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Implications for late Grenvillian (Rigolet phase) construction of Rodinia using new U-Pb data from the Mars Hill terrane, Tennessee and North Carolina, United States

July 25, 2013

New data for zircon (external morphology, cathodoluminescence zoning, and sensitive high resolution ion microprobe [SHRIMP] U-Pb ages) from the Carvers Gap granulite gneiss of the Mars Hill terrane (Tennessee and North Carolina, United States) require reevaluation of interpretations of the age and origin of this rock. The new results indicate that the zircon is detrital and that the sedimentary protolith of this gneiss (and related Cloudland gneiss) was deposited no earlier than ca. 1.02 Ga and was metamorphosed at ca. 0.98 Ga. Tectonic models that included the gneiss as a piece of 1.8 Ga Amazonian crust (perhaps as part of the hypothetical Columbia supercontinent) are now untenable. The remarkably fast cycle of exhumation, erosion, deposition, and deep burial also is characteristic of other late Grenvillian (post-Ottawan) Mesoproterozoic paragneisses that occur throughout the Appalachians. These rocks provide new evidence for the duration of the formation of the Rodinia supercontinent lasting until at least 0.98 Ma.

Publication Year 2013
Title Implications for late Grenvillian (Rigolet phase) construction of Rodinia using new U-Pb data from the Mars Hill terrane, Tennessee and North Carolina, United States
DOI 10.1130/G34779.1
Authors John N. Aleinikoff, Scott Southworth, Arthur J. Merschat
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Geology
Index ID 70188810
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Central Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center