Geochronology of Archaean gneisses and tonalites from north of the Frederikshåbs isblink,S.W. Greenland

The main rock types in the area north of the Frederikshåbs isblink are streaky gneisses, massive tonalites and ‘supracrustals’. The gneisses are thought to be the parent rocks of the tonalite and can be seen to merge into tonalite across a narrow zone of nebulite. Rb-Sr whole rock points from samples of gneiss and tonalite fall on a common isochron with an age of 2662 ± 116 m.y. (2σ) and initial ratio of 0.7032 ± 0.0008 (2σ) (half-life of ⁸⁷Rb = 50 b.y.). The uncertainties in the isochron could mask small age and initial ratio differences between the gneiss and tonalite. However, our present interpretation is that the isochron reflects a homogenization of Sr isotopes within and between the two rock types. The presence of two out of four K-feldspar points on the whole rock isochron is interpreted as evidence that the K-feldspar became closed to Sr isotope migration at the same time as the whole rocks. Subsequent local isotopic disturbance has resulted in a minor loss of radiogenic strontium from two of the samples. The interpretation of the K-feldspar as a product of the epidoteamphibolite facies metamorphism allows the conclusion that the whole rock-K-feldspar isochron is recording a Sr isotopic homogenization during this event and is not related to the formation of the gneiss or the tonalite. Rb-Sr closure ages of ca. 2515 m.y. for muscovite and ca. 1950 m.y. for biotite could be recording separate isotopic disturbances or the cessation of strontium isotope migration as the minerals cooled through their characteristic blocking temperatures. Zircons from both the gneiss and the tonalite have igneous morphological features. Their U-Pb systems are complex, however, and suggest a multistage history of isotopic disturbance. Whereas the zircon U-Pb and whole rock Rb-Sr results suggest a maximum age of approximately 3000 m.y. for the parent rocks of the gneiss and tonalite they do not entirely exclude the possibility that the rocks represent older crust in which the isotopic systems have been almost completely reset ca. 2700 m.y. ago.