Provenance of the Granjeno Schist, Ciudad Victoria, México: Detrital zircon U-Pb age constraints and implications for the Paleozoic paleogeography of the Rheic Ocean

Abstract

The Granjeno Schist of northeastern México is the oldest component of the Sierra Madre terrane and comprises polydeformed, pelitic metasedimentary and metavolcaniclastic rocks that enclose lenses of serpentinite-metagabbro. This low-grade Paleozoic assemblage is exposed in the core of a NNW-trending frontal anticline of the Laramide fold-thrust belt where it is tectonically juxtaposed against ca. 1 Ga granulites of the Novillo Gneiss. Silurian strata that unconformably overlie the Novillo Gneiss are unmetamorphosed and contain fauna of Gondwanan affinity.

LA-ICPMS (laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy)U-Pb ages for detrital zircons from a Granjeno phyllite yield age populations that cluster in the ranges ca. 1375–880 Ma, ca. 650–525 Ma, and ca. 460–435 Ma and slightly discordant grains with individual ages of ca. 1435 Ma, ca. 1640 Ma, ca. 2105 Ma, and ca. 2730 Ma. The youngest detrital zircon indicates a maximum depositional age for the Granjeno Schist of ca. 435 Ma (Lower Silurian). Detrital zircons of Neoproterozoic–Cambrian age suggest a provenance in the Maya terrane beneath the Yucatan Peninsula or the Brasiliano orogens of South America, and a source for the detrital zircons of Ordovician–Silurian age is present in the Acatlán Complex of southern México. Provenance of the Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons is likely to have been the adjacent Novillo Gneiss, which has yielded ages of ca. 990–980 Ma, ca. 1035–1010 Ma, and ca. 1235–1115 Ma. These detrital ages closely match those recorded from the Cosoltepec Formation of the Acatlán Complex and support correlation of the two units, which are both interpreted to be vestiges of the southern margin of the Rheic Ocean.