Significance of Devonian–Carboniferous igneous activity in Tasmania as derived from U–Pb SHRIMP dating of zircon

Abstract

A series of new Sensitive High-Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP) U – Pb ages is presented for Palaeozoic (mainly Devonian and Carboniferous) granites from Tasmania. In virtually all instances the new ages are significantly older than previously determined Rb – Sr and K – Ar ages, even though the level of emplacement had been thought to be too shallow to allow loss of radiogenic daughter products. In two extreme cases, granite bodies at South West Cape and Elliott Bay that had previously yielded Carboniferous Rb – Sr and Early Devonian K – Ar ages, respectively, are now both shown to be Late Cambrian. In northeast Tasmania, granitic activity in the Blue Tier Batholith lasted for about 22 million years, with I-type magmas being followed by S-types only toward the end of that time. The exclusively I-type granites of the Scottsdale Batholith formed about 10 million years after the initiation of igneous activity in the Blue Tier Batholith, and were emplaced over a comparatively short time interval (4 – 5 million years). The new data confirm a previously held view, based on Rb – Sr analysis, that the economically important Lottah Granite crystallised roughly 9 million years later than the nearby Poimena Granite and, therefore, could not have been derived by magmatic fractionation of the latter. A regional deformation equated with the Tabberabberan Orogeny has been dated at about 390 Ma in northeastern Tasmania, based on the presence or absence of a northwest-trending foliation in the different granite bodies. The oldest granites occur in the northeast of Tasmania, with an irregular progression of ages to the west coast. A trend of this type could have arisen in an arc-free or arc-related environment. If the latter applies, either flat subduction or processes associated with the amalgamation of eastern and western basement terranes might be the controlling mechanism. Eastern Tasmania experienced a trend from mafic I-type to progressively more felsic, largely S-type igneous activity, but the trend for western Tasmania is not as obvious. The trend for eastern Tasmania is an exception to the general rule for the Lachlan Orogen, possibly signifying that the mid-crust was relatively cool when the first I-type granites were generated. Crustal thickening during the Tabberabberan Orogeny may have been a prerequisite for the generation of later, more felsic, S- and I-types.

Key words:

• Carboniferous
• Devonian
• geochronology
• granites
• SHRIMP
• Tasmania

Acknowledgements

The Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service granted the necessary sample permits. The attention to detail of Tas Armstrong, Lance Keast, Steve Ridgway and Gerald Kuelich in the GA mineral-separation laboratory is much appreciated, as are the efforts of Bill Pappas, Liz Webber and John Pyke in the GA geochemistry laboratory. Useful discussions on the content of the manuscript have been held with David Seymour and Jafar Taheri. The manuscript has benefited significantly from careful reviews by Bill Collins, Peter Baillie, Sasha Nemchin, David Champion, Geoff Fraser and Geoff Green. LPB, RJK and CF publish with the permission of the Chief Executive Officer, Geoscience Australia. MPM and JLE publish with permission of the Director, Mineral Resources Tasmania.