Pulsed dehydration and garnet growth during subduction revealed by zoned garnet geochronology and thermodynamic modeling, Sifnos, Greece

•Garnet geochronology and thermodynamic modeling reveal nature of Aegean subduction.•Garnet growth is used as a proxy for metamorphic dehydration.•Pulsed metamorphism and rapid dehydration during subduction.

We use coupled zoned geochronology and thermodynamic modeling of garnet to elucidate the nature and scale of metamorphic dehydration during Eocene subduction of a quartzofeldspathic lithology from Sifnos, Greece. Two large garnet porphyroblasts were microdrilled to sample concentric growth zones, and these were dated using Sm-Nd geochronology. To put results in a geodynamic context and reveal the causes and consequences of garnet growth, we constructed thermodynamic forward models for a series of prescribed pressure-temperature (P-T) paths. Our data reveal three distinct phases of garnet growth: initial growth at 53.4±2.6 Ma (∼0.8 GPa and ∼300 °C), followed by a period of very limited growth until a second phase, at 47.22±0.36 Ma, and then a major pulse of growth, responsible for the majority of the final garnet volume, at 44.96±0.53 Ma (2.06-2.19 GPa and 490-550 °C). This suggests a >2 order of magnitude acceleration in volumetric growth rate from crystal core to rim, with the final growth pulse occurring rapidly (<0.8 My), during a period of nearly isobaric heating at >75 °C/My. This final pulse was accompanied by net bulk rock dehydration of ∼0.5 wt.%. Rapid heating during early stages of exhumation in the subduction channel, or by sharp thermal gradients related to slab-mantle coupling could be causes for this pulsed metamorphism and dehydration. The garnet data thus record a concentrated pulse of dehydration and heating during the otherwise slow and continuous process of subduction.