U-Pb zircon,monazite and Rb-Sr whole rock systematics of granitic gneiss and psammitic to semi-pelitic host gneiss from Glenfinnan,Northwestern Scotland

New U-Pb zircon data from a segregation pegmatite in the granitic gneiss at Glenfinnan yield discordant points which appear to be aligned along a chord on a concordia diagram with upper and lower intersection ages of 1,517±30 Ma and 556±8 Ma, respectively. The results are similar to published U-Pb zircon data from the granitic gneiss but the lower intersection age does not correspond to concordant ages of 455±3 Ma obtained for monazites from the segregation pegmatite and from paragneiss which hosts the granitic gneiss. The apparent U-Pb zircon chord also gives no indication of a 1,030±50 Ma (large sample) Rb-Sr whole rock isochron age for the granitic gneiss (Brook et al. 1976). A traverse of adjacent 5–8 cm thick slabs in the paragneiss yields a Rb-Sr errochron of 455±60 Ma which also does not agree with the U-Pb zircon lower intersection age. The scale of this Sr whole rock diffusion (ca. 10 cm) is not at variance with existing thermal, temporal and experimental constraints.A two episodic loss model has been applied to the zircon data from the segregation pegmatite, to the previously published zircon data on the granitic gneiss and to new U-Pb zircon data on the host paragneiss. The first lead loss event, if assumed to be in Grenville time, was computed to be strongest in the granitic gneiss and segregation pegmatite. For the three suites of zircon considered, primary ages converge in the 1,700–1,800 Ma range with a final disturbance event at ca. 490 Ma, i.e., close to a plausible prograde stage of Caledonian metamorphism.The zircons in both the granitic gneiss and the paragneiss are believed to have been derived from the ubiquitous early Proterozoic shields bordering the North Atlantic. Furthermore the above model is consistent with the hypothesis that the zircons in the granitic gneiss were largely derived from the paragneiss. However, the U-Pb zircon data are not inconsistent with new Sr-isotopic evidence which suggests an additional, possibly deeper source with lower ⁸⁷Sr/ ⁸⁶Sr ratios.