Discordance dating: A new approach for dating alteration events

Abstract

Zircon is the premier geochronometer used to date igneous and metamorphic processes, constrain sediment provenance models, and monitor key events in Earth history such as the growth of continents and the evolution of the biosphere. Zircon U-Pb systematics can be perturbed by the loss or gain of uranium and/or lead, which can result in disagreement between the apparent radiometric ages of the two U-Pb decay systems – a phenomenon that is commonly termed “discordance”. Discordance in zircon can be difficult to reliably interpret and therefore discordant data are traditionally culled from U-Pb isotopic datasets, particularly detrital zircon datasets. Here we provide a data reduction scheme that extracts reliable age information from discordant zircon U-Pb data found in detrital zircon suites, tracing such processes as fluid flow or contact metamorphism. We provide the template for data reduction and interpretation, a suite of sensitivity tests using synthetic data, and ground-truth this method by analyzing zircons from the well-studied Alta stock metamorphic aureole. Our results show accurate quantification of a ∼ 24 Ma in situ zircon alteration event that affected 1.0–2.0 Ga detrital zircons in the Tintic quartzite. The “discordance dating” method outlined here may be widely applicable to a variety of detrital zircon suites where pervasive fluid alteration or metamorphic recrystallization has occurred, even in the absence of concordant U-Pb data.