Graham D. M. Andrews

Age and compositional data of zircon from sepiolite drilling mud to identify contamination of ocean drilling samples

Zircon extracted from drilled oceanic rocks is increasingly used to answer geologic questions related to igneous and sedimentary sequences. Recent zircon studies using samples obtained from marine drill cores revealed that drilling muds used in the coring process may contaminate the samples. The JOIDES Resolution Science Operator of the International Ocean Discovery Program has been using two types of clays, sepiolite and attapulgite, which both have salt water viscosifier properties able to create a gel-like slurry that carries drill cuttings out of the holes several hundred meters deep. The dominantly used drilling mud is sepiolite originating from southwestern Nevada, USA. This sepiolite contains abundant zircon crystals with U-Pb ages ranging from 1.89 to 2889 Ma and continental trace element, δ18O, and eHf isotopic compositions. A dominant population of 11–16 Ma zircons in sepiolite drilling mud makes identification of contamination in drilled Neogene successions particularly challenging. Interpretation of zircon analyses related to ocean drilling should be cautious of zircon ages in violation of independently constrained age models and that have age populations overlapping those in the sepiolite. Because individual geochronologic and geochemical characteristics lack absolute discriminatory power, it is recommended to comprehensively analyze all dated zircon crystals from cores exposed to drill mud for trace element, δ18O, and eHf isotopic compositions. Zircon analyzed in situ (i.e., in petrographic sections) are assumed to be trustworthy.

The missing half of the subduction factory: shipboard results from the Izu rear arc, IODP Expedition 350

ABSTRACT IODP Expedition 350 was the first to be drilled in the rear part of the Izu-Bonin, although several sites had been drilled in the arc axis to fore-arc region; the scientific objective was to understand the evolution of the Izu rear arc, by drilling a deep-water volcaniclastic section with a long temporal record (Site U1437). The Izu rear arc is dominated by a series of basaltic to dacitic seamount chains up to ~100-km long roughly perpendicular to the arc front. Dredge samples from these are geochemically distinct from arc front rocks, and drilling was undertaken to understand this arc asymmetry. Site U1437 lies in an ~20-km-wide basin between two rear arc seamount chains, ~90-km west of the arc front, and was drilled to 1804 m below the sea floor (mbsf) with excellent recovery. We expected to drill a volcaniclastic apron, but the section is much more mud-rich than expected (~60%), and the remaining fraction of the section is much finer-grained than predicted from its position within the Izu arc, composed half of ashes/tuffs, and half of lapilli tuffs of fine grain size (clasts <3 cm). Volcanic blocks (>6.4 cm) are only sparsely scattered through the lowermost 25% of the section, and only one igneous unit was encountered, a rhyolite peperite intrusion at ~1390 mbsf. The lowest biostratigaphic datum is at 867 mbsf (~6.5 Ma), the lowest palaeomagnetic datum is at ~1300 mbsf (~9 Ma), and the rhyolite peperite at ~1390 mbsf has yielded a U–Pb zircon concordia intercept age of (13.6 + 1.6/−1.7) Ma. Both arc front and rear arc sources contributed to the fine-grained (distal) tephras of the upper 1320 m, but the coarse-grained (proximal) volcaniclastics in the lowest 25% of the section are geochemically similar to the arc front, suggesting arc asymmetry is not recorded in rocks older than ~13 Ma.

40Ar/39Ar ages and zircon petrochronology for the rear arc of the Izu-Bonin-Marianas intra-oceanic subduction zone

ABSTRACT Long-lived intra-oceanic arcs of Izu-Bonin-Marianas (IBM)-type are built on thick, granodioritic crust formed in the absence of pre-existing continental crust. International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 350, Site U1437, explored the IBM rear arc to better understand continental crust formation in arcs. Detailed petrochronological (U–Pb geochronology combined with trace elements, oxygen and hafnium isotopes) characterizations of zircon from Site U1437 were carried out, taking care to exclude potential contaminants by (1) comparison of zircon ages with ship-board palaeomagnetic and biostratigraphic ages and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, (2) analysing zircon from drill muds for comparison, (3) selectively carrying out in situ analysis in petrographic thin sections, and (4) minimizing potential laboratory contamination through using pristine equipment during mineral separation. The youngest zircon ages in Site U1437 are consistent with 40Ar/39Ar and shipboard ages to a depth of ~1390 m below sea floor (mbsf) where Igneous Unit Ig 1 yielded an 40Ar/39Ar age of 12.9 ± 0.3 Ma (all errors 2σ). One single zircon (age 15.4 ± 1.0 Ma) was recovered from the deepest lithostratigraphic unit drilled, Unit VII (1459.80–1806.5 mbsf). Site U1437 zircon trace element compositions are distinct from those of oceanic and continental arc environments and differ from those generated in thick oceanic crust (Iceland-type) where low-δ18O evolved melts are produced via re-melting of hydrothermally altered mafic rocks. Ti-in-zircon model temperatures are lower than for mid-ocean ridge rocks, in agreement with low zircon saturation temperatures, suggestive of low-temperature, hydrous melt sources. Zircon oxygen (δ18O = 3.3–6.0‰) and hafnium (εHf = + 10–+16) isotopic compositions indicate asthenospheric mantle sources. Trace element and isotopic differences between zircon from Site U1437 rear-arc rocks and the Hadean detrital zircon population suggest that preserved Hadean zircon crystals were probably generated in an environment different from modern oceanic convergent margins underlain by depleted mantle.

Corrugated architecture of the Okanagan Valley shear zone and the Shuswap metamorphic complex, Canadian Cordillera

The distribution of tectonic superstructure across the Shuswap metamorphic complex of southern British Columbia is explained by east-west– trending corrugations of the Okanagan Valley shear zone detachment. Geological mapping along the southern Okanagan Valley shear zone has identified 100-m-scale to kilometer-scale corrugations parallel to the extension direction, where synformal troughs hosting upper-plate units are juxtaposed between antiformal ridges of crystalline lower-plate rocks. Analysis of available structural data and published geological maps of the Okanagan Valley shear zone confirms the presence of ≤40-km-wavelength corrugations, which strongly influence the surface trace of the detachment system, forming spatially extensive salients and reentrants. The largest reentrant is a semicontinuous belt of late Paleozoic to Mesozoic upper-plate rocks that link stratigraphy on either side of the Shuswap metamorphic complex. Previously, these belts were considered by some to be autochthonous, implying minimal motion on the Okanagan Valley shear zone (≤12 km); conversely, our results suggest that they are allochthonous (with as much as 30–90 km displacement). Corrugations extend the Okanagan Valley shear zone much farther east than previously recognized and allow for hitherto separate gneiss domes and detachments to be reconstructed together to form a single, areally extensive Okanagan Valley shear zone across the Shuswap metamorphic complex. If this correlation is correct, the Okanagan Valley shear zone may have enveloped the entire Shuswap metamorphic complex as far east as the east-vergent Columbia River–Slocan Lake fault zones.