Joint 70th Rocky Mountain Annual Section / 114th Cordilleran Annual Section Meeting - 2018

Paper No. 24-4
Presentation Time: 2:35 PM

NEW U-PB ZIRCON ANALYSES RECORD PALEOCENE AND MID EOCENE-EARLY OLIGOCENE MELTING OF LATE CRETACEOUS, JURASSIC, AND PROTEROZOIC CRUST IN LOWER PLATE OF THE MAGDALENA-MADERA METAMORPHIC CORE COMPLEX, SONORA, MEXICO


NOURSE, Jonathan A., Department of Geological Science, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, 3801 West Temple Ave, Pomona, CA 91768, GONZÁLEZ–LEÓN, Carlos M., Estacion Regional del Noroeste, Instituto de Geologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Hermosillo, 83000, Mexico, SOLARI, Luigi, Centro de Geociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Blvd. Juriquilla No. 3001, Querétaro, 76230, Mexico, ZAPATA-MARTINEZ, J. Angel, Posgrado en Ciencias de la Tierra, UNAM, Hermosillo, Mexico and PREMO, W.R., U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO 80225

We report ICP-MS and SHRIMP-RG 206Pb/238U analyses of zircon from the footwall of the Magdalena-Madera core complex that complement previously published ID-TIMS data from the area; e.g. 78±3 Ma Sierra Guacomea granodiorite (Anderson et al., 1980) and 174 Ma Sierra El Pinito rhyolite porphyry (Anderson and Silver, 2005). CL images distinguish magmatic grains and inherited cores from dark, high-U overgrowths attributed to Tertiary crustal melting. Strongly foliated biotite granite porphyry of northern Sierra Guacomea has escaped the Tertiary thermal effects observed farther south; 29 magmatic zircons yield an age of 171.4±1.1 Ma. In Sierra Madera, two-mica granite of Cerro Mezquital intrudes biotite granite gneiss. The Mezquital granite is dominated by inherited Late Cretaceous (72.1±1.3 Ma) and Jurassic (165.3±5.6 Ma) cores. High-U zircon overgrowths (59.8±2.2 Ma) record a crustal melting event interpreted to be the age of this pluton. The gneiss contains inherited Jurassic cores (176 to 145 Ma; N=9) and a second zircon population (N=11) that constrains a magmatic age of 61.2±1.8 Ma. Most zircons in the gneiss display dark rims (47-31 Ma) interpreted to have grown during intrusion of peraluminous granite / pegmatite that is abundant farther south. The youngest coherent age group records magmatic culmination at 32.5±1.3 Ma. In Canada Honda of Sierra Magdalena, magmatic zircons in biotite granodiorite record an age of 65.9±2.9 Ma, with 41.7±0.5 Ma overgrowths related to pervasive leucogranite intrusions. Only 3 of 145 total analyses were inherited Proterozoic grains (1677, 1645, and 1370 Ma). The one known Proterozoic outcrop is a pendant of biotite granite augen gneiss within mylonitized biotite granodiorite and leucogranite of Arroyo El Salto. A weighted mean age of 7 oscillatory-zoned zircon interiors analyzed on the SHRIMP is 1037±10 Ma, with 3 concordant grains at 1043.2±4.0 Ma. Near-concordant ICP-MS analyses from the same outcrop yield a magmatic age of 1070.3±6.8 Ma (N=18), with inheritance at 1375±32 Ma (N=9). Collectively, our data record separate granite pulses during mid Paleocene and mid Eocene-early Oligocene time, produced by anatexis of Late Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Proterozoic crust. Footwall rocks were sheared and exhumed along the normal-slip Magdalena-Madera detachment fault at ~25-20 Ma.