An 40Ar–39Ar laser-probe study of pseudotachylites in charnockite gneisses from the Cauvery Shear Zone system, South India

The age of pseudotachylite formation in the crustal-scale Cauvery Shear Zone system of the Precambrian Southern Granulite Terrain (South India) has been analyzed by laser-probe 40Ar–39Ar dating. Laser spot analyses from a pseudotachylite from the Salem–Attur shear zone have yielded ages ranging from 1214 to 904 Ma. Some evidence for the presence of excess Ar is indicated by the scatter of ages from this locality. The host gneiss preserves Palaeoproterozoic Rb–Sr whole rock–biotite ages (2350 ± 11 to 2241 ± 11 Ma). A mylonite in the Koorg shear, ca. 200 km to the north, yielded an age of 895 ± 17 Ma the consistency of the age distribution from spot analyses precludes the presence of significant excess Ar. Despite published evidence for the growth of high-grade minerals within some components of the Cauvery Shear Zone during the Pan-African event (700–550 Ma), the pseudotachylites in this study provide no evidence for Pan-African formation. Instead they document the first evidence for Mesoproterozoic tectonism in the Cauvery Shear Zone system, thus prompting a review of the correlation between the Cauvery Shear Zone system and the large-scale shear zones located elsewhere in eastern Gondwana.