CL-imaging and ion microprobe dating of single zircons from a high-grade rock from the Central Zone, Limpopo Belt, South Africa: Evidence for a single metamorphic event at ∼2.0 Ga

The combination of ion microprobe dating and cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging of zircons from a high-grade rock from the Central Zone of the Limpopo Belt were used to constrain the age of metamorphic events in the area. Zircon grains extracted from an orthopyroxene-gedrite-bearing granulite were prepared for single crystal CL-imaging and ion microprobe dating. The grains display complex zoning when using SEM-based CL-imaging. A common feature in most grains is the presence of a distinct core with a broken oscillatory zoned structure, which clearly appears to be the remnant of an original grain of igneous origin. This core is overgrown by an unzoned thin rim measuring about 10-30 μm in diameter, which is considered as new zircon growth during a single metamorphic event. Selected domains of the zircon grains were analysed for U, Pb and Th isotopic composition using a CAMECA IMS 1270 ion microprobe (Nordsim facility). Most of the grains define a near-concordant cluster with some evidence of Pb loss. The most concordant ages of the cores yielded a weighted mean ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of 2689 ± 15 (2σ) Ma, interpreted as the age of the protolith of an igneous origin. The unzoned overgrowths of the zircon grains yielded a considerably younger weighted mean ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of ∼2006.5 ± 8.0 Ma (2σ), and these data are interpreted to reflect closely the age of the ubiquitous high-grade metamorphic event in the Central Zone. This study shows clearly, based on both the internal structure of the zircons and the data obtained by ion microprobe dating, that only a single metamorphic event is recorded by the studied 2.69 Ga old rocks, and we found no evidence of an earlier metamorphic event at ∼2.5 Ga as postulated earlier by some workers.