Timing of deposition and deformation of the Moodies Group (Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa): Very-high-resolution of Archaean surface processes

• Moodies Group strata >3.5 km thick include tuffs and a late cross-cutting dike.
• Zircon ages constrain deposition and deformation of this unit.
• Deposition began 3223 ± 1 Ma and ended 3219 ± 9 Ma.
• Moodies Group may preserve records at a similar resolution as Quaternary strata.

Thin and largely discontinuous volcanic tuff beds in the alluvial, fluvial, and marginal-marine siliciclastic strata of the Middle Archaean Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB), contain rare to abundant zircon. Dating of magmatic zircon grains from five tuff beds and one cross-cutting dike yield ages which span the entire spectrum of BGB history from ca. 3550 Ma to 3215 Ma and show variable degrees of post-depositional alteration until ca. 2500 Ma. The youngest pristine zircon grains in all tuff samples analyzed by CA-ID-TIMS (Chemical-Abrasion Ion-Dissolution Thermal Ion Mass Spectrometry) yield upper intercept and Concordia ages between 3227.6 ± 0.3 and 3216 ± 0.3 Ma, and those grains analyzed by LA-SF-ICP-MS (Laser Ablation-Sector Field-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry) and SHRIMP (Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Microprobe) yield ages between 3228 ± 9 and 3214 ± 9 Ma. Most of these ages are either identical (within error) or significantly older than a CA-ID-TIMS age of 3223.4 ± 0.3 Ma, obtained from zircon grains of a tuff horizon of the Schoongezicht Formation at the top of the underlying Fig Tree Group. We interpret this age to mark the time of volcanic eruption, whereas the significantly older and overlapping ages of the stratigraphically higher Moodies tuff zircon grains point either to a high degree of magmatic inheritance and/or a detrital contribution from surrounding sedimentary rocks during or after ash-tuff deposition. The minimum age for deposition of Moodies Group sediments and deformation is provided by a LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb age of 3219 ± 9 Ma obtained from an undeformed felsic dike which crosscuts folded Moodies strata. This age overlaps with a precise CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon age of 3216.0 ± 0.3 Ma obtained from a tuff horizon of the upper Moodies Group. Overall, the new age data collectively imply that the up to 3.7 km-thick, sandstone-dominated Moodies Group was deposited and deformed within <1–14 Ma, and that Moodies strata thus hold the potential to offer a temporal resolution comparable to active- and passive-margin Quaternary strata (∼0.1–1 mm/a).