Cathodoluminescence guided zircon Hf isotope depth profiling: Mobilization of the Lu–Hf system during (U)HP rock exhumation in the Woodlark Rift, Papua New Guinea

•Zircon Hf depth profiling reveals behavior of Lu–Hf system during (U)HP exhumation.•Radiogenic Hf is liberated by recrystallization of garnet during rifting.•Lu and the HREE are liberated by the breakdown of garnet during rifting.•Unradiogenic Hf is mobilized from within subducted continental rocks during rifting.

Cathodoluminescence image guided Hf isotope depth profiling by laser ablation of zircons from two quartzofeldspathic host gneisses constrains the Lu–Hf system's behavior during rapid exhumation of (U)HP rocks in the Woodlark Rift, Papua New Guinea. Investigation of the depth profiling technique in individual and composite zircon standards demonstrates that it is possible to resolve ~ 8 μm thick domains in which εHf(present) differs by as little as 4 units. In a metasedimentary gneiss, 2.89 ± 0.29 Ma zircon overgrowths on Cretaceous aged inherited cores have radiogenic εHf(present) indicating growth in a medium that was originally in equilibrium with garnet undergoing recrystallization (the ‘garnet effect’ of Zheng et al., 2005). In a separate gneiss sample that originated as an exhumation related anatectic melt, 3.66 ± 0.13 Ma zircons lacking inheritance contain sub-domains that differ from each other by > 15 εHf(present). Some of these sub-domains are radiogenic and can be explained by the ‘garnet effect’, whereas others also contain highly elevated Lu and Yb in addition to their radiogenic Hf compositions, thus necessitating a medium derived from the complete breakdown of garnet. Zircons in this sample also contain non-radiogenic sub-domains that grew in the presence of Hf mobilized from the surrounding rocks of the subducted and metamorphosed remnants of the Australian continental margin. The results confirm that rapid exhumation of (U)HP rocks can result in the following: 1) transmission of radiogenic Hf (and sometimes Lu and the other HREE) from garnet bearing mafic lithologies into the quartzofeldspathic gneisses, and 2) mobilization and transport of unradiogenic Hf present within the quartzofeldspathic remnants of subducted continental crust.

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