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243-220 Ma 40Ar/ 39Ar plateau ages of laser probed mineral

single grains from Korean collision belts: phases of fast cooling
and exhumation due to slab detachment?

Koenraad de Jong I*
' Grlles
Ruffet2 Seokyoung Han I
1
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Keuntie@snu.ac.kr
2
Geosciences Rennes, University of Rennes, Rennes, France

The Gyeonggi massif is the only Korean Paleoproterozoic high-grade gneiss terra ne significantly affected by Permo-Triassic metamorphism. We sampled the massif's uppermost
part for isotopic dating, as well as the overlying Imjingang belt, to the North, and the
Hongseong belt to the West. Both belts comprise younger metamorphic rocks containing rare
lenses of mafic rocks, some with relics of high-pressure metamorphism. We focused on
40
39
Ar/ Ar laser-probe step-heating of fabric-forming minerals produced by retrograde recrystallisation during the main phase deformation concomitant with exhumation. We obtained
middle to late Triassic 1o plateau ages ( ~ 50-80% 39Ar release) for single grains of muscovite,
biotite and amphibole.
Retrograde hornblende from a corona-textured garnet-clinopyroxene-rich mafic granulite
(Misan formation, Yeoncheon group, lowermost Imjingang belt) yielded a saddle-shaped age
spectrum, 70% of which has a single step age of 260 1 Ma and a base formed by four concordant
steps with 242.82.4 Ma as weighted mean age ( ~ 15% 39Ar). Muscovites from strongly retrogressed and ductily deformed rocks in the top of the Gyeonggi massif yielded plateau ages
of: 242.81.0 Ma and 240.31.0 Ma (chlorite-mica schists) and 219.70.9 Ma (mylonitic
quartzite). The hornblende age indicates that retrograde hydration of the high-pressure granulite occurred around 240-245 Ma. Our age data also imply that at least part of the ductile
deformation fabrics in the Gyeonggi massif's top formed around this time too. In the Hongseong
belt we obtained slightly saddle-shaped age spectra on two hornblendes from foliated garnet-bearing corona-textured amphibolite (Neoproterozoic Deogjeongri orthogneiss). Both
spectra's flat saddle minima have identical plateau ages of 230.11.0 and 229.81.0 Ma, concordant with the 228.11.0 Ma plateau age of biotite in the slightly older amphibolite. These
ages are only marginally younger than published 230-255 Ma CHIME and SHRIMP U-Pb ages
of accessory minerals in the uppermost Gyeonggi massif and the Imjingang and Hongseong
belts. Concordance of hornblende and mica ages in these areas and near agreement with U-Pb
ages points to rapid cooling and exhumation, during at least part of the tectonic history. The
40
Hongseong belt's ArrAr ages show that exhumation occurred ~ 10 million years later than
that of the Imjingang belt's high-pressure rocks. But the ~ 220 Ma-old muscovite in mylonitic
quartzite implies extended or renewed recrystallisation in low-angle normal shear zones in
the northern Gyeonggi massif's uppermost part. Exhumation thus occurred in steps not coeval
throughout the Korean collision belt. The late Triassic metamorphic mineral ages overlap with
233-226 Ma-old syenite--monzonite--granite--gabbro magmatism with high-K calc-alkaline and
shoshonitic affinity, suggesting fast exhumation may have occurred by late Triassic slab detachment, following plate collision in Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary times.