Combined oxygen-isotope and U-Pb zoning studies of titanite: New criteria for age preservation

• We characterize elemental, δ18O, and U-Pb date zoning in Adirondack titanite grains.
• Zoning formed by a combination of growth, recrystallization, and diffusion.
• U-Pb date zoning correlates with diffusional δ18O zoning in certain titanite grains.
• δ18O zoning aids in identifying titanite domains that retain original magmatic ages.
• Titanite records ~ 1160 Ma syenite emplacement and ca. 1050 Ma granulite metamorphism.

Titanite is an important U-Pb chronometer for dating geologic events, but its high-temperature applicability depends upon its retention of radiogenic lead (Pb). Experimental data predict similar rates of diffusion for lead (Pb) and oxygen (O) in titanite at granulite-facies metamorphic conditions (T = 650-800 °C). This study therefore investigates the utility of O-isotope zoning as an indicator for U-Pb zoning in natural titanite samples from the Carthage-Colton Mylonite Zone of the Adirondack Mountains, New York. Based on previous field, textural, and microanalytical work, there are four generations (types) of titanite in the study area, at least two of which preserve diffusion-related δ18O zoning. U-Th-Pb was analyzed by SIMS along traverses across three grains of type-2 titanite, which show well-developed diffusional δ18O zoning, and one representative grain from each of the other titanite generations. Type-2 and type-4 titanites show broadly core-to-rim decreasing 206Pb/238U zoning, consistent with Pb diffusion at higher temperatures, and uniform or even slightly increasing 206Pb/238U near grain rims, indicating subsequent recrystallization and/or new growth below the Pb blocking temperature. Type-2 and type-4 grain cores preserve ca. 1160 Ma ages that correlate with the anorthosite-mangerite-charnockite-granite magmatic phase of the Grenville orogeny, whereas grain rims give ca. 1050 Ma 206Pb/238U ages that coincide with the culminating Ottawan phase. The type-3 titanite grain was sampled from a vein and yields 206Pb/238U dates older than the syenite into which the vein was emplaced; accordingly, its 206Pb/238U dates are interpreted as indicating excess uncorrected common Pb. Type-2 grains with recrystallized or shear-eroded margins show truncated or reversed 206Pb/238U zoning but retain symmetrically decreasing δ18O zoning, consistent with grain margin modification following arrest of Pb diffusion but before arrest of O diffusion. It is concluded that O diffusion was slightly faster than Pb diffusion in Adirondack titanites at the conditions of (local) peak Ottawan metamorphism, making δ18O zoning a useful discriminator of closed-system age domains that did not suffer Pb loss. In addition, the small offset in the O and Pb partial retention zones constrains the timing and temperature of oblique-slip deformation along the Carthage-Colton Mylonite Zone: the details of porphyroclast microstructure and zoning data show that the oblique-slip shear zones were active at ca. 1050 Ma, with deformation initiating near the peak of Ottawan metamorphism at ~ 700 °C and continuing through the O blocking temperature at ~ 550 °C.