amphibolite-facies conditions between 488 and 466 Ma led to crystallisation of pristine monazite. The high-grade metamorphic event, related to the Ross Orogeny, can be uniformly traced more than 600 km along strike in the Wilson Terrane.