Syn- and post-tectonic granite plutonism in the Sausar Fold Belt, central India: Age constraints and tectonic implications

• Sausar Fold Belt in central India shows polyphase deformation and metamorphism.
• Intrusive granites are either foliated (syn-D2) or massive (post-tectonic).
• Monazite ages of granites constrain the timing of Sausar tectonothermal events.
• The new ages cast some doubts on the earlier proposed tectonic models of CITZ.

Sausar Fold Belt (SFB) in central India forms the southern part of the Central Indian Tectonic Zone (CITZ) – a crustal scale Proterozoic mobile belt dissecting the Indian craton, whose tectonothermal history and age is important for understanding the Proterozoic crustal history of the Indian craton. SFB comprises a gneissic basement (TBG: Tirodi Biotite Gneiss) overlain by a supracrustal sequence of quartzite–pelite–carbonate (SSG: Sausar Group). SSG and TBG are deformed and metamorphosed in greenschist to amphibolite facies. Two phases of granite intrusion are observed in the SSG – a syntectonic foliated granite and a post-tectonic massive granite, with clear structural relationship with the host rocks. Monazite chemical dating (U–Th–total Pb) of the foliated and massive granites yield Neoproterozoic (ca. 945–928 Ma) ages that contradict many earlier geochronological interpretations. Foliated granites and the immediately adjacent TBG show monazite grains with ca. 945 Ma mean age, interpreted as the timing of D2 deformation and amphibolite facies metamorphism of SSG. The post tectonic granites intruded these rocks around 928 Ma, and were largely undeformed. A terminal thermal overprint is found in some monazite grain rims at ca. 785 Ma age. The younger Sausar tectonothermal events have overprinted the adjacent high-grade granulites of Ramakona–Katangi Granulite (RKG) belt, and should not be considered as parts of the same tectonothermal event representing different depth sections only.